As the first episode of Killing It begins, Craig (Craig Robinson) talks about lounging around in his kimono and being rich. He wants to be clear about the fact that nobody hands you a royal kimono. He came from nothing. While people want to say the American dream is dead, Craig believes that is bull crap. His story, the one he is about to tell you, can only happen in the USA. He asks his maid Andrea whether she is listening to him, but she thought he was on the phone. Craig yells for her to pay attention before we see a flashback to 1988. Craig’s father takes him and his brother to the store so they can give back the candy they stole earlier.

Isaiah begins laughing when his father admits they can’t pay 30 cents for the candy. His dad says he is working towards something. Their dad insists you don’t succeed overnight and have to put the time in. He asks the clerk who agrees with him. Once they go outside, Craig tells his dad that they took more candy. His dad is proud of him, but his brother calls him a snitch and punches him in the stomach. When their father goes back inside, he learns that the clerk was actually a robber. He points the gun at their dad before Craig and Isaiah hear a gunshot. Craig questions how he got from there to the splendor and opulence that he now inhabits. Andrea begins crying while saying it is sad although Craig argues it is inspiring.

Then, we jump back to 2016 as Craig says it is 4 AM and Miami is asleep, but he is wide awake. He isn’t out at the clubs or rising with the European markets. He just needs to pee. This is an all too familiar story for a man over 40, 50, or even 60. As he gets dressed, Craig practices in the mirror saying you’re probably suffering from benign prostatic hyperplasia. In other words, you have an enlarged prostate. After going through the symptoms, he yells for his daughter Vanessa (Jet Miller) to get up. Then, he claims there is an all-natural supplement that is proven to work. Saw palmetto berries. As they drive in the car, Craig reveals these berries only grow one place in the world before an iguana falls on their windshield.

A woman tells them it is the cold that causes them to get stunned and fall from the trees. Craig is told to toss him in a bush, but neither he nor Vanessa wants to touch it. The windshield wipers don’t work either. He eventually gets out and throws the iguana elsewhere. Vanessa is dropped off at her mother’s house moments later. Camille (Stephanie Nogueras) says hello while Marco watches from the doorway. Craig thanks Camille for taking Vanessa early and tells her he is applying for a business loan. He tells Marco this is family time so he doesn’t need to be here before he leaves. Craig goes to his workplace where he sits down with his boss and makes his pitch for a business loan.

He doesn’t know about Craig applying for a loan because Monica just said he was coming in. Instead, he thought it was about his decision to dress as Shaq for Halloween. Someone wrote a letter to corporate and he thought it was Craig, but it wasn’t. The boss wants to say it was because he is black. Instead, he says he is the only one he hasn’t asked about it yet. Craig learns Mr. Franks didn’t wear black face although he had makeup on his arms and chest. He only wore a mask since he isn’t stupid. Craig is allowed to return to his pitch, but his boss keeps stopping him to say he is not racist and is an advocate for black people. Franks says his favorite actor is Jamie Foxx.

Craig admits he doesn’t think he is racist. Mr. Franks says it is important he knows that because he can’t give him a loan. He blames it on the default rate with borrowers from the black community being too high. Franks changes the subject by saying his favorite Jamie Foxx movie is Ray which he describes as dope. Once Craig leaves, he meets with his brother Isaiah (Rell Battle) who can’t believe someone’s favorite Jamie Foxx movie would be Ray. Craig was talking about the loan though. Isaiah complains about bosses and admits that is why he is self-employed.

He is doing well enough to afford the new Kobes too, but he won’t say exactly what he is doing. Craig tells him about Rita Gaines the famous entrepreneur who was on Shark Tank and how she said every red light turns green eventually. Isaiah calls that dumb before encouraging his brother to take action. He instructs him to go into the guy’s office, shut the door, and refuse to leave until he listens to his pitch. Craig agrees that he can give him 20 grand considering he has worked there for over six years. Craig goes back to Mr. Franks’ office and says he needs 20 grand for a down payment for a piece of swampland where he is going to grow saw palmetto berries.

He explains that most older men suffer from enlarged prostates. The berries shrink the prostate, improve urination, enhance hair growth, and boost libido. Pharmaceutical companies are desperate for the berries, but they only grow in coastal Florida. They hear gunshots outside the office as two men storm inside and try to rob the place. Mr. Franks urges Craig to go out there and hit the alarm before one man enters and takes Craig’s gun. When Craig sees the man’s shoes, he knows it is Isaiah. Later, Isaiah denies that the cash on his table came from a bank robbery. He claims he found it. Craig complains that he got fired because of his brother’s actions.

Craig reminds him he told him to go inside his manager’s office and close the door, but Isaiah says he shouldn’t be taking advice from him. He calls himself a known lowlife and Dame (Martin Bats Bradford) wants him to get golden contact lenses. Isaiah is ignoring him because he is trash. Dame says the lenses make you look like a wizard although Isaiah says they make him bump into stuff. Craig wonders what happened to his brother since he didn’t know he was committing armed robberies. He says their dad would be ashamed and Isaiah is a disgrace to his name. When Isaiah asks Dame to give them a second, Dame tries to leave but bumps into a bunch of stuff.

Once he is gone, Isaiah says he needs a new partner. Since Craig is unemployed, it would be a perfect match. Isaiah says their dad was a disgrace to his own name because he achieved nothing, owned nothing, and died with nothing. He admits he did Craig dirty so he offers him 20 grand, but Craig refuses saying he is going to do it the right way. After that, Craig pitches his business idea to multiple loan agents. The men only want to talk about Jamie Foxx movies. Craig rents his apartment out to some guy even though he isn’t supposed to. He goes outside and sleeps in his car. In the morning, Camille and Vanessa find him grilling sausages in his car. Camille tells him she has to go to work and he said he would take Nessa to school.

