Mary Hollis Inboden Is a Standout in ‘Kevin Can F**k Himself’

Kevin Can F**k Himself has only debuted two episodes so far, and yet it’s managed to disrupt oh-so-many assumptions around marriage, sitcoms, and what it really means to be a supportive partner. This is largely due to Annie Murphy’s stunning performance as the smiling-through-the-rage Allison. Yet there’s another powerhouse lurking in the shadows of this twisted, meta series. Mary Hollis Inboden‘s Patty brilliantly skewers what it truly means to be “one of the boys.”

AMC’s latest prestige drama accomplishes its brutal examination by literally inserting itself into the world of sitcoms. In the sitcom version of their life, Allison is forced to be the nagging wife while Kevin (Eric Petersen) acts as the bumbling, fun idiot. It’s only when Allison leaves her husband’s brightly lit sphere that the truth comes out. Most of Kevin’s “antics” come at the cost of her financial security, sanity, and sense of self. Trapped in this manically happy world and unable to see her own future, Allison makes a truly shocking choice. She decides to kill Kevin.

Inboden’s Patty is one of the few character who’s able to transition from the show’s sitcom world to its gray-toned reality. It’s an acting feat that Inboden handles well, deftly switching from cheesy jokes to real emotional gut punches alongside Murphy. That transition more than anything else points to Patty’s missteps in this universe. We’ve seen Patty as a character a million times before. In the sitcom version of this show, she often appears next to Kevin’s dim best friend Neil (Alex Bonifer), the cool counterpart to Allison’s nagging. Essentially the entire point of Patty in this too bright world is to diminish Allison. If Allison complains about her husband turning their anniversary into a raging party, if she nags about their savings going to hare-brained schemes or sports memorabilia, if she moans about their dilapidating house, look at Patty. She’s a woman, and she looks cool with everything. Why can’t Allison be like that?

As Kevin Can F**k Himself explores Patty more, half of this cool girl energy seems to be genuine. Patty truly does seem to like her life in Worcester, Mass., and spending most of her free time with her brother and his dumb friend. Unlike Allison there’s little to indicate that she wants something grander from life. But as mentioned before that only accounts for half of Patty’s ever-relaxed persona. The remainder plays perfectly into the trap Kevin Can F**k Himself has set: it’s a destructive and cruel reaction to Allison.

Often when Allison mentions one of her loftier goals like continuing her education or buying a new house, Patty can be seen rolling her eyes. She insults Allison for trying to dress up and refusing to drink out of red solo cups, calling her things like “uppity.” It’s only when the topic of Allison and Kevin’s savings comes up that she reveals this hostility is at least partially a facade. While Allison is on the edge of a breakdown, Patty offers a rare gesture of compassion.

“Come on, wake the hell up. There’s no way in there,” Patty says in her typically gruff way. “The weekly savings thing? It’s gone.”

This moment is the catalyst of Patty and Allison’s shaky friendship. But more than that it reveals the tolls that come with just trying to be one of the guys. Patty knew about this secret for years. She spent hours watching this poor woman talk about her dreams for a better life while hiding this painful reality, all in the name of not being mocked by her so-called friends. Just the fact that Patty told Allison about the drained saving account at all proves that this secret bothered her. And yet she bent her own morals to go along with the bros. But more than anything else she helped mock and attack another woman almost solely in the interest of propping herself up for the men around her. When it comes to the toxic “there can only be one” mindset of women in male spaces, Patty chose herself.

That side of the cool girl paradigm is one that’s rarely explored on television. It’s even rarer for it to be shown with as much nuance as Inboden brings to her role. It feels odd to say this about a show that combines a sitcom world with a grittier one, but at any given moment Inboden’s Patty is the only one who feels like she’s acting. When she’s with the guys, Patty’s jokes intentionally feel too forced and abrupt. When she’s alone with Allison, her sneers and criticisms feel less certain. Even when Patty is trying her hardest to fit in Inboden infuses her with a sincere sense of insecurity. Between those scoffs and cigarettes you can see her regret for how she treated Allison, her fears that she may be one of the villains in this story, and the growing horror that her friends are actually monsters. She’s one of the guys, yes. But she’s also horrified that the guys may be wrong.

So many shows have pointed to the cruelty of sexism. But very few have stepped back to examine a more complicated element of this pervasive problem: misogynistic women. Thanks to the great care and humanity Inboden brings to Patty, Kevin Can F**k Himself hasn’t just given a face to this phenomenon. It’s given it a complex portrait of a self-hating woman who is slowly learning how to support rather than attack other women. Now whether or not she can do it without killing Kevin is another question entirely.

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