TV

Jim Carrey returns to series TV in new drama Kidding

A combination of sweetness and sadness
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There’s no doubt Jim Carrey will win hearts as troubled children’s entertainer Mr Pickles in Michel Gondry’s Kidding.

The show, about how Mr Pickles is trying to keep his personal troubles from seeping into his kindly public image, marks the Canadian comic’s first regular TV spot since he made the leap from the stand-up stage to ensemble sketch series In Living Color in 1990.

The genius of Jim in full flight is his unpredictability, whether making us laugh or wiping away the tears. In Kidding, we get the best of both. It’s the cumulation of a brilliant career in one show.

Jim as Jeff, aka children’s entertainer Mr Pickles.

It was 1994 when Jim became the world’s most famous funny face, delivering a triumphant box-office trifecta that would change the face of comedy.

Ace Venture: Pet Detective, Dumb And Dumber and The Mask let the anarchic livewire run rampant.

No matter how scripted or choreographed, Jim managed to bring chaos to a scene.

Peter Weir’s all-too-prescient 1998 film The Truman Show gave an opportunity to get serious and show off his acting chops.

Perfectly cast as the unknowing subject of the world’s biggest reality show, wide-eyed Truman was Jim’s first sniff at Oscar talk and gave him his first Golden Globe.

Playing the late US funnyman Andy Kaufman in Milos Forman’s brilliant 1999 biopic Man On The Moon, Jim all but inhabited the persona of the troubled comedian.

Nominated for an Oscar, Jim’s performance went beyond mimicry and the results were spellbinding.

Jim playing Truman Burbank on The Truman Show.

Jim first worked with director Michel on 2004’s Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, the surreal love story about an estranged couple who have erased each other from their memories and then begun dating each other again.

Jim, along with Kate Winslet, tugs at the heart in this eclectic romance.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, film director Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, Trainwreck) called Jim simply “the best”.

Looking at his brilliant career, it’s easy to see why.

Kidding is now streaming on Stan.

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