Alpha House

:

Season 1
Season #: 2, 1
User Score
6.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 35 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 35
  3. Negative: 7 out of 35
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User Reviews

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  1. jlprice8
    Nov 20, 2013
    8
    The humor is dry and biting. Don't forget to bring your cynical face to the game, remember, Republicans are good and everyone else is wrong. Are there Senators like this wandering the halls of Congress? Not these particular ones, but there is a piece of every Senator represented. The writing does not contain a laugh track, as well it shouldn't. I found some things very funny that theThe humor is dry and biting. Don't forget to bring your cynical face to the game, remember, Republicans are good and everyone else is wrong. Are there Senators like this wandering the halls of Congress? Not these particular ones, but there is a piece of every Senator represented. The writing does not contain a laugh track, as well it shouldn't. I found some things very funny that the person sitting next to me didn't even raise an eyebrow at. However, being ex-military (and formally in charge of Marine security at West African embassies) he couldn't stop laughing out loud at show #3."That's exactly how Congressmen act!" he said between tears of laughter.… Expand
  2. rubizzy
    Jan 28, 2014
    9
    This is a great show, with 2 major let downs. The first is that each episode is much too short. Politics is a lot more involved than 20+ minutes can allow for. Second would have to be the poor attempts at tying all of the episodes together. We get it, you are supposed to take more than one episode to run for and win elected office but surely we can spend some time doing a little moreThis is a great show, with 2 major let downs. The first is that each episode is much too short. Politics is a lot more involved than 20+ minutes can allow for. Second would have to be the poor attempts at tying all of the episodes together. We get it, you are supposed to take more than one episode to run for and win elected office but surely we can spend some time doing a little more political fighting. Other than those two small complaints its a brilliant and thanks to John Goodman funny show.… Expand
  3. Jecht_342
    May 4, 2014
    10
    This show is certainly dry in it's humor, but it is hilarious. John Goodman and Clark Johnson are absolutely hilarious. The show is also very liberal. If you are a liberal and a political junkie, you'll probably like it. I can't imagine many conservatives would like it, and I wonder if that is affecting the user score for this show.
  4. rini6
    Nov 24, 2013
    8
    Watched all four episodes so far and enjoyed them. I am a die hard liberal so the hypocrisy of the conservative characters is hilarious to me and John Goodman is always great. I have found some of the characters to be a bit overly broad or too close to caricature on occasion, though. The entire thing is worth watching for the huge star cameo during first few moments of the pilot episode.
  5. tvnewsguido
    Sep 2, 2014
    7
    I was late to the party on this one. Thanks for the snub Emmy voters, the coverage put it on my radar.

    There's a heavily left-wing political agenda at play here but the show relies on logic (instead of snide cheap shots) to make its point.

    It's a very likable and funny cast of characters and almost every single thing about it works on multiple levels.
  6. Kingbingo
    Feb 27, 2014
    1
    Great TV series can be made about politics as long as both sides get equal treatment. The West Wing despite being very left wing for the most part usually showed the Republicans to be just as smart and capable as the Democrats. Likewise in Parks and Recreation both the statists and the libertarians are both massively over the top charactertures.

    But in Alpha House you get the    Great TV series can be made about politics as long as both sides get equal treatment. The West Wing despite being very left wing for the most part usually showed the Republicans to be just as smart and capable as the Democrats. Likewise in Parks and Recreation both the statists and the libertarians are both massively over the top charactertures.

    But in Alpha House you get the Republicans from Parks and Rec and the Democrats from The West Wing. The series wastes no time in its ham fisted demonization of republicans, who right from the start are introduced as racist, homophobic, stupid, lazy and grossly hypocritical. It does stop short of making them evil (although that is clearly Amazons opinion in commissioning the series) but it does have a Democrat explain that all Republicans are evil for the viewers in episode 2.

