Tuesday, February 17, 2009

TV on DVD: Spaced


Somehow, despite all my media geekiness, I managed to never hear of the British television series Spaced until its recent release to DVD was mentioned in Entertainment Weekly (it originally aired in England back in 1999). Being both a lover of most things British and the off-center humor of creator/star Simon Pegg, I immediately added it to my Netflix queue.


Pegg himself (creator and star of the comedies Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) describes Spaced as, “a cross between The Simpsons, The X-Files and Northern Exposure.” Throw in a comparison to Friends--before it sucked-- and that’s a pretty spot-on description. In a nutshell, the show revolves around the comedic misadventures of 20-something friends Tim and Daisy, who pretend to be a couple in order to rent an apartment that’s advertised as looking for a professional couple. Joining them are their tortured artist downstairs neighbor, Daisy’s weird friend who works in “fashion” (aka: a dry cleaner), Tim’s war-obsessed friend, and an alcoholic landlady, making each of the 14 episodes that compose the entire series unique and hilarious in a completely different way. Pop culture references fly at rapid fire (almost at a Gilmore Girls pace), so you have to be on your obscure reference-catching toes to get every joke that whizzes by.


As soon as I devoured the entire series, my first instinct was to place an order on Amazon for a set for me to have and to hold forever. But then I realized, there are more important things in life I need to waste my money on right now. Of course that didn’t stop me from adding it to my already in progress wish list for next Christmas. Don’t disappoint me, fat man!


Image courtesy of Flickr/ewen and donabel

1 comment:

  1. A bunch of friends recommended the series to me, and I was worried it would be way to British. It was, but it was also awesome.

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