Camille wonders whether he is living in his car. Craig asks if a man can cook breakfast in his own car without living in it. He pretends he has a friend in town who he let use his bed. Craig gets a phone call and promises to take Vanessa to school. He learns it is one of the loan officers called Foster Group. The man introduces himself as Donald Assarian (Cullen Moss) and says he is interested. Craig agrees to take him to see the plot he is interested in buying. He promises to meet Donald there in an hour meaning he won’t be able to take Vanessa to school. He insists this is his dream although Camille thought his dream was pet life insurance.

Once he explains that idea, she asks about his dream to import Japanese sticker booths. He says that was a good idea before everyone got smartphones. Then, he insists they’re all one dream. He comes clean about renting his apartment out to strangers for extra money. Craig promises he doesn’t do this when Vanessa is over. He claims the guy renting his apartment is a good buy until he opens the door and finds him creating a porn video.

Outside, Camille isn’t sure she can let Vanessa stay with him again. Craig promises everything is going to change after today once he gets the loan. However, he runs into one roadblock when he finds his car on fire because of the sausages. Camille tells him to get an Uber since she has to take his daughter to school. He rushes to get in touch with Gillian G who is supposedly driving a Mercedes Benz. When Jillian (Claudia O’Doherty) arrives, her car is a mess and she is pulling an advertisement. As they drive along, Jillian says she is from Australia before telling him about other people from Australia. Isaiah calls to say he is going to offer Craig a job, but Craig doesn’t want an illegal job.

He recommends getting Dame to do it only to learn that he got hit by a van because of the golden lenses. Craig says he doesn’t need any favors because he is on his way to a business meeting right now. Isaiah tells him to call him after it doesn’t work out. Jillian tells him her father came here to be a businessman before he died. He begins telling her about his desire to buy land so he can start a saw palmetto farm. Jillian wishes she was good at business, but she is way in debt despite having so many jobs. She does elder care, gets paid by creeps to watch her eat bananas online, and more. Jillian stops the car abruptly to do something really quickly.

He agrees to give her one second. Jillian gets out with a hammer and begins beating something in the field nearby. Once she kills a big snake, she asks whether he’d mind moving over a bit so she can put it in the backseat. He doesn’t want to sit next to the snake, but he has no choice. As Jillian drives, she explains that the State of Florida pays her to do this job. She shows Craig a pamphlet while saying there was a trend 10 years ago involving people buying Burmese pythons as pets. Although they are cute at first, they end up getting too big. People put their snakes in swamps and nothing eats them. They eat everything so it is an ecological disaster.

The state pays removal agents 100 bucks for every dead python they bring in. Jillian says they’re big and slow making it easy to deal with them. The snake in the backseat begins moving. It tries to attack Craig who grabs it by the neck. Jillian starts hitting it with the hammer. Eventually, Jillian wrecks the car before they get out. Jillian believes she owes him an apology since he killed the snake with a window. He suggests she owes an apology for something else. Jillian wonders if he’d ever want to team up with her to kill snakes together. Craig just wants to get to his meeting. She has clothes in the back of the advertisement trailer where she happens to live too.

She goes to the bathroom at Starbucks and it is nice because it gets cleaned twice a day. Jillian offers to let him wear her graduation gown from the Florida School of Excellence. As Jillian drives Craig to his meeting, she encourages him to stay in the shade because the fabric will melt and burn his skin. Once Craig arrives, Donald asks what he is wearing. He tries to play it off as a standard business casual gown. While Craig pitches his business idea, Donald kills a mosquito on the back of his neck. Craig knows this is crazy since he is late and shows up with a billboard, but his dad told him he could make it. Before his dad died, he told him he just needed to have faith.

Craig tries to carry on his father’s dream and make his life mean something. He has been waiting for a sign and he believes Donald’s call was the sign he was looking for. Craig admits this is everything he has ever believed in so he pleads with Donald to reward his faith. Once they leave, Jillian says that guy was a dick. They stop to drop off the snake as Jillian reveals she is going to give him the 100 bucks for his business. She confesses she never graduated since she stopped doing anything after her father died.

Jillian admits she doesn’t want to see someone give up, but Craig doesn’t think 100 bucks will do much for him. He tells her he is done with this. Once she steps away, Craig calls Isaiah to see if he still has the job available. Isaiah says they’re going to do so much messed up stuff together. Brock (Scott MacArthur) comes out with his son and suspects Craig is trying to get into his head with the snake. He says they’re going to eat his butt all day long. His son, Corby (Wyatt Walter), recommends using different words. Craig asks what is going on before Brock begins telling him about the Florida Python Challenge. It starts tomorrow and lasts 30 days with the one killing the most snakes getting the grand prize of $20,000.

Craig tells Isaiah he has to go as he sets his sights on the grand prize.

 

Killing It Review

Killing It seems to have hit a nerve with some while others loved the first episode. It is easy to see where the criticism is coming from since the center point of the story is killing snakes and many will not like that. While I understand that entirely, I sincerely doubt any animals were harmed in the making of this show. Regardless, I wasn’t blown away by the first episode although I didn’t think it was that bad either.

Some scenes were enjoyable while others were funny. Others were somewhat cringey and it seemed like some jokes were used multiple times. Still, this might be a good series for people willing to turn off their brains and just go with it. The series could get better as it goes so it might be a good idea to stick with it a bit longer. I’d give the episode a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of Killing It can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support Reel Mockery by following this link.