User reviews

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.

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!

"Another Period" is a strange reality show-like creation for The Comedy Channel. And, while I really enjoy it, I think it's a hard sell for its audience...which surprises me since normally developing a large audience is a must for television shows. The only way it would make sense is that someone in charge there loves the show and doesn't mind that it isn't all that popular. Considering they also make "Drunk History", this would make sense.

As for the show, it's a faux reality show that follows the most worthless mega-rich family of the Edwardian era...the Bellacourts. They are the embodiment of everything rotten in the worst of the worst wealthy plutocrats. Every vice, every possible instance of selfishness and every chance the show can take to expose them for the worthless human beings they are...that's pretty much the show. And, it does this with a nice attention to historical details...something that history lovers, like myself, can appreciate. Well worth seeing and there is certainly nothing like it.

FYI--The show is EXTREMELY adult at times. Many crude moments...too many for the kids.

I almost didn't watch Another Period because I do not care for Natasha Leggero's humor (it's too catty and mean for me). But I find her character, Lilian, to be so hilarious and intriguing that I think I may now be a fan.

I've watched the first four episodes of Another Period more than once and I laugh out loud each time. My favorite so far has been episode four, "Pageant," simply because of how hard I laughed.

I'm a big fan of many shows on Comedy Central, but this one stands out for me. Not only is the humor historically accurate, but it's dark. It reminds me of how I laughed at Django Unchained for its portrayal of the pre-Civil War south. There are many moments in Another Period when I think, "That shouldn't be funny, but it is," as I laugh way too hard at the blatant, over-the-top classism, racism, and sexism that was prevalent at the time. In our PC culture, it's refreshing to finally see a show like this one. I hope we see many more; they're necessary. It's good to be reminded of where you came from. And it's even better that we can now find the humor in it.

I laugh at this show from start to finish, then I watch it again because I missed so much while I was busy laughing the first time. There's a whole lot of story and character development packed into each episode. I find myself paying close attention and being rewarded for it. That says a lot about a show. I find the writing witty, consistent, detailed, and intelligent.

The acting is excellent and the characters become more complex as the episodes continue. I'm so interested in some of these characters that I feel like I could watch a spin-off about each of them and never get bored.

I appreciate that the humor hasn't been too "gross out" as of yet. I don't know if anyone involved with the show will ever see this, but on the off chance they do, I have a request: please don't get grosser. Episode four had a few scenes involving buckets that went right up to the "eww!" line for me but didn't make me recoil in disgust.

I've said here that the writing is historically accurate, but I'm no historian so I don't know how accurate it actually is. I haven't seen anything that I would consider to be inaccurate, though. I already knew about the "rule of thumb," which was mentioned in one of the episodes, so my hunch is that much of it is grounded in truth.

*added later, regarding historical accuracy*

I've read several interviews with the show's creators (and stars) Riki Lindhome and Natasha Leggero. I hate that this is one of those shows that make a person think, "that's silly, none of this really happened, these plots are too ridiculous to be true" - if you think that, you are wrong.

The show's creators took tours of mansions in Newport, RI (I now want to go there and take those tours) and used some of their real, ridiculous history in the writing of this show. So far, it takes place in 1902 (during "the Gilded Age," as Mark Twain called it) when the vast majority of America's wealth was concentrated in Newport, RI There was no income tax and no business regulation. Rich people did whatever they felt like doing, and poor European immigrants were still headed to the U.S. by the thousands, resulting in outrageous class disparity between the wealthy and the poor working class.

I hate that some call this a Downton Abbey spoof. I love both Downton Abbey and Another Period for different reasons, and that description would not have enticed me to watch. The Lords and Ladies of the post-Edwardian era in England were not like the nouveau riche on the other side of the pond.

By the early 1900s, some of these American families had only been wealthy for a generation or two. These families were eccentric, with no limits, behaving how they assumed "royalty" would behave.

For example, on Downton Abbey, servants are treated with respect, kindness, and human decency. On Another Period, servants are treated like furniture, cattle, or worse, because these Americans had way too much new money -- which naturally accompanied increased industrialization -- and no "proper" examples of how to use it.

