Another Period 1x7 'Switcheroo Day': The Privilege of Switching Roles

Another Period 1x7 continues the confidence of the show's rookie season and reminds us that it can be unpredictable, too.

Reviewed while trying to figure out how to get home with the Tube on strike.

Quote of the week: 'Do you think our planet can afford 1 billion people? OF COURSE NOT! The planet itself will sink down into space and explode!! I'm having a great time! I AM THE COMMODORE!' *Downs a glass of absinthe*

Another Period is a perpetual mirror. Of society (try to guess which period), and of its own characters. Everyone in the veritable asylum that is the Bellacourt household is always focused solely on the projection of his or herself. It's their default. The humor thrives on these hapless narcissists running around and bouncing into each other blindly, trying to get their way. The residual whiplash pokes fun at the absurdity of several beliefs and attitudes that existed back then, and several that still do. Using humor in all the best hyperbolic fashions. It's why I fell in love with the show in the first place.

But of course they had to change it up, at least once. They had to do an ol' switcheroo, where our characters have to jump into someone else's clothes (literally) and rely not on how they see themselves, but how they see each other. Hamish as Lillian's despicable overlord. Blanche as the ludicrous rich spoiled brat she herself emotionally suffers from serving. Peepers as 'I AM THE COMMODORE!' The result of hilarity is the same as any other week, if not better. This may just be the best episode of Another Period so far (and that's including the near pitch-perfect 'Funeral').

'Switcheroo' begins much the same as any other episode, with the Bellacourt sisters making the issue of a kidnapped baby all about them. The papers have eyes only for the baby. They're not talking about Lillian like they should be in the natural order of things. She has only one course of action: fake the kidnapping of America's sweethart.

Who is that, you ask? 'I'm talking about me.' Because when is she not?

So she turns to the wildcard Hamish, who can say things on the show like 'One man's Jew-tracker is another man's Jew' and get away with it. Because there is no line to cross. The show explicitly established that for itself in episode 2. There certainly isn't a line for Hamish. He'll do anything, which is why Lillian needs him to fake her kidnapping. Of course, his idea of a kidnapping is very different from her own. Her privilege shines in her perspective that being stolen away is a subjective experience involving the banks closing for her, some R&R, and a 'maritime trip to Nova Scotia for a gravlax tasting.' See, us plebeians can't choose how we get kidnapped, just as we can't choose how/when we suffer domestic abuse ('Divorce'), or be widowed ('Funeral'). I didn't even know what gravlax was (I had to google it). Suffice it to say, Hamish's kidnapping is a rude awakening for Lillian. And she's forced to live in Hamish's rundown shack, dressed in rags as his slave carrying a potato in her teeth, instead of on a silver tray.

It's a humbling transformation for Lillian. Even when she taps into her own wilder side and throws herself at Hamish (there's evidence they may have invented Stockholm Syndrome), she can't get him excited. Hamish is not even attracted to her. Lillian is stripped of her last layer from her former self. Her sex appeal to woo a man into giving her what she wants. In an odd way, their disturbing coupling has some real chemistry. It's a sobering interaction throughout the episode that's about as funny as it could be.

Not as funny as Blanche and Beatrice, though. The two runts of the upstairs and downstairs social circles. After each one endures a short, hilarious emotional breakdown, Blanche puts on one of her Lady's dresses and suddenly Beatrice can't recognize her, thinking she's her new wealthy best friend, also named Blanche. It's refreshing, and not simply because I've been begging to see more of Blanche's nervous quirks. Blanche takes a bit to settle into a wealthy person's clothes (PUN!), at first hopelessly anxious as she skips around arm-in-arm with Beatrice and tries to be mean to the very servants who themselves treated her poorly. But she's a fast learner, and by dinner she's calling Garfield and Chair animals, throwing food at them, and getting her sweet revenge.

