Excellent Premise, Bad Execution
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.
score 5/10
kmcelhaney005 16 July 2015
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3278058/14813
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