I see this show described as "Downton Abbey meets the Kardashians," but that would've turned me off, because I've never watched more than five minutes of the Kardashians, and also because I think Downton has enough naturally occurring humor. Why would I need to watch a silly spoof of it?

Another Period is not a Downton Abbey spoof. It's an original comedy that's rooted in some lesser known (and arguably shameful) American history.

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.

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.

Mid first-episode and I think I've found my new favorite show, and there's like 3 seasons of it!

I think one misconception of it is that it's just a funny period piece show, or that it's a mock-reality show set in 1900's US history. Intriguing, yes, for a minute. I mean there's only so many hours in a day, sand in a bottle, and what good does that premise do me anyway? Why is that pertinent to the times and the culture? And that's why I took so long to give it a chance. But Leggero's charm pulled me in. And now, I'm laughing every minute. Sometimes for minutes straight. Classic lines smacketing out left and right. It's utter mayhem. It's Marx Brothers. That kind. That good.

So, what is it exactly? It's a rich, snobby reality-show, where the characters are so disconnected from the rest of their species that it's shocking. But have the year be 1900. Basically, if you wanted to watch some of these reality shows, but you've heard they're so stupid, and so many times, that you just know you'd hate it. Yet still, you like to laugh at current shows and not have all of them be thought-provoking podcasts. Then, this show makes it intellectually engaging enough to do so. You get to understand or at least witness the psychosis of the characters while still remembering that they are not necessarily to be admired or emulated. They are not heroes. You are witnessing your time, understanding it, not being indoctrinated into some kind of cult-worship. Maybe that's what the camera lens does, creates heroes.

Have you ever wanted to watch the Office or shows like it, but felt like the office environment got old and dreary after an episode or two? This show is more flamboyant, gaudy, can go anywhere, and it's steeped in history, while still maintaining current humor and hilarious, but somehow astoundingly fitting, contemporary musical soundtrack-segues. The modern editing fluorishes of the segues are also easily appreciated.

And have you ever wanted to watch those old period-piece tv shows, but felt the characters and the drama seemed too unrelatable or otherwise too over-the-top emotional or action-packed? This show is completely unrelatable and more over the top than any of those shows! And it gets away with it, it works, because it's a comedy. Everyone knows it's not really 1900. And everyone knows that we're expecting to be shocked, so when the shock actually comes, we feel it instead of using some of our delight wondering whether it was scripted or how planned out it was. We KNOW this was scripted! And it was scripted by geniuses. It was produced by geniuses. It was conceived by geniuses. Everyone on cast and crew deserves a promotion!!!!!!!!

This was a show I really, really want to like and admittedly there are some chuckles in the first four episodes. However, the show itself suffers from a combination of poor writing and bad structure to really make it work.

While everyone has their own sense of humor which means that what is hilarious to one person is eye-rolling to another, the big issue I have with "Another Period" is that the structure of the show is very schizophrenic.

The always hot Christina Hendricks plays "Chair", a newly arrived servant in a house full of servants and is seemingly at first the center of the series. A sort of "Barney Miller" set-up where Chair is the sane person surrounded by all the crazy people in the house.

However, the structure of the show is more in line with the classic Christopher Guest films such as "Best in Show" where all the major characters talk to us (the audience). With so much time given to the "crazy" people, the "Barney Miller" effect is greatly reduced and so is the comedy.

It also doesn't help that the delivery of the jokes is as subtle as a hammer to the head. Too much invested in "shock" and not enough in story makes this a real hit and miss affair.

On the positive side, Riki Lindhome (Beatrice) can act stupid with the best of them and Brian Husky (Victor) seems to get what's going on. However, Michael Ian Black (Peepers...really?)is an acquired taste for sure as he tries to manage a half of a facial expression, much less act.

There are moments, fleeting moments where I can feel the show start to really take off and then SPLAT, it just sits there staring at you as if they are surprised you are not laughing at bad joke they just told. Oh well, at least it doesn't seem to have cost too much and perhaps someday a good writer will craft something really funny out of this material.

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.

