Another Period
“Shady Acres”
Season 3, Episode 6
Comedy Central
If I'm not here, who's going to see things?!
Death is ever prevalent in Another Period’s storyline. Just two weeks ago, the Bellacourt sisters were in a tizzy over possibly killing a male suitor. But, like always, everything worked out for them. But death is a constant in life; it could happen to any character at any time. To Beatrice’s surprise, it can happen to her. The naïve but well meaning sister is taken aback when she learns that she won’t be around forever to watch stuff. This puts her in a dour mood for most of the episode that is admittedly as tedious as it sounds.
Lillian – after finding out she won’t be buried in a rich person’s burial plot – takes it upon herself to make sure she gets what she wants. And she wants to be buried with her socialites. The story isn’t as fun as it sounds but there’s some good stuff that came from it. Hamish is tasked with helping Lillian find her way into the gravesite. Their solution is to dig up the decayed body of a Bellacourt relative and place it in a recently empty (i.e. ransacked) grave. All of this occurring while Beatrice wonders around, commenting on how life is meaningless.
Again, the story is on the weak side for “Shady Acres.” There’s not much the writers could do with this death plot. Although, its paired B/C-stories faired better – if only marginally. Blanche’s baby, Maria, swapping with Chair’s baby, Kermit, at the beginning of the season is finally addressed. Victor and Albert want a child so they decide to take Kermit (who is actually Maria). In a weird turn of events, her baby (Maria) is left down a well and Kermit returns to his rightful place in the mansion. There’s a D-story that barley gets attention. Celery wants Frederick to give a speech on jobs. He obviously doesn’t know what a job is so Garfield tells him. He then gives the speech.
Another Period has never relied heavily on plot but with a “previously on” starting out the episode, one would think they’d try to tighten the ship. One aspect of “Shady Acres” that stood above the rest were the kaleidoscope jokes. Those revolved around people focusing much of their attention on those rather than driving or paying attention to their kids. The jokes were high concept and provided a great amount of entertainment. Take the cold open. The sisters are afraid of death after a head on collision because their carriage driver (the third one that week) was too busy looking through his kaleidoscope to see a cyclist who was also looking through the scope. Or how about Albert getting mad at Victor because he spends all of his time on the “technology” he doesn’t understand? The writers did an excellent job in those regards while the story lacked.
Should you watch “Shady Acres?”
There’s not much funny here to keep you entertained. But the kaleidoscope bits are good. Also, a huge shout out to Natasha Leggero and Moshe Kasher on the birth of their baby!