One of my arguments has been that Kimmy Schmidt is a sixties gimmick sitcom that's been updated
for the 2010s.
The premise of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is that Kimmy Schmidt, herself, was in a bunker
for many many years.
After she was rescued she decides that she's going to stay in New York City.
She's gone from this world of terrible terrible trauma to a world where everything is bursting
with new opportunity and the color represents that in many ways.
Television has had color since the 1960s but it's one of those things where a lot of shows
haven't had time to really build out color pallets.
Now we've had some great shows with lots of color in them.
Pushing Daisies is one that comes to mind.
There's a show where everything in it was color coordinated.
That's from creator Brian Fuller who frequently does such things.
He also does tremendous work with color on Hannibal where he uses rich blood reds to
accent the scenes of death and horror.
Kimmy Schmidt definitely wants to signal to you that this is taking place in a weird heightened
world.
Kimmy and Titus the roomates, they're both often colored in just very bright accent colors
that stand out from the rest of the scene or if you look carefully are often color coordinated
with sets and with the props around them.
Another example would be Jacqueline who is the woman that Kimmy works for.
She's very often in dressed in whites, beiges, things that sort of blend in with her environment.
She is a woman who is from the very rich upper class world and so she, of course, doesn't
want to rock the boat too much and her color reflects that.
And finally the guy that kidnapped Kimmy is always in very white and black tones.
This sort of represents, kind of, his religious world view but it also represents that fact
that he's trying to drag Kimmy back to a world of monochrome.
I think episode 6, in general, is really interesting in terms of color coordination.
When Kimmy is at school where she's trying to get her GED from a teacher who just doesn't
care, he's again, dressed in sort of the colors of white of beige.
The monochrome is the hue of the people who are trying to keep Kimmy down on this show.
Where as Kimmy is dressed in a very bright green that contrasts well with the green of
the blackboards and with everybody around her.
This is a show that, I think, has a couple of small issues here and there but it's definitely
a show that, by the end of season one, I was very much in to.
I just really want to spend more time in this world because it's so interesting and colorful
and unlike anything else on television.