Our half-hour lunchtime show over the last week or so has been a delightful surprise. “The Other Two” is a scripted HBO comedy in which the teenage brother of two siblings in their upper 20s gets very, very famous.
The show focuses on the older siblings, who are struggling with their lives and careers, only to see everything come easily to their younger brother. But in a nice twist, they don’t begrudge their brother at all, nor does he become an overnight jerk. He’s a sweet kid, and despite their other struggles, the family is there to support each other.
Surrounding this sweet center are a number of very funny scenes. The Other Two is laugh-out-loud funny. A lot of the humor is absurdist in relation to either being famous or being related to someone who is really famous. For example, the younger brother’s first relationship is entirely coordinated by his team–it’s with another famous singer, and it’s scheduled to last one day.
As often happens when a person becomes super famous, opportunities arise for those around them, and the show follows the family as their careers grow in different ways. The humor always follows, like in an episode in season 2 where a character gets casted as a nurse in a movie, and when he shadows (and pretends to be) a real-life nurse, he learns that half of the people at the hospital are doing the same thing.
If you’re looking for a short comedy with heart, I highly recommend The Other Two. What scripted comedies have you enjoyed recently?