In my Opinion: First of all every single actor and guest actor on this show is incredible in their own right. They have all appeared in some of my favorite shows. However on these other shows there is always someone there to "reign them in". This show however seems to let everyone kind of "be themselves" which is unfortunate because a really good joke just goes on to becomes very silly when there is no one there to yell CUT!

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.

Featuring broad comedy reminiscent of Monty Python, in part because it's a period piece, "Another Period" is about the Bellacourt family--one of the obscenely rich families that populated the cliffs of Newport, R.I. at the turn of the century, when Victorian values collided with entitlement and self-indulgence.

Lillian and Beatrice are the daughters--two self-obsessed ninnies who care only for social status and pampering themselves, like the Hilton sisters might be if they had money. The third daughter is Hortense, a broad-faced spinster who the other sisters enjoy ridiculing.

Mr. Peepers (Michael Ian Black) is the major domo who enforces the arbitrary and demeaning rules of the household over the myriad of servants.

In the pilot, the house receives a new maid, Celine (Christina Hendricks), who is promptly given the new appellation "Chair". Given the amazing acting talents of Ms. Hendricks, I think we can expect some laughs. Given her charms, I think we can expect some members of the household to take up upholstery.

Helen Keller even visits the mansion for a soiree that devolves into a catfight and knock-knock jokes. Like I said, broad humor.

All of the characters are caricatures and this can be a funny show as long as the writers allow the humor to arise from the silly characters without political correctness.

Update 7/5/16: This show has been reliably funny and it has not flagged in its efforts to lampoon without any PC qualms. I am increasing my grade to "9".

"Another Period" takes place in Newport in the early 1900s, centering around the obscenely rich Bellacourt family, in particular the sisters Lillian and Beatrice who desperately want to become famous - it is basically a reality TV show set in a time in which being famous was much more difficult. Shot in mockumentary style, the series makes fun of both contemporary reality TV stars as well as the realities of early 20th century and the way these are usually portrayed in dramas.

While the show centers around Beatrice and Lillian, there is an ensemble cast consisting of both the self-centered Bellacourts and their subjugated servants, who have, in large parts, painfully internalized their subservient status. The characters are all funny in their own way, and the actors do a great job. Standing out for me are Paget Brewster as the morphine-addled mother Dodo and Michael Ian Black as the butler Mr. Peepers who are just so hilarious.

The characters are mostly terrible - which makes it so funny. It is just so much fun seeing those terrible people being stupid and tripping over their own feet. The humour is generally pitch-black and often reveals the terrible social conditions of women, the poor, and colored people of the time. The jokes deal with subject matters like rape, misogyny, racism, abuse. If you're a fan of black humour you will find this series hilarious, if not the show is probably not for you.

Sadly only 3 seasons. Sadly only 3 seasons. Sadly only 3 seasons.

It's the turn of the century in Newport, Rhode Island. The uber-rich lives unreal lives. Sisters Lillian Abigail Bellacourt (Natasha Leggero) and Beatrice Bellacourt (Riki Lindhome) are the Kardashians of their day. They are obsessed with the latest fashion and social popularity. Hortense is the feminist eldest sister and Frederick is the youngest brother. Commodore Bellacourt and his wife Dorothea are their parents. Victor Schmemmerhorn-Fish is married to Lillian. Albert Downsy, Jr. is married to Beatrice. Celine is a servant who the family calls Chair. Peepers is the butler. Blanche is the head maid. Garfield Leopold McGillicutty is a servant. Hamish Crassus is the crass gardener.

This mockumentary-style is perfect for this satire. The humor is irreverent. It is surreal but based on true events. It is completely ridiculous. It is tonally one-noted which wears out over time. These are not characters that one cares about so their stories are not as compelling as most normal narratives. It's a great idea for a little while but after three seasons, the show has gone its course and gets cancelled.

***Warning: rape mention***

OK, i'll admit. When I first started watching the show, I thought it was funny and surprisingly enjoyable. Sure, there were a lot of stupid jokes, but my love for history and comedy in one, short show kept me watching.

And then I got to the second episode. Not even five minutes in, and this show decides to take a horrible turn and try and make rape funny. News flash: rape was and never will be humorous. Yet, "Another Period" makes the rape - and it's intention for it to be funny - explicit.

