''Netflix Presents: The Characters'' is an American

streaming television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air a ...

comedy sketch show Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and i ...

that premiered on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

on March 11, 2016. It features eight up-and-coming comedians, who each write and star in their own 30-minute show. The comedians featured in the show are

Lauren Lapkus Dorthea Lauren Allegra Lapkus (born September 6, 1985) is an American actress and comedian. Lapkus is known for portraying Susan Fischer in the Netflix comedy-drama series ''Orange Is the New Black'' (2013–2014, 2019) and Jess in the HBO come ...

Kate Berlant Kate Elizabeth Méndez Berlant (born 1987) is an American comedian, actress, and writer. Her stand-up comedy and improvisational work are often surrealist and absurdist. Early life Kate Elizabeth Méndez Berlant was born in Los Angeles in 1987 ...

Phil Burgers Philip Burgers is an American writer, comedy performer, director and clown teacher. He is best known for his character Dr Brown. Career Burgers began his career in 2007 following training at the French clown school Ecole Philippe Gaulier. His mo ...

Paul W. Downs Paul W. Downs (born November 21, 1982) is an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is the co-creator, co-showrunner and star of the critically-acclaimed HBO Max series ''Hacks'', for which he has received a Primetime Emmy, Golden G ...

, John Early, Tim Robinson,

Natasha Rothwell Natasha Rothwell (born October 18, 1980) is an American writer, actress, teacher and comedian. Career Rothwell taught for KIPP NYC and went on to work at ''Saturday Night Live'' ''(SNL)''. She first garnered attention as a writer on ''SNL'' in ...

, and

Henry Zebrowski Henry Thomas Zebrowski, Jr. (born May 1, 1984) is an American actor, podcast host, and comedian, known for his work on the Adult Swim series '' Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell'', the NBC series '' Heroes Reborn'', and the podcast ''The Last Pod ...

. Eight episodes were released on March 11, 2016. The following month, Netflix cancelled the series after one season.

Episodes

Season 1 (2016)

Reception

The series was met with a positive response from critics upon its premiere. The

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

's critical consensus reads, "Some Characters prove funnier than others in this sketch anthology, but they cumulatively add up to a hilarious showcase for a new generation of comedic talent." In 2020, Jason Zinoman of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' revisited the series, saying "...if ''The Characters'' was a failure, it belongs to the tradition of '' Fridays'' and ''

The Dana Carvey Show ''The Dana Carvey Show'' is an American surreal sketch comedy television show that aired on ABC during the spring of 1996. Dana Carvey was the host and principal player on the show while Louis C.K. served as head writer. The show's cast consis ...

'': noble experiments, unjustly overlooked, that in retrospect were a hotbed of comedy talent in early-stage careers." In December 2019, ''Vulture'' cited three sketches from the show (

's "Chiggers", John Early's "The Toast," and Tim Robinson's "Sammy Paradise") in their list of "The 50 Best Comedy Sketches of the Decade."

References

External links

* {{Netflix original ended series (2012–2018) 2010s American sketch comedy television series 2016 American television series debuts 2016 American television series endings English-language Netflix original programming