Kevin Can F Himself was already broken before it was canceled after Season 2.
AMC's Kevin Can F Himself ran for two seasons on the network from 2021 to 2022, centering on the life of Allison McRoberts, who - amid living the throes of an unhappy marriage - plans to kill her husband.
The American dark comedy was critically acclaimed for its "ambitious blend of genres" and "searing social commentary" (via Rotten Tomatoes); however, it was canceled after Season 2 due to what was cited at the time as viewership challenges and a changing marketing environment (per CGWall).
Kevin Can F Himself Cancelation Details Revealed
According to showrunner Valerie Armstrong, Kevin Can F Himself was already broken when it was canceled.
Speaking on the Wrap Drinks podcast, Armstrong broke down the details of her AMC comedy being cut after Season 2, revealing that "we had written or broken most of [the season] when the cancelation call came down:
"I always knew this was how I wanted to end the show. Even though I did not know it was going to be the end initially, the second season, we had written or broken most of it, and then the network was like, 'It's your last one.'"
Broken is a term used in TV and film development where each scene and the order in which they appear in the script have been blocked out, but there is not necessarily a specific dialogue for each scene.
Armstrong remarked that knowing this was the end as the team was working on Season 2 made for a "really weird... vibe on set:"
"I think it is really weird for the vibe on set. It is weird for the relationship with everybody. It is weird because people are looking for their next job while they are on your job, other than me, because I still have to devote everything that I have to this one thing. I still want it to be good."
Luckily, the series creator had long considered how she would end the show when they eventually got there; they just happened to have to put that plan into action a lot sooner than some may have thought.
The series ended in the Season 2 finale with Annie Murphy's Allison and Mary Hollis Inboden as Patty standing on the porch of Allison's burning house, having finally offed her insensitive, man-child husband.
"I knew I wanted to end the show with those two on the porch," Armstrong posited, saying that "whenever [she] lost sight of what the show meant," she kept coming back to this particular image:
"So, I knew I wanted to end the show with those two on the porch because whenever I lost sight of what the show meant, I thought of those two women on that porch. That was like the DNA of the show to me. I wanted to slowly pull out and see the burnt house behind them, showing that they are moving on from that trash heap and they will go and live a life together in whatever way that looks. It is my version of a happily ever after."
She explained that she, Murphy, and Inboden all "talked about that scene a lot:"
"Annie [Murphy], Marie Hollis [Inboden], and I talked about that scene a lot. We had calls about it. I mean, it is the last scene of the show. They are entitled and I am entitled to, its the last scene of my show. But essentially, it is those two on the porch and what triggered the discussion is nuance."
Armstrong got her dream. This final scene made it to the screen almost exactly as the showrunner wanted it to. However, she noted one slight change from the network.
The network wanted to make sure one single line made it into the series, ending with Murphy's Allison showing some regret for killing her husband and saying, "'I did not want this. Not anymore:"
"The network needed this one line in. They needed the line, of Allison to say because Kevin has died and he is burnt in the house, Patty said, 'He finally did what you wanted him to do, like he finally did something you wanted him to do.' And Allison says, 'I did not want this. Not anymore." The network needed that line, 'I did not want this. Not anymore,' because that is the conclusion of her journey. She started out the show by saying, 'I am going to kill my husband.' She ends the show saying, 'He died and it is not going to make me happy.'"
That changed the context of Allison's arc entirely, going from "I am going to kill my husband" to "He died and it is not going to make me happy."
This resulted in continued changes happening to the sequence even right up to (and including) the day of filming:
"That is her entire arc. Sure, if you are a network I understand why you would want that. It is also not a line that bums me out. I am okay with that. For Annie and Marie Hollis, their individual character stuff was very important to them. I do not remember all the iterations, but I do know that we got to set, we did the scene as written, and then it was not the scene we shot. We changed a lot in the moment on the day."
Armstrong admitted that some creatives would have said, "No we are going to do the last scene of my show the way I fucking want to," but what ended up coming out of the collaboration with both the network and the actors involved turned into "the best version" of the scene it could have been:
"Again, there are versions of people in my position who would say, 'No we are going to do the last scene of my show the way I fucking want to.' But I did not think that was the best version of the scene. It was just my way, I did not think it was the best way. I think that is very hard to do, but I am so happy with the thing we came up with together."
Kevin Can F Himself is streaming on Netflix, AMC+, and Amazon Prime Video in the U.S.
