“The Title May Have Something To Do With Cannibis Use, or Just Tim’s Love of Scifi: Spaced.”
Oh holy thing in the sky. I just finished watching both series of the TV show Spaced staring Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes. Wow. I mean just now. I mean just 30 seconds ago. And then I clicked on the Microsoft word icon and here we are now. It’s the kind of thing I just need to get right on. Because…. Well,
Every now and well placed then, you come across something so glittery and shiny and wonderful and well made and comfy, it becomes something of a comfort item. For some people, this manifests as movies, or books, or stuffed toys, or… shiny rocks, I guess. For me, it’s the 1996 version of Hamlet (for some reason) and the entire run of Monty Python. And now, I’ve decided, Spaced. Spaced is that good, Spaced is that wonderful and sweet and cozy. You need Spaced in your life. Trust me. When I get my first pay check from my new employer, I’m going to hit up half.com and get me a copy, so that I can always have it, and if Hulu dies in a fire, it will always be by my side. And then I’m going to buy the complete Monty Python box set. Booyah.
Spaced is a British sitcom* that ran from 1999 to 2001, and apparently gathered something of a “cult following”. Well, count me in. The series revolves around Tim (Simon Pegg) and Daisy (Jessica Hynes) as they pretend to be a “professional couple” in order to rent out a flat. Tim is a graphic artist who works in a comic shop and Daisy is a writer who is, in general, unfocused. Mike (Nick Frost) is Tim’s best friend, and is in the Territorial Army, which he is very passionate about, and Brian is their friend who lives in the flat below, a struggling artist who often comes across as a little off. Along with Daisy’s superficial friend Twist (Katy Carmichael) and their always drinking land lady Marsha (Julia Deakin), they are face with a crazy set of life challenges, ranging from the moderately normal to the increasingly bizarre.
So did I mention how much I love this show? Okay good. Just checking. Let’s talk about this show’s sense of humor. It’s incredible. There are these great cut-aways as the characters talk over the top, illustrating in different, radical ways whatever they are talking about. In one episode, Daisy suggests her ideal night out, which is illustrated by a series of artistic photos, and Tim immediately offers his suggestions, which are brought to life by a series of crazy drawings. The show also uses another tactic; one American audiences might be familiar with via Scrubs, where a character will zone out for a minute, not to act out a crazy fantasy, but where they will enter their own little world, where the harsh light of judgment will shine down on a character, or where time will move very fast. One of the things that I find made these moments work so well is that the characters do not acknowledge them in any way. There is no dream mist and they do not snap out of it. I found myself backing up to watch many of them again, as they happened so fast, and I was laughing. One other thing- this show is chock full of references and homage’s to other works. You’ve just got to find them.
If I really, really, reeeaaally had to complain about something, it would be the fact that this show is only two series long, when I really feel like they could have done at least one more. The show did not slow down by the end, which is wonderful. It was still as lively and brilliant as it was at the beginning of the first season, which cannot be said for all shows, unfortunately. So a third series would have been wonderful, but there isn’t one, so I guess I’m just going to have to get over it.
The characters are some of the best examples of interesting characters I’ve seen in a while. I’ve developed a soft spot for all of them, particularly Mike for some reason. Maybe because he was a big kid? He was. And the flat they live in, along with the bar they frequented, are both ingrained in my head like some sort of warm living room I’d like to go sit in. Or the Tardis, because I want to sit in that too. And that’s what Spaced does to you- makes you love it. The end. So go watch it. This review can’t do that beautiful thing justice.
IN SUMMARY:
Show in a sentence: Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes make faces at each other, everybody else gradually joins in.
Should you watch?: Of course not, you stupid sod.
When should I watch it?: It’s a good “let’s start the day snarky!” show, so the morning would be good, but I ended up watching it in the afternoon after searching tirelessly for jobs.
How biased is this review?: Lol.
WATCH IT HERE:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/84729/spaced-beginnings#x-0,vepisode,1,0
*Sitcom conjures up awful pictures of dramatic moments with sappy music and an Olsen twin apologizing pathetically, so I don’t like to use that word, but that’s what a lot of good shows are. And yeah, I said booyah.
