In The Odd, Inscrutable 'Kidding,' Jim Carrey Is A Kids' Show Host In Meltdown
Carrey tempers his reputation for broad comedy by playing a placid puppet-show host whose world is crumbling. The series can't settle on a tone, but it's weirdly fascinating — and just weird.
Kidding is weird. It's tough to know what to make of it.
This is not a complaint.
The premise — a beloved, earnest, Mister Rogers-like host of a children's show finds himself plunged into a deep, dark emotional crisis — seems like a set-up for cheap parody, for taking cynical pot-shots at, well, a lot of things: kids' shows; earnestness; serene public facades that hide private chaos and cruelty.
Kidding takes some of those pot-shots. More than a few. But you can tell, sort of, that its heart isn't in them.
You may no help.