"But it's a rich lady raping a servant boy! It's not like it's, ya know, actual rape. It's supposed to be funny, relax." Shut up. I'm not a sensitive person, and I find a lot of stuff funny that raises a few eyebrows. But I also have a heart and a brain and I know that rape isn't a joke. The reason that people think they can get away with rape jokes is because of stuff like this. It's disgusting and depressing. Sorry (not sorry), but this show immediately lost another viewer.

Drunk History is often brought up when people think about this show, and I've even heard "Another Period" be called it's "sister show". It's not. This show is like the ugly stepsister who wants to be like it's popular, successful sister but ends up being a disaster. Just do your self a favor and watch Drunk History for some real laughs - and you'll learn something too!

Absolutely devastated that this show got cancelled while Barry and the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel continue to pick up Emmy's. Another Period put both those shows to shame. Lillian, Beatrice and Frederick are such hilarious oddballs. They're right up there with Gob/Buster/Michael/Lindsay from Arrested Development as the funniest siblings to ever be featured on TV. Give this show a try if you need several hours of laugh out loud comedy. Still so bummed that it was cancelled!

I don't know where to start, the overacting is beyond words. This must have been meant for the cartoon crowd. I normally don't take the time to dump on something, because someone thought to put in some hard work on this, but it was so bad I only lasted 10 minuets before I shut it off. I just didn't base it on that 10 minuets though, I did check out other Episodes for about as long as I checked out the Pilot. I guess when you only see two professional critics take a stab at a review, and one was in Spanish, then I should have known that critics also didn't want to take our time when something is this bad. I doubt we will see any follow-up seasons.....

To say the show is rich with talent is an understatement. David Koechner is the family patriarch, underrated character actress Natasha Leggero lends her talents in a rare staring role as one of the two sisters (Riki Lindhome is also OK, although I feel she's better suited to be partnered with Kate Micucci), and Hamish Blake, Michael Ian Black, Brian Huskey, Paget Brewster and Brett Gelman are all excellently cast in character roles. Christina Hendricks (who's mostly known for period drama) dives into her role as a scheming servant with an unexpected amount of enthusiasm. Michael Ian Black is also one of those characters who sticks out (even in poor episodes) as a character who really puts the "serve" in "subservient" with the character of Peepers.

Peepers is a rich character and fully-formed but seeing him on screen only serves to remind about how deficient all the other characters. Peepers' desire to serve the other characters in the story make little sense because pretty much everyone else is an extreme caricature. Either that or they're the most inhumane collection of people in history. It would be like watching Peter O'Toole act opposite third graders.

The main drawing point of the show (and what keeps it watchable) is that it's a fun historical piece. Although Another Period doesn't have the production values of a period piece, the show has fun with history on a superficial level. Matt Besser plays Leon Trotsky, Kate Flannery plays Annie Sullivan, Ben Stiller plays Charles Ponzi and Chris Parnell plays Sigmund Freud in clever historical twists although it's fairly clear that these historical figures aren't researched beyond what will earn an easy laugh. Similarly, the show also presents us with a hyperactive Gandhi and though Clone High already went down that road a dozen years ago, it's good enough for a chuckle.

The show is too sloppy to be taken as much of a satire and its characters are too cruel to be taken sympathetically or even seriously.

Despite the negative tone of the review, it's still watchable and worthy of a laugh here and there.

Ummm is this so bad its good? or so good its bad????? I don't know ... What I do know is your either going to love it or hate it OR like me who knows he should hate it but oddly love's it ... well i keep watching it ... and laughing ... so that means I like it doesn't it? OK OK so some are going to be really offended by some of the content so if you have suffered from any sort of abuse in the past its best you give this a miss So the question is do I recommend you watch it NO! and YES! hope you found this helpful..... Oh seems I haven't rabbited on enough to post this ... so this is just like Dooo Dow Duto oh Something or the other whatever Abbey ... NOT REALLY just waferling to fill up space.... I DON'T CARE IF YOU THINK THERE IS A SPELLING MISTAKE JUST LET ME POST IT ..... PLEASE!!!!