Normal Is Not An Option

SPOILERS AHEAD: In the final 5 episodes, Kimmy celebrates her 30th birthday. The party ends up being a disaster when her boyfriend Logan and her friend from GED class, Dong, get into a fight over her, and Dong admits to her that he wants to be more than just friends. At first, Kimmy decides to stick with Logan, but when he reports Dong to the immigration authorities to get him out of the way, Kimmy realizes that Logan is not the nice guy she thinks he is and she dumps him in favor of Dong. Before she and Dong can explore their new relationship, however, she is called back to Indiana to testify in the trial against her former captor and abuser, Rev. Richard Wayne Gary Wayne. The trial doesn't go well at first, partly because the prosecutors are incompetent, partly because one of the Mole Women, Gretchen, refuses to testify because she is still brainwashed by the reverend, and partly because another of the women, Donna Maria, pretends that she can't speak English, and no one in...

I think the theme song to this show is permanently lodged in my brain. For a show with such a dark premise, the theme song is relentlessly upbeat: "Unbreakable! They alive, dammit, it's a miracle/Unbreakable! They alive dammit, 'cause females are strong as hell." This may become my new personal theme song. Anyway, SPOILERS AHEAD: So in episodes 5-8, Kimmy kisses a boy (her co-worker), receives a visit from her fellow Indiana Mole Woman Cyndee, goes to school (a GED review class taught by a teacher who gave up years ago and doesn't care whether they fail), goes to a party at her boss's house, and gets one of her fellow GED students to tutor her in math. By the end of episode 8, it's clear that her fellow student has a crush on her, even though she's dating one of her boss's wealthy friends whom she met at that party. Kimmy also finally admits to her boss Jaqueline who she is in an effort to get Jaqueline to be brave enough to divorce her unfaithfu...

SPOILERS AHEAD: When I heard the premise of Tina Fey's new show on Netflix, "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," I knew I could not miss it. It's about a woman who was held prisoner in an underground bunker in rural Indiana for 15 years by a cult leader who told her and the other women that the rest of humanity had been destroyed in a nuclear apocalypse. The women are rescued and go to New York City to appear on the Today show. Kimmy decides to stay in New York and make her life there, and we get to watch her adventures as she finds a roommate, gets a job, and tries to navigate a world that is very different from the one she last experienced over a decade ago. Obviously, I didn't grow up in a bunker (or even a cult, for that matter, although the church of Christ has some cultish tendencies), but I can relate to that feeling of disorientation that occurs when you step outside a restrictive religious group and try to make your way in the world on your own terms. It'...