Karl Puschmann: TVNZ’s killer comedy Killing It is a good time - unless you’re a snake

Claudia O’Doherty and Craig Robinson in comedy Killing It, now streaming on TVNZ+.

Killing It is a comedy about chasing the American dream. About hungering for success. About fantasising over becoming so rich you can spend your days mooching around your mansion in a mini-kimono without people rolling their eyes at you. Or at least, not until you turn your incredibly wealthy back on them.

Specifically, it’s about the route one takes to achieve said dream. Do you walk the path of the righteous man even when it is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men? Or do you stray from the path, joining the weak in the valley of darkness as you lie, cheat and steal to fulfil your dream?

This is the constant choice nagging away at Craig. He’s a down-on-his-luck, wannabe entrepreneur and divorced dad who needs $20,000 in seed money to start the business he knows will bring him great success.

Inspired by his dad’s work ethic and greatly traumatised by his subsequent death after inadvertently interrupting a corner store robbery, he has taken it upon himself to pick up the baton and achieve the success his father strived for but couldn’t reach. For Craig, it’s not so much about the wealth, it’s about connecting with the father he lost and fulfilling his dream. It’s about giving his dad’s life meaning following his meaningless death.

While Craig emulates his father’s moral code and gets nowhere, his wayward brother Isaiah strides with great purpose and clarity through the valley’s darkness. He scams, he lies, and he sets his brother up to be away from his security guard post at the small bank where he works in order to rob it at gunpoint. Because Craig was not securely guarding the bank when the robbery took place, he gets fired.

Craig Robinson as Craig in Killing It.

While Craig’s dream of running a successful business and living a decent life slips further and further away from him, Isaiah’s shady ways skyrocket him to success. Seeing his brother lose his job, then his apartment and then his car, he offers him a way out. He asks him to become his partner in all his illegitimate and quite illegal schemes. He offers the apple, promising Eden in return.

At first, it’s a hard no from Craig. He’s no criminal and wants to stay on the path his father led him to. But as things go from bad to worse, the temptation to take the easy road strengthens.

However, his fortunes take a sharp turn into Weirdsville when he meets an eccentric Uber driver named Jillian. She’s also down on her luck, living out of the triangular billboard she tows around behind her car and taking on a variety of odd jobs to make whatever cash she can. While Craig carries the weight of his failures, Jillian bounces off hers. She helps people where she can and tries to spread kindness wherever possible.

Empathising with Craig’s problems (and feeling at least partially responsible for messing up his crucial pitch meetings after an erratic, eventful and ultimately life-threatening Uber journey), she comes up with a way to get the $20,000 he needs.

The plan? To pair up and win a state-sanctioned snake-hunting competition. Out of legal options, he begrudgingly accepts her offer. And then things really go off the rails.

Both seasons of the show are now streaming on TVNZ+ and it gets an easy recommend. It’s very funny, ticking all the boxes of snappy wordplay, violent humour and a bizarro storyline that can get surprisingly heartfelt for a show that hammers as many yuks as possible out of situations like a live snake being nail-gunned to a person’s hand.

Comedy regular Craig Robinson (Hot Tub Time Machine) stars as Craig, while Aussie actress and comedian Claudia O’Doherty (Love) plays the kooky chatterbox Jillian. The pair have great chemistry together, with O’Doherty’s chipper nattering and Robinson’s easily frustrated grump making for a fun and very watchable odd couple.

Most importantly, the show is unpredictable and keeps you wanting to know what happens next. Will Craig give in to the temptation that comes at him from all sides? Or will Jillian’s kind-hearted example keep him on the straight and narrow?

With his values conflicting with the only paths he sees out of failure and into success, he finds himself in a moral crisis. There’s an angel on one shoulder, a devil on the other, and his American dream is pinned on the hope of quite literally killing the most snakes.