Annie Murphy To Star In Kevin Can Go F*ck Himself

The series will definitely be a departure from her role of Alexis on Schitt’s Creek

Emmy Award-winning actor and overall star Annie Murphy is a little less Alexis and a little more sitcom wife gone off-script in her new role. During the Television Critics’ Association Winter Press Tour for AMC, the cable network debuted a teaser for the genre-busting dark dramedy Kevin Can F**k Himself, premiering this summer.

The trailer looks appropriately bonkers.

As revealed in the trailer, the series shatters TV conventions by examining the private life of the typical sitcom housewife role and wondering what reality would look like through her eyes when she snaps and assumes the lead in her own life.

Alternating between single-camera shots and a traditional, multi-camera sitcom, the two versions will play off each other as viewers watch Murphy’s character, Allison, discover that what she actually wants in life is to stop acting like everything’s perfect — and to begin murdering her husband. (A little different from Alexis Rose’s “What now? Do I leave everything behind and move to some random island to be with the love of my life? Because I did that with Harry Styles in England, and it was, like, too rainy.”)

Created by Valerie Armstrong, noted for her work on Lodge 49 and SEAL Team, Kevin Can F**k Himself also has Parks and Recreation star and Hot Girls Wanted producer Rashida Jones at the helm as an executive producer, alongside Will McCormack. Craig DiGregorio is the showrunner and executive producer on the eight-episode show.

Indiewire spoke with DiGregorio about the unconventional format. The series came out of creator Armstrong’s desire to look at how often sitcom wives are taken for granted.

“If you were to think of them outside of the confines of these shows, that’s what we’re exploring here,” DiGregorio told the outlet. He also explained it’s not a behind-the-scenes look at a sitcom or an experiment to differentiate Allison from the rest of the sitcom. It’s to watch what happens to this heroine in the little moments that live between her and her sitcom husband.

Since the trailer was released, it’s received all the praise.

Eric Peterson and Mary Hollis Inboden round out the cast. During the press tour panel, the stars laughed that Murphy’s Schitt’s Creek fans may be annoyed to see the actor, who was usually dressed out in Anthropologie-like boho babe outfit throughout the hit show’s mega-successful six-season run, dressed so casually in her new role.

Murphy, speaking on the panel, said viewers can expect to see her character in Kevin Can Go F**k Himself in a pair of clunky, hard-to-slip-on burgundy winter boots a lot. The new role gives the actor a chance to differentiate herself from the character of Alexis.

“Being in the loopy world of [Schitt’s Creek] was a wonderful world,” Murphy said. “But the world was very small. A big thing for me after Schitt’s Creek, I was worried about being stuck in that blonde, loopy land.”