Kath & Kim may be the epitome of tackiness, but their self-absorbed, shallow characters are a barrel of laughs.
IF you were to believe the American television critics, then Kath & Kim would not be worth your time. When the show made its debut in September last year, critics described it as “disappointing” and “unfunny”.
But of course, they were comparing the show to the original series of the same title from Australia. There, in the land Down Under, the series became so popular that the title itself has become an adjective. For instance, women who are garishly dressed will be frowned upon by the glamour set and labelled “so Kath & Kim.”
Having not watched the Australian series, I found the American version quite a riot, really. It could be that I am just biased because I have always liked Molly Shannon in Saturday Night Live, and in movies such as A Night at the Roxbury, Superstar and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, which showcase her talent for playing characters who are unabashedly shameless.
Kim (Selma Blair) and her mother Kath (Molly Shannon) of Kath & Kim just love trashy, gossip mags. Then, it is no wonder that she plays to perfection, the role of Kathleen Day, a divorcée in her 40s who lives alone in Florida after her daughter moves out when she got hitched.
A case of empty nest syndrome? Not really. Kath feels liberated with her daughter gone. Immediately, she turns her daughter’s room into a gym! But her happiness is short-lived when Kim barges back into the house announcing, rather spelling out, that her marriage is over, “OVUR”.
Yup, Kimberly Day (Selma Blair) is not exactly the brightest bulb in the box. Her reason for getting a divorce is because her husband expects her to do things. “Sexual things?” her mum gasps in the pilot. It turns out that Kim didn’t know that getting married entails cooking, something she said, she definitely “didn’t sign up for”.
You see, Kim prides herself as a trophy wife (“like Mrs Larry King Live”). She wants a cushy life ... sipping margaritas while lounging in the backyard reading gossip rags.
Like her mum, Kim is obsessed with pop culture and celebrities, especially Suri Cruise.
Kath feels her daughter is cramping her style, now that the latter has moved back home. Especially since Kath’s new boyfriend, Phil (John Michael Higgins) sleeps over and is fond of wearing a short bathrobe and nothing else in the morning. So, it is Kath’s duty to get Kim back with her husband, Craig (Mikey Day).
Both men in the series work at the local mall ... which explains why the ladies are always visiting the place. Phil, who cracks lame jokes, owns a sandwich store while Craig, who is madly in love with Kim, works in an electrical shop.
The opening credits of Kath & Kim, which show mother and daughter strutting in a mall as though they are on the runway during New York Fashion Week, will inform you that this series is all about exaggeration.
From their choice of clothes to the acting, they can be a little bit over-the-top; but that’s part of the charm of the show. The ladies are so oblivious living in their world that they don’t realise just how tacky they are.
Because both the main characters are not that intelligent, you’d chuckle at the things they say. Kim calls the famed Sistine Chapel “the Sixteenth Chapel” while Kath thinks the translation for c’est la vie is “seize the day”.
Shannon is a delight to watch as the hyper-active, style-challenged Kath. Picture this: Kath’s house has leopard-print rugs which run alongside walls plastered with tropical tree wallpaper! But she is so proud of her abode. Shannon’s perfect comic timing and priceless facial expressions are reasons enough to tune into the show. Blair, on the other hand, seems to have just one acting method – growling. Funnily enough, that growling is what shot her to fame about a decade ago in Cruel Intentions, the teen-remake of Dangerous Liaisons.
But never mind that, the characters here are fed such great lines that you’d forgive Blair’s one-dimensional talent or Mikey Day’s wooden acting skills because you would be busy laughing at the jokes. And since Kath and Kim are obsessed with celebrities, the jokes are at the expense of famous people.
“If you got a little PS (plastic surgery), what would you do,” Kim asks her mum. She replies: “I’ll do whatever Nicole Kidman does. She always has had that same expression for years. Gorge!” (“Gorge!” is short for “gorgeous”.)
Self-absorbed, shallow, and to put it bluntly, stupid, the titular characters will elicit laughter with their brass and brash personalities. Though they are not exactly the most likeable characters in a comedy series (unlike Rachel Green in Friends or Carrie Bradshaw in Sex And The City), you will warm up to them eventually. Though you’d never stop squirming at their choice of clothes. It’s the total opposite of “Gorge!”
- Kath & Kim airs every Monday at 8.50pm on Star World (Astro channel 711).
