by Allan Fish
(UK 1999/2001 350m) DVD1/2
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p Nira Park, Gareth Edwards d Edgar Wright w Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson ph Andy Hollis ed Chris Dickens (and others)
Simon Pegg (Tim Bisley), Jessica Stevenson/Hynes (Daisy Steiner), Julia Deakin (Marsha Klein), Nick Frost (Mike Watt), Mark Heap (Brian Topp), Katy Carmichael (Twist Morgan), Lucy Akhurst (Sophie), Anna Wilson-Jones (Sarah), Peter Serafinowicz (Duane Benzie), Clive Russell (Damien Knox), Bill Bailey (Bilbo Bagshot), Michael Smiley (Tyres O’Flaherty), Reece Shearsmith (Dexter), Charles Dale (security guard), John Simm, Claire Rushbrook, Ricky Gervais, Mark Gatiss, Paul Kaye, David Walliams,
A long time ago – well, a few years ago – on a channel far, far away – well, Channel 4 – there was a tale told of two people… It seems appropriate to thus introduce one of the most truly unique sitcoms of recent memory. Here was a series that so revelled in spoofs and homages to other films, TV series, and other media that it even had a DVD release that featured a ‘homage-o-meter’ as an extra. Not only did it include these spoofs, but it paid respect to them, and even integrated them not just into the plot but into the visual texture of the episode. It was a comedy for the Empire and Q magazine generation, the Generation X who worshipped Star Wars, junk TV, comics, and general slackerdom but did something that the works of, say, Kevin Smith didn’t; made it oh so believable.
Daisy Steiner, a lazy wannabe journalist, is looking for a new flat to escape her current abode, a squat. At a local café, she meets Tim, who’s also looking for a place after being dumped by his girlfriend, Sarah, for another man. They see what seems to be the ideal place – rent of only £90 a week – but there’s one catch; it’s for a professional couple only. Hence they cook up a scheme to pretend to be a couple to get the flat at 23 Meteor Street, TufnellPark (the 23 perhaps a homage to the number of Tony Hancock’s house in East Cheam?). Into this mix, throw in a middle-aged lush of a landlady, Marsha, a mad army reject, Mike, Twist, a self-absorbed laundrette worker who says she works in fashion, and Brian, a nihilistic, moody, middle-aged artist who lives in the downstairs flat.
Undoubtedly Spaced is enhanced greatly by the fact that only two series were made, which prevented it outstaying its welcome, and also allowed it to end on a note that could hardly have been more appropriate. For all the quips and hilarious moments, there’s a tender sweetness in these characters and you come to care for them, even though they are such idle so and sos. How to describe the sequence where they rescue Colin the dog from an animal testing laboratory (with the help of a wonderfully against type Charles Dale) and Twist is allowed to take her make up bag (think about it), or of the sequence in a London rave, which may be the most accurate depiction of such a gathering seen on any form of screen, with Mike’s hilarious movements to the theme of The A Team. Or of Brian’s unconscious minimalist art piece, or the Fight Club pastiche of Robot Wars (“the second rule of Robot Club is…no smoking”). I could go on forever.
Numerous comedy talents soon to make it big appear briefly, with Bill Bailey’s comic book store owner a priceless gem (especially his story about the dog trained to attack rich people), and Smiley’s Tyres quite unforgettable as he lives his life like one never ending rave, dancing away to household noises like telephones and even, brilliantly, pedestrian traffic beepers. All the cast are a joy, with Pegg the loser everyman who so personified his generation – still hurting over The Phantom Menace 18 months later and praying not to God but a poster of Buffy on his wall. Frost is unforgettable as Mike, stealing every scene he’s in, a sort of loveable soft psychopath with a gun fetish, and Heap, Deakin and Carmichael are all irreplaceable. Top honours for me, though, to Stevenson, who makes Daisy so utterly endearing, despite her inherent annoyingness, very much one of the lads in a truly ingenious fake John Woo shoot-out in an alley which only has to be seen once to be never forgotten. Now, did you hear the one about how Mike commandeered a tank, tried to invade Paris and got caught on Magic Mountain?
