Sunday, December 18, 2005
Best of Britcoms (the ongoing search)
Why I Loved "Spaced".
Physical State: achey
Mental State: lumpy
Music: Last.fm (need to know what unknown bands you'd like? Here's the place for recommendations)
Fashion sense: blue t-shirt, grey sweats
Word of the day
prescient
adj : perceiving the significance of events before they occur; "extroardinarily prescient memoranda on the probable course of postwar relations"-R.H.Rovere
***
In my ongoing search for great Britcoms since coming back from England I have stumbled across the excellent First and Second Series of Spaced. Produced by Edgar Wright of Shaun of the Dead fame and written by main stars Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, this show is unlike a lot of britcoms I have seen. Its like a slacker film mixed with the X-Files and Trainspotting. The culturally-educated will delight in all the pop references throughout. Its also a joyride in terms of its twisted and bizarre writing. It was after seeing this that I have to give Shaun of The Dead a second look. Basically the show follows the lives of a supposed couple Daisy and Tim who have had to lie about being a real couple in order to get a flat rental which is deemed for "couples only". As they move in we are introduced to Brian the tortured painter who is borderline insane, Daisy's fashion-obsessed girlfriend Twist (who secretly works in a dry cleaning store), Mike, Tim's military-obsessed best friend, bizarre chain-smoking and wine drinking landlady Marsha Klein and also a host of other guests characters who are hilarious like the Irish bike courier Tyres who turns instant raver at any sound that has a rhythm. This show stays with you after because these characters are so believable that you could turn to any of your friends and name one who is the same as one of this ensemble. A totally rewarding viewing experience. North Americans will have to do a special search for episodes of this series because it has never officially been released in North America on DVD due to music licensing clearance (there are a lot of contemporary electronica songs in the show). Many indie video stores will probably have dvd-r copies for you to rent so be sure to seek it out you won't be sorry. You can also watch this show if you buy dvds from amazon.co.uk and have the ability to switch regions on your player.
Next up is "Peep Show".