    It’s a shame, it is an interesting premise, that could have appealed to a broad base of viewers, if only it treated all politicians and both parties to the same treatment. Instead we are left with a comedy targeted only at very tribal lefties, for whom seeing Republicans be stupid is sufficient alone for a laugh. The problem is if you’re not really political either way like me your left with a comedy that just isn’t funny. It’s just a very very polarised and blunt hatchet job.    … Expand
  7. Rewrite
    Jan 16, 2014
    2
    I had high hopes for this show, hoping for a lighter 'House of Cards' driven by Gary Trudeau's talent. Those hopes quickly crashed.
    There were moments in this show that were good that were drowned in the larger cringe-worthy abyss. The scenes that featured Clark Johnson were often interesting and felt like they were realistic. John Goodman is capable of being very funny when he is well    I had high hopes for this show, hoping for a lighter 'House of Cards' driven by Gary Trudeau's talent. Those hopes quickly crashed.
    There were moments in this show that were good that were drowned in the larger cringe-worthy abyss. The scenes that featured Clark Johnson were often interesting and felt like they were realistic. John Goodman is capable of being very funny when he is well directed (Inside Llewyn Davis) but when he is not as in this show he's too over the top. The scenes involving Marc Consuelos and especially Matt Malloy were like actors trapped in a bad Saturday Night Live sketch.
    The writing for this show is awful. There is little subtlety and little wit of a good Doonesbury comic strip, just cheap laughs and retread pokes at cardboard politicians, something even Doonesbury lapses into at times. The politicians happen to all be Republican, and as ThinkProgress points out, "One of the dullest decisions in the original pilot of Alpha House was to make all members of the house Republicans, and to make them all risible." But the bigger mistake is not to make the characters actual people. That doesn't mean they have to be likable (again, see Llweyn Davis), just flesh them out some.
    If you're the kind of person who laughs at any joke that makes fun of Republicans or Conservatives is funny then this show might be for you, but if you're the kind of person who is empathetic to diverse viewpoints and appreciates intelligent comedy then don't waste your time.    … Expand
  8. Lienoone
    Jan 27, 2014
    1
    Just now I suffered through the first episode, and I really like political tv shows, drama and comedies, but this one is just in every sense boring and not funny at all !
  9. cavmpc
    Oct 12, 2014
    10
    This series is brilliant satire. What makes it so effective, very funny, and yet absolutely interesting, is that it is very close to the truth in depicting the political class. The actors are perfect; the dialogue is witty, clever, and, frequently they deliver a perfect caricature of the speech, attitudes, and unwitting hypocrisy of so many politicians. Highly recommended.
  10. RokuGuru
    Mar 12, 2016
    3
    The big problem with this show is that it's not very funny. It's supposed to be a parody of right wing politics, but like left wing talk radio, the so-called jokes are boring. The episodes are short also, so there's not as much content as expected.

Awards & Rankings

75
#75 Best TV Season of 2013
94
#94 Most Discussed TV Season of 2013
43
#43 Most Shared TV Season of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
68

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Erik Adams
    Nov 27, 2013
    42
    Alpha House hits a few notes of inspired satire--like the bowl of American flag lapel pins the senators keep on the kitchen counter--but Trudeau’s been more biting and much funnier elsewhere, past TV efforts like Tanner ’88 and the malaise-infected Doonesbury Special included.
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  2. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: Matt Zoller Seitz
    Nov 22, 2013
    70
    Political comedies tend to work best when they're absurdist (like Duck Soup, or HBO's Veep) or much, much subtler (the gold standard being Tanner '88, a collaboration between Trudeau and Robert Altman). Alpha House falls somewhere in the middle and gets stranded there, though the company is so likable that it's a limbo you may not mind being stranded in.
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  3. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
    Reviewed by: Rob Owen
    Nov 20, 2013
    60
    Another of those amusing but not necessarily laugh-out-loud funny sitcoms that are so popular on premium cable channels.
    Read full review
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