Now, I have to admit, I watch my fair share of unfunny-funny television shows, but I balance that out by watching decent funny programmes. The problem is, some of these things are either on late (e.g. The Mighty Boosh, which I watched a couple of episodes of and then got the box set [and The Mighty Book of Boosh] for my birthday), or not on anymore (e.g. Spaced, which is what I’m going to talk about for the rest of this post).
I started watching Spaced a few months ago, admittedly, horrifyingly late. You see, my mum actually introduced it to me (she watches all the best stuff). She was talking about it, and then one night, flicking through the channels, we saw it was on again. It was only the first series, and it was one episode a week, but still, I could see how hilarious this show was. Unfortunately, it turned out, not one person I knew had watched it, or even heard of it.
I received the box set for Christmas, and so, I a few hours on the 2nd and 3rd of January, 2010, watching both seasons. Now, here’s the thing; they only made two seasons. A lot of people will see this as a bad thing, because a show as funny as Spaced deserved to go on, but would it be as funny if they’d dragged it out until it was old and stale? I highly doubt it. It wouldn’t be remembered as a hilarious show, it would be remembered as the show that started good, which is NOT what you want your show to be remembered as.
For you sick little chickens that have never heard of Spaced, here’s a little description;
Tim Bisley (Simon Pegg) and Daisy Steiner (Jessica Stevenson) are two London twenty-somethings who meet by chance in a cafe while both are flat-hunting. Despite barely knowing each other, they conspire to pose as a young professional couple in order to meet the requisites of an advertisement for a relatively cheap flat in the distinctive building at 23 Meteor Street, Tufnell Park, which is owned by and also houses the landlady, Marsha Klein (Julia Deakin). Also in the building is Brian Topp (Mark Heap), an eccentric conceptual artist who lives and works on his various pieces in the ground floor flat. Frequent visitors are Tim's best friend, Mike Watt (Nick Frost) who ends up becoming a lodger after Marsha's daughter Amber "flies the nest", and Daisy's best friend, Twist Morgan (Katy Carmichael).
The series largely concerns the colourful and surreal adventures of Tim and Daisy as they navigate through life, decide on what they want to do with their lives, come to terms with affairs of the heart, and try to figure out new and largely unproductive ways of killing time. Tim and Daisy repeatedly stress that they aren't a couple to everyone but Marsha, but despite (or because of) this, romantic tension develops between them, particularly during the second series.
(Credit goes to Wikipedia...I know, but it’s actually got something right for once)
Did you read that? SIMON PEGG. You can’t think this wouldn’t be funny?
Okay, so, just because the actors are funny, doesn’t mean the show is going to be funny, so let’s meet some characters.
Tim Bisley Immature, skateboarding, chocolate-beanie wearing, PlayStation playing Tim is an aspiring comic book artist, and a follower of cult fiction in many forms, including video games, science fiction, and especially - at least initially - the original Star Wars trilogy (note: He does NOT like The Phantom Menace). He is irritable and heart-broken, due to his (now ex-) girlfriend, Sarah, leaving him for his “friend”, Duane Benzie. He's currently writing and illustrating a graphic novel about an orphaned boy who has been inadvertently transformed into a giant mutant bear by an "oxypheromalkahyde" steroid created by the experiments of the crazed Doktor Mandrake, who now is trying to find this bear so that he can replicate the results. Tim hasn’t tried selling his work because he’s afraid people will laugh at him, as shown through flashbacks in which an evil-looking man laughs (somewhat manically) at Tim’s work. The man is later found to be Damien Knox, editor of Dark Star comics). A traumatic incident in his childhood when attempting to cure a fear of dogs merely left him terrified of dogs, lightning and bamboo instead.
Oh, and Twiglets make him violent.
Daisy Steiner Daisy is an aspiring writer, although she spends her time avoiding having to write, or work at all, really. She is – you know what? This could go on for a while. Here, click this.
Oh, also, Bill Bailey is in it, and, as everybody who’s anybody knows, Bill Bailey is awesome.
I wanted to show you a video of Tyres raving to everyday noises, but YouTube doesn’t have any, so that’s upsetting, but they do have at least one of my favourite clips. Unfortunately, the embedding is disabled, so click this and then come back.
Did I mention that the character of Mike commandeered a tank and tried to invade Paris, resulting in him being kicked out of the Territorial Army? Yeah.
So, if you have any self respect (and even if you don’t), you will go out and you will buy the box set of Spaced, and you will spend the few necessary hours watching every episode and all of the extra features, and you will enjoy it. Jeeves, will you enjoy it.
-Moose
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