As far as traditional sitcoms go, Kevin Can F**k Himself is pretty meta. Picture a typical multi-cam sitcom where Allison (Annie Murphy) is married to Kevin (Eric Peterson) and it uses the sitcom trope of a beautiful girl inexplicably married to a schlubby unmotivated dumb guy. Allison does everything while being completely invisible to Kevin, his best friend Neil (Alex Bonifer), and his dad Pete (Brian Howe) The three guys crack jokes, come up with wacky schemes, and sit around expecting to be waited on hand and foot by Allison. Allison and Kevin’s neighbor, and Neil’s sister, Patty (Mary Hollis Inboden) pops in from time to time. Although not exactly friends with Allison, she is the only one who tends to come to Allison’s defense in this clear patriarchy.
The difference with this show is that whenever Allison leaves the “scene” or is not in the room with Kevin, she enters into her real life. The audience is gone, the lights are gone, the canned laughter is gone, and it is just an unhappily married woman trying to survive in Worcester, Massachusetts. If she’s in the room with Kevin, it’s the sitcom, when she’s not, it’s real life. Make sense? It’s a fascinating experiment in turning the sitcom style upside-down. Season 1 aired eight episodes on AMC and was renewed for a second and final season. Here is a recap of what happened to the sitcom and the real life Allison in Season 1.
When the sitcom side of the show is on, we see a bunch of hackney sitcom plot lines. Kevin and Neil want to throw their annual party for Kevin and Allison’s anniversary, but it’s really just an excuse for them to have a party and have Allison do all the work. Kevin orders a game-worn Bill Belichick jersey from eBay and is convinced his neighbors stole it which results in him lighting their yard on fire. He and Neil also decide to open an escape room in Kevin’s basement which goes afoul and gets them and their guests locked in. All the situations result in Allison having to abandon her real-life drama to bail Kevin and Neil out of stupid situations.
The only hope Allison is clinging to is buying a nice house somewhere out of Worcester with their savings. When Patty breaks the news to Allison that Kevin has drained their savings, she takes her real life down a dark path. She winds up going on a bender and gets involved with the local drug scene. She begins to fantasize about murdering Kevin and contacts a local dealer to get her hands on some OxyContin. When the dealer refers Allison to another dealer who specializes in Oxy, she comes face to face with Patty and realizes Patty is the local Oxy supplier.
Allison also runs into her high school boyfriend, Sam (Raymond Lee) who has returned to Worcester and has opened a new café. The chemistry is palpable even though they are both married. Sam admits to her that he is eight years sober and is in AA. Allison decides to quit her job and take a job as a waitress at Sam’s café. The two quickly begin an extramarital affair.
After Patty’s supplier is arrested, the police begin an investigation. Detective Tammy Ridgeway (Candice Coke) shows up at the salon and begins interrogating Patty. Patty, having lost her supplier, takes Allison with her on a road trip to Vermont to meet up with another supplier. Allison decides to turn her phone off for the day, sending Kevin into a tizzy that she won’t answer his calls and instead calls the police to report her missing. The girls are pulled over on their way back, but talk their way out of a ticket. Feeling vulnerable, Allison decides to confess to Patty her intention: she is going to use Patty’s Oxy to kill Kevin. Patty offers an alternative to the plan since the police are investigating her anyway, that they could frame Kevin as the local drug dealer. That way no murder would have to happen and Kevin would go away for life. Instead, they opt to hire another local dealer, Nick (Robin Lord Taylor), to kill Kevin.
In sitcom world, Kevin decides to take Allison out for dinner and sitcom life and real life collide as she is horrified to find that Nick works at the restaurant. Thankfully, Kevin is distracted by running next door to a Dave and Buster’s-type place to hang out with Neil and his dad as well as running into NHL great Sean Avery, who challenges Kevin to an eating contest. When Kevin leaves the scene, we return to real life again, where Nick tries to calm Allison and asks for the plan to kill Kevin. They decide they will stage a robbery, where Nick will shoot and kill Kevin. To make herself look not guilty, Allison decides to make it look like she wants a baby and goes to a fertility clinic to make their marriage seem happy.
Unfortunately, Nick isn’t the most reliable dealer in town so when he decides to push the date up to kill Nick without informing anyone, Allison is in the house. Back in sitcom world, Kevin and Allison wake due to a noise in the house and Kevin goes to investigate. Allison hears a gunshot, but when she goes to see what happened, she sees that Kevin has shot Nick. Kevin is immediately hailed as a local hero which is close to pushing Allison over the edge. With his newfound popularity, he decides he’s going to run for local office.
In the real world, Sam’s marriage breaks up and Sam tells Allison he wants them to be together. Looking around at the ruins of her life, she encourages Sam to stay away from her as she always causes destruction to everyone around her.
Thinking Nick is dead, Patty and Allison go back to their original plan to frame someone to be the local Oxy dealer to move suspicion away from Patty. The girls plant all the evidence at Nick’s place, intent on framing him, completely unaware that he survived the gunshot and is in a coma. Patty and Detective Ridgeway begin an affair, which Allison is in full support of - as long as Patty uses it to gain information on the investigation. This results in tensions between the newfound friends, causing them to have a loud argument in the kitchen, unaware that Neil is hiding in the kitchen closet. Neil, who overhears them arguing about killing Kevin, busts through the kitchen door and is thrust from the sitcom world into the real world. Completely discombobulated and freaked out, Patty knocks him out and watches him bleed on the floor as Allison and Patty are stunned at this sudden turn of events.
Season 2 of Kevin Can F**k Himself premieres on AMC+ on August 13 or on AMC broadcast on August 22.