Another Period

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.

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.

Most comedy simply doesn't make me laugh. But there hasn't been an episode yet that didn't get a deep chuckle out of me. Not just a smile a nod but one of those deeply satisfying laughs that can change your day.

The fact that Another Period has done this for me over and over again makes it a classic for me. Not since Strangers with Candy have I had such a fun time with a comedy.

Not for the square this show is extremely sexual, at times homophobic, definitely not politically correct and even racist. But that's part of it's charm. It leaves you wondering how far they will push the envelope this time.

I'm thrilled that it's been renewed. I'd give it an 8.5 if we could give half points.

I was expecting this to be Drunken History, which to me is a one- joke show. (We get it. You're drunk.) No offense to Drunken History fans.

Instead, it's apparently a spoof on Downton Abbey, featuring the upstairs and downstairs characters, except that they're in Newport, RI, which is where Downton Abbey's Lady Cora comes from. Throw in a little 30 Rock (or lately The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) wacky, over-the- top characterizations, and Arrested Development in pacing and being completely skewed, and there you go!

It actually pulled some real and totally unexpected gut-busting laughs from me. Since it takes place in 1902, they're unapologetic in being completely, crassly, politically incorrect. Women are certainly not safe from the satire, depicted as Lillian and Beatrice. But they take shots at everything, without remorse. One of their first victims in the pilot is the deaf and blind Helen Keller, for instance. They then meander through appalling (and hilarious) pot shots at race, which at that time in our history included "the Irish." (I think you need to have a slightly sick sense of humor, actually.)

In addition, you have the pleasure of watching actors from The Office and Madmen, Jack Black, and any number of other familiar faces coming and going. It isn't a Tina Fey production, but it kind of has that feel to it, which is a high complement. I'm sure she somehow inspired it.

I think it's great!

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.