Warning: SPOILERS for Killing It.
Killing It, the new series on Peacock, co-created by Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Dan Goor, stars Tim Heidecker, who once again proves that he’s the best TV villain. Heidecker plays Rodney Lamonca, the millionaire businessman and motivational speaker behind the Dominine convention, named because “to dominate is no longer enough.” Killing It’s lead character Craig (Craig Robinson) is a down-on-his-luck working man, who tries and fails to achieve the American Dream, until he stumbles upon the lucrative world of python hunting. However, Heidecker's portrayal of the nefarious Lamonca truly highlights his credentials as a villain.
In season 1, episode 3, "Dominine", Craig visits the convention in the hope of pitching his business idea to his entrepreneur idol Rita Gaines. He’s unsuccessful, and it’s another setback that furthers the show’s overriding theme of the unattainable myth that is the American Dream. It’s this theme that makes Tim Heidecker’s casting as Rodney Lamonca against Craig Robinson in Killing It so perfect.
Best known for being one half of Tim and Eric Awesome Show on Adult Swim, Heidecker has made a career out of sending up the types of people that Rodney Lamonca represents. His web series On Cinema at the Cinema, for example, features Heidecker as a fictionalized version of himself. The Tim Heidecker of On Cinema is an outlandish parody of the right-wing idealogues that dominate online spaces. Heidecker is a grifter who barely does his research and presents himself as a knowledgeable authority. The running gag of On Cinema is that it’s a movie review show hosted by someone who never watches the movies. Another recurring joke of On Cinema are the dubious products that Tim Heidecker sells to his viewers each season. One product is a special vape pen blend that proves fatal and ultimately leads to Heidecker being put on trial for murder, a charge that he miraculously avoids. being able to get away with terrible crimes due to their money and influence is a key theme of Killing It and Heidecker’s fictional On Cinema persona demonstrates his strong grasp on characters like Rodney Lamonca.
The setting of the show against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign is clearly a deliberate choice by co-creators and former Brooklyn Nine-Nine writers Luke Del Tredici and Dan Goor. Like Trump, Rodney Lamonca is a millionaire with a trophy wife and inflated ego. His ludicrous on-stage presentation and the audience’s response recalls the fervor of Trump’s rallies in the run-up to the election. Killing It is an absurd satire of how Capitalism has appropriated the American Dream. The lie that everyone has “the same 24 hours” with which to change their lives, is packaged and sold to the attendees of the Dominine convention. However, the only person profiting from the dream of attaining wealth and success is Lamonca himself.
Dominine is just another grift for Lamonca, like Heidecker’s vape pens or anti-viral milkshakes in On Cinema. Craig is so determined to pitch his idea to Rita Gaines that he spends hundreds of dollars on wristbands and lanyards to gain access to her. His brother Isiah, meanwhile, sees the convention for the scam that it is, and tries his own grift, selling stolen wristbands and lanyards. It’s a scheme that puts him on a collision course with Lamonca and exposes the character’s more violent and villainous side. Tim Heidecker is perfectly cast as Lamonca, bringing a level of unhinged intensity, and his own background in satire to create a truly great TV villain. In Lamonca, Heidecker embodies the core themes of Killing It; the staggering levels of wealth inequality in the Western world, and a society that allows those with money and power to evade justice. Rodney Lamonca is another of Tim Heidecker’s absurd Capitalist grifters, proving once again that he’s one of the greatest satirists, and screen villains of modern times.
All episodes of Killing It are now streaming on Peacock.