The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Natasha Rothwell has traded 30 Rock for the Sony lot, writing now for Issa Rae’s HBO series, Insecure. But Rothwell’s own characters in her half-hour special for The Characters on Netflix are quite secure, assured and ready to break down barriers. She had been writing and creating characters for years, …
Kate Berlant’s 36-minute special for The Characters series on Netflix opens in a most remarkable way, as she barely appears onscreen in the first few minutes. Instead, one after another, real-life artists, actors and architects sing the praises of the performance artist “Denise St. Roy.” Casey Jane Ellison, Jemima Kirke, Tony …
It becomes painfully clear to everyone around John Early in his 35-minute special for The Characters series on Netflix that the comedian and actor has control issues, whether he’s constantly interrupting the woman he’s coaxing into telling her George W. Bush story, shushing everyone at his wedding rehearsal dinner, or …
This is a week for surprise streaming TV deals, isn’t it?! Netflix just announced it already has eight half-hour comedy specials in the can for a new limited series called The Characters. They’re not stand-up specials, per se. Rather, Netflix just gave each of these funny people a half-hour to …
