'The Characters' Is a Comedy Series That Breaks All the Rules

There’s a new show premiering on March 11th that takes the kind of chances we always hoped Netflix would find the confidence to take on.

The Characters allows the next generation of comedy voices to each have a 30-minute episode of TV with no restrictions on what they do with their time. The result is an unstructured sketch show with no limitations on material or content, displaying uncensored voices for a group of performers that are already much beloved in the indie comedy world, but aren’t yet household names.

I. Am. Stoked. They didn’t even have to brand it as “outlaw comedy” because I was already sold.

The Hollywood Reporter reports on the eight comedians that have been offered Season 1 episodes:

The comedians that have been tapped for Characters, a passion project of THR’s 2015 Next Gen recipient Kristen Zolner, include Lauren Lapkus (Orange Is The New Black), Kate Berlant (The Meltdown), Dr. Brown (Dr. Brown), Paul W. Downs (Broad City), John Early (Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp), Tim Robinson (Saturday Night live), Natasha Rothwell (SNL) and Henry Zebrowski (Heroes Reborn).

Many of these comedians have been working behind the scenes on shows you love and performing in the world of indie comedy for years. It’s a great breakdown of people at exactly the right level to take on a project like this, and hopefully success with this means Netflix can start trying comedy experiments like this more frequently. With Bob & David was a good start, so let’s keep this experimental comedy train rolling.

Here’s a 2013 sketch from both Early and Berlant:

So mark your calendars for March 11th.