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Allan, there are many British sitcoms I love–the Brits seem to have reveled in eccentricity in their sitcoms even from early days–but this has to be the oddest I’ve seen. Odd in a uniquely endearing way. I think all successful shows of this type work because the ensemble of characters grows on you, and in the really good ones like this one their quirks aren’t static but are used in ways that constantly push the characters forward to reveal new things about them. When you write, “All the cast are a joy,” I couldn’t agree with you more. Still, I especially like Brian the artist and Marsha the horny lush of a landlady. The episode I best remember (it’s been a few years since I saw the show) is the one where they rescue the dog from the laboratory. But I also have fond memories of Tim and Daisy dancing in the last episode to “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby?” The interplay between these two co-conspirators/adversaries/buddies was always great but never so sweet as in that final episode. Reading your description of the series makes me realize how much I missed and makes me want to watch it all over again. It’s certainly among my own ten favorite British comedy series.
Deep down I know Spaced isn’t timeless, so much as captures a time and a lifestyle, but while others I rate higher, hence the placement at 99, it will always be dear to me.
I finished the first series yesterday knowing that this will come up (sorry), and I think that it’s amazing to see how much the style of Edgar Wright, as well as the incredible acting skills of Simon Pegg where developed early on in this series. It’s incredibly funny and all the references can be pinpointed (au contraire other movies/series that try to do all the meta thing but don’t really achieve much).
The characters are all so lovable, and even if I saw all seven episodes in one day, I can say that I already have this characters in my mind, they are dear and I love them. I love how in the episode “Art”, one of the main influences is the videogame “Resident Evil 2” even taking music cues, dialogue and shooting style similar to the cinematics of the game in terms of the zombie fantasy. And as you say, it’s not simple reference, is alabance, is love, as they manage to put the game in the narrative of the episode.
It’s not just a simple “ohhh they’re playing RE:2, that’s cool” it goes beyond that, it manages to serve both people familiar and unfamiliar with it, and those familiar with it will be laughing out of joy because a medium actually takes seriously videogames, as Edgar Wright always have, as he demonstrated in “Scott Pilgrim”. It is nice to see as well cues of the visual things that we would end up seeing in his three next features, one has to guess what else does this inventive director has up his sleeve.
One last thing. Putting a videogame as one of your central plot points in an episode called “Art” says it all for me. Can’t wait for the rest of the countdown!
The closest I’ve ever come to enjoying something by Edgar Wright was his “Scott Pilgrim” movie, and even that didn’t come very close. But at least it was dealing in generational pop culture references that I could identify with, zeroing in on the games of the 90’s as a touchstone for meaning (really, the credit belongs to the comics it’s based on, there). The first time I tried watching this series, I found myself just slightly outside the bubble of homage and reference, save maybe for the “Star Wars” stuff, and even that turned out to be something of a dud for me personally when the “Phantom Menace” backlash crept in (I can’t help but wonder if in that scene where he yells at the kid who liked it whether he was poking some self-aware fun at himself, or just wanted to yell at the kid).
But it’s all the monster movie stuff here, and the way it feeds into the more focused pastichery of “Shawn of the Dead” that helps me draw a line in the generational divide here. I never cared for zombie movie, creature features, or any of the crap that might’ve found its way into a “Buffy” episode growing up, so I’m left with something of a strained emotional distance, even before taking into account the differences of country and whatnot. If some of the references had been just a shave different– “Metal Gear” instead of “Resident Evil”, etc– it might be something I could half watch with interest. Instead, it just kind of grates on me. The fact that Pegg kind of annoys me doesn’t help either– my favorite moment of his onscreen was that episode of “Doctor Who” where he gets eaten by a ceiling monster, or something.