The Spoils of Babylon

Follow the saga of Cynthia and Devon, two siblings whose intense love drives everything and everyone around them to ruin.

The Spoils of Babylon (2014) is an American comedy miniseries created by Harper Steele and Matt Piedmont for IFC. This six-episode, 23-minute spoof of sprawling period melodrama follows siblings Cynthia and Devon Morehouse, whose consuming love drives everyone around them toward ruin. Tobey Maguire plays Devon and Kristen Wiig plays Cynthia, while Tim Robbins appears as Jonas Morehouse, Will Ferrell as Eric Jonrosh, and Jessica Alba as Dixie Melonworth. The engine of the show is parody itself: each episode piles on lavish, self-serious twists of fortune, betrayal, and scheming, played with straight-faced gravity that keeps undercutting the grandeur. Its shape is a single limited run rather than a case-of-the-week format, with a continuing story told in a mock-epic narrating voice. The setting is an exaggerated early twentieth century America of fortune, status, and romance. Tone and theme blend a deadpan, campy absurdity with an undercurrent of obsessive devotion and the wreckage it leaves behind. Fans of Blackadder, Drunk History, and Documentary Now! will find resonance in its gleeful commitment to ridiculous melodrama and its sly, self-aware sense of period storytelling.

Mixed audience reception, with viewers enjoying its over-the-top parody of prestige period melodrama while finding the joke wears thin across its run.

• Drunk Historyspoof of prestige period melodrama, deadpan parody of sprawling historical saga
• Documentary Now!parodic soap-style period melodrama with campy performances
• Blackaddermock-epic period romance spoof with absurd melodrama and self-aware performances

Created by

Harper Steele, Matt Piedmont

Release Date

2014-01-09

Episode runtime

23 min

Rating

6.7 / 10 (68)

What is The Spoils of Babylon about?

A mock-epic miniseries spoofing period melodrama, following siblings whose all-consuming love wrecks everyone around them.

What is The Spoils of Babylon like to watch?

Ember's analysis rates the pacing of The Spoils of Babylon as brisk, its intensity as moderate and its storytelling as easy to follow.

Is The Spoils of Babylon violent?

Only mildly. Ember rates the violence in The Spoils of Babylon as mild.

What did critics think of The Spoils of Babylon?

Mixed audience reception, with viewers enjoying its over-the-top parody of prestige period melodrama while finding the joke wears thin across its run.

Which shows are like The Spoils of Babylon?

Shows with a similar feel include Drunk History, Documentary Now!, and Blackadder.

How long is The Spoils of Babylon?

The Spoils of Babylon: 1 season, 6 episodes.

Is The Spoils of Babylon still running?

No, The Spoils of Babylon has ended.

Where can I watch The Spoils of Babylon?

In United States, The Spoils of Babylon streams on Philo, AMC Plus Apple TV channel, AMC+ Amazon Channel, AMC+.