You can't really blame Blanche for being horrible. It's all how she's been conditioned to believe a proper 1% Lady should act in 1902. In the bizarre no-line-drawing context of Another Period, she's only accepting what the mirror has told her about being rich, and she's just having too much fun. Until Lillian returns from her privileged fake-kidnapping and puts Blanche back in the maid's place. The best part is when Beatrice reveals that she knew what Blanche was doing all along, and just wanted to have some fun. Another tick for my favorite Another Period plot thread of Beatrice secretly being a blonde evil genius capable of ruling the world with her incestuous brother (Oh my god... She's... She's... HER).

'Switcheroo' could stop at Blanche's antics and call it a good day's work. But no, it goes a step further. Dodo orders Peepers to impersonate the Commodore at Mark Twain's dinner gathering for this week's rendition of mocking respected historical figures. Rich Fulcher returns as Twain the drunkard, Ravi Patel dons the garb of Gandhi before he was a peaceful non-food eater, and Matt Besser fills in for a timid but defensive Leon Trotsky. And Peepers plays the Commodore. All absurd imitations of the figures they're passing off as, in the best ways imaginable. Patel's portrayal of Gandhi as an upper-class volatile asshole is just right, not insulting, not over the top. But even that pales in the light Peepers' perfect performance of a powerful rich man. Turns out, it's easy for Peepers to defend the disgusting treatment of the world's lower classes, and why the powerful need dog-servants like himself. He actually believes he's not a person, that he's undeserving of anything beyond what Dodo gives him. 'Without the rich, the serving class would have nothing to do but gamble, eat taffy, and drink gasoline.' That's what Peepers thinks he'd otherwise be doing. His standards of proper servitude are also above those of Twain's own servants, so Peepers can easily pretend to be the Commodore whilst being infuriated when he's given the wrong spoon for soup.

It's a role he was born to play. Unlike everyone else, who looks in the mirror through other people's eyes and either fails to notice the torrid reflection of themselves (Lillian) or ignorantly beams at having a new dress/social class to wear (Blanche), Peepers looks at his own reflection, and his reflection of the overlords he serves, and sees absolutely nothing wrong with it. The social structure is as it should be. It shouldn't change, lest the world risk exploding from overpopulation, cuz that's what feeding the hungry would cause.

There's a strange empathy for Peepers' sad view of himself, surprising considering this is a comedy. The only luxury he would even consider for himself beyond the sufferings of a butler is a scandalous affair with his Lady, the Matriarch Dodo Bellacourt. And even that has to be pushed by a plastered Dodo herself, offering a blowjob in a wonderful echo of Peeper's clairvoyant drugged wet dream from last week. I'm calling them shagging right now. $10. And when it happens, it'll just be another crack in the broken facade the Bellacourt estate has set up for itself. Along with Chair's impending water-breaking news (PUN!). But for now, the 'switcheroo' is only a temporary bump in the road, and by the end of the episode everyone's back to their original places. Even Peepers. Back to work. Muddy-muddy, scrubby-scrubby.

But for how long? This week put a firm stamp on the notion that Another Period can remain fresh and unpredictable, the main obstacle of a period-based satirical comedy that could easily become stale. It's amazing how confident the show is in its own skin after so short a time airing. These characters are so familiar to us by now. But their antics are still charming and still L.M.A.O funny. The final three episodes of the season can go in any number of directions. The show has established the right number of intrigues and possibilities to keep us guessing. The only thing I'm sure of now is I'll be there, crying from laughter, and NOT from petty tantrums about photo-sized dresses.

Grade: A+

When I got sidetracked

-'I always say: have enough servants to satisfy your every whim but not enough to murder your family.' I would love for Dodo to do a TED talk.

-On the subject of Beatrice as an evil genius, I wonder if we're ever going to get back to her taking and possibly killing Blanche's sister... Just curious.

-The reigning best quote of the show still retains its title: 'Haha! Majestic NO MORE!!'

-'Sincerely, the Kidnapper.' If Lillian needs help writing fake disappearance letters, she should call Stewie Griffin.

-From the adverts played during my streaming: Does Axe Products SERIOUSLY have a 'messy look' line? What the fuck?!!! The answer is yes, called 'Whatever Messy Look Paste.' Also they have the 'Spiked up Look for Heroes.' These are real things. I'm gonna go cry in a corner.

#review #AnotherPeriod #TV