Another Period

I've watched a few episodes so far and it's hilarious. It's the same sort of over-the-top, don't-take-it-too-serious sort of humour as The Office was. I mean, it's Victorian era setting with Snoop Dogg intro music.

The characters and dialogue are really funny, and just how they make such fun out of what those times must have been like - even though when looking at it, there's a stark reality that reminds you, some of what you're seeing WAS really how it was.

It's a show about gossiping girls and the comings and goings of their home. I'm a guy and usually HATE those stupid reality housewife and kardashians and all that. But I find the script so funny and the girls so dumb, that I love it. Actually, I like it more than my girlfriend so far, which is weird.

Oh well.

This isn't the best show to come out in a while, but it is surprisingly funny. The gags are pretty hit or miss, but when they hit, they hit hard, and when they miss, it isn't too bad. In many ways this reminds me of Children's Hospital - in that they've taken a genre (Edith Wharton/Downton Abbey/Victorian) and totally lampooned it. There's plenty of absurdist WTF humor as well as send up's of victorian society as a whole.

If you like Portlandia, where every single joke is DOA and is just pure garbage, then I'd stay away from this. It's got some mean spirited humor which I personally find funny. Whereas Portlandia is all simple safe and tired over trod material and unfunny jokes that (much like SNL) go on for way too long. God I hate Portlandia.

I'm really enjoying this. It's dark champagne. It doesn't deserve comparison, but this is Julia Davis Lite, which works. It's reminiscent of Hunderby (a comedic satire of Jane Austen). Having a little of this with American nuance is exactly where I want to see things headed in Broadcast Comedy. If you like dark and irreverent British comedy, watch this.

Another Period is filled with fantastic guest stars to play against a very talented ensemble cast. It has consistent and funny writing, which I think will hold up to time. That's not easy with comedy. It's daring, satirical and driven by two very talented and funny women, whose comedy style is right up my alley. They are unforgiving, smart and fearless. I love that.

This very silly show imagines Downton Abbey with the classy upper classes replaced by blithering idiots.

The show is funniest in the way these rich people treat their servants, which is as considerably less than human, as when a servant is whimsically renamed "Chair" by one of her employers.

The wealthy are idle and clueless, and episodes often center around a sibling rivalry that the dumber of the two rarely seems aware of.

The show loves to push the bounds of decency, with characters being horribly racist and crude humor that often cheerfully crosses over the line, as in an episode that mocks rape (which one of the reviewers here is very angry about).

It gets away with this because it knows what it's doing. Underneath the silly, broad comedy, is a fairly sharp satire of class privilege. That combination of cheap jokes and smart comedy is, for me, irresistible.

I really love the cast for this, most of them are returning from the less well known web series "burning love" which was a spoof of the bachelorette type shows, also very good if you like shows like this. This one so far is not quite as spot on with its critique of reality TV but promises even more surreal wackiness, more in the vein of NTSF:SD:SUV or Children's Hospital, much of which the cast are also involved in. So its no surprise that this is already batshit crazy and full of eccentricities, i basically just watch everything they make recently because its bound to be hilarious. I wish June Diane Raphael played the part of the bitchy older girl, and the crazy blond one is a crackup but other than that the supporting cast are definitely a show stealer. David Wain is once again killing it as a foppish not-so closet homosexual.

My favorite line so far is "your new name is chair". The persistent and creative abuse of their servants makes for delightful comedy. Indubitably.

Also, cocaine wine. Nuff said.