Kenan Thompson, who currently holds the record as the longest Saturday Night Live cast, brings his abundant charisma to the appropriate title Kenan. In the NBC series, the beloved comedian plays as a newlywed father trying to raise his daughters Aubrey (Dani Lane) and Birdie (Dannah Lane) with his father-in-law Rick (played by Don Johnson) and brother Gary (Chris Redd).
Tuesday’s debut finds that the title character is still struggling to juggle his job as host and full house in the aftermath of the death of his wife, Cori (Niccole Thurman). The episode begins with the lovely image of Kenan waking up in a tangle of his children’s limbs and so quietly rushing to get himself and his girls ready for the day. This means taking a quick shower, laying out their clothes, packing their book bags and putting together lunch – in this case peanut butter and jelly sandwiches – while they sleep. Unfortunately, it is a vain attempt to make his careful tip-to-turn around the house.
Rick (Johnson) passes by unannounced and lures a high-pitched single from the single father and wakes up his super-well-adjusted girls (seriously they quote their father’s self-help books and refer to their mother as a ‘deceased parent figure’). After a quick chat with Gary, who has been joining the club since one evening, it’s off to work.
Kenan’s work team includes some sitcom favorites, including The Mindy Project‘s Fortune Feimster as sports correspondent Pam and Single parents alie Kimrie Lewis as Kenan’s boss Pam, along with Taylor Louderman as Tami, his live co-host. Pam looks at him after the anchor shows up again, slaps Tami and the last time he just hasn’t been himself. Clearly, his colleagues are worried that he has not yet processed his grief, which is a horrible timing, given the rating of the program.
Kenan maintains that he is fine and eats lunch with Rick and Gary, while the former confirms that he is doing well with Kenan. Meanwhile, Gary expresses his concern that Kenan has not moved on, as he spends all his time with his children (thank you, Gary, for introducing ‘trillgen’ in the lexicon) and has only rejected the obvious progress of his attractive coffee seller . . During dinner, it goes on as usual with the family until Kenan gestures to his daughters because they want a phone so they can be Instagram influencers and joke about their mother coming back from the dead just to drag him to the other side. A deplorable Kenan quickly apologizes for the remark, but the girls are just relieved to hear their father finally talk about their mother. It asks Kenan to tell a funny story of how they met on the set of a sitcom in which Cori played his mother, even though he was only three years older, because Hollywood is sexist.
Relieved that she can finally talk about Cori, a confident Kenan brings her up again the next morning during a TV segment. However, it ends disastrously when he becomes defensive about Cori’s decision to use an epidural and accidentally insults both working and stay-at-home moms. This caused a great deal of controversy among the viewers of the program, which Kenan considered a small mistake. According to Pam, who tells him that he really needs to run his business, the network apologizes for being sorry for offending you.
The next morning, Kenan begins his prepared statement before stopping to waste his true feelings. “When Cori passed by, I was devastated,” he tells the audience with stones. “I noticed myself, and I’m really sorry.” His sincere apology wins everyone and he is in the internet’s good grace again.
Back home, Kenan reveals that he successfully baked a cake-pie-hybrid concoction for the sale of his daughters. Actually, he got it from a part of his program, but that’s not important. It’s a shame Aubrey and Birdie could not use it for their school function, as Rick immediately digs into the cake with a fork. The episode is curled up on the couch with the family watching the old recordings of Cori and Kenan and their extremely inappropriate sexual tension while playing mother and son.
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