The natural inclination for any TV show nearing its conclusion is to start wrapping up storylines and tying up any loose ends still dangling in the wind. For Kroll Show, there’s little hope of that considering how Kroll and his writers inject their strange menagerie of characters into various situations and scenarios.
But, as folks who have watched this show from the beginning know, there is at least one character who needed to find resolution: Dr. Armond, the animal plastic surgeon falsely accused of killing his wife and now a fugitive, being chased around the globe by Detective Smart. For the show’s penultimate episode, they finally did that, revealing that the whole megillah was a The Game-like ruse constructed by Armond’s awful son. Everyone involved has been acting, and his wife is not really dead. Dr. Armond’s response was an outburst of joy so big, his heart literally exploded.
I’m strangely going to miss this character. Of all the silly conceits that Kroll and his writers cooked up, I rather enjoyed his leaden deadpan and weird sign language. He perfectly represented all of the moneyed asshats that I’ve had to deal with in my days, like the two coffee shop customers who would respond to my friendly greetings with nothing more than a stare in my direction. Dr. Armond is what the Rich Dicks of the show will likely soon become. Maybe in the next episode, they, too, will find an untimely demise. Is it strange to wish ill of fictional characters like this? Especially in a sketch show? I might need to rethink my own priorities here…
Anyway, the rest of the show was left over to a lot of hilariously slurring nonsense from C-Czar as he tries to bring his invention Goo-Goo Glasses (computerized glasses for babies) into the world. Like a lot of the sketches, it served little purpose other than to bring C-Czar and his lady friend Liz together, and letting Kroll and Jenny Slate dig into their over-the-top voices they came up with for those characters. My favorite little tidbit was Liz’s little squeals every time C-Czar would throw something around in frustration. Slate has got an amazingly nimble voice and I hope that some animation producers start to make good use of that. Or at least bring us the Marcel, the Shell With Shoes On feature film we’ve been waiting for.
Robert Ham is a Portland-based freelance writer and regular contributor to Paste. You can follow him on Twitter.