| By now, most of you fans of excellent zombie comedies have watched Shaun of the Dead (2004) at least twice, and are still repeating your favourite lines to your friends over and over. ("You’ve got red on you." "Dogs can look up!" "Who died and made you fucking king of the zombies?") Frankly, I’m a little surprised that Halloween 2004 came and went without dozens of Shaun costumes flooding the streets. (It’s simple enough: white shirt, red tie, name-tag, bloody handprints, a bouquet of flowers and a cricket bat. That’s what all of you are wearing next year – don’t forget.)
Devotees of this superb film might have heard about a British sitcom called Spaced (1999-2001), which, like Shaun of the Dead, features Simon Pegg and is directed by Edgar Wright. The series is terrific, and an absolute must-see for Shaun fans, but it remains tragically unavailable on DVD except in England.
Spaced follows the day-to-day exploits of Tim and Daisy (Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, who both co-wrote), two twentysomethings who meet in a coffee shop one day while house hunting. Both are fruitlessly pursuing artistic careers (comic-book artist and journalist) and both need to find an inexpensive place to stay. When the ideal apartment presents itself, the ad specifies couples only, so they move in together posing as a couple. Their relationship quickly develops into a unique platonic friendship, the likes of which are rarely seen anywhere on television. Here’s some sample dialogue:
Daisy: Right, I'm going to the shops. D'you want anything?
Tim: Porn.
Daisy: Tim, I'm not going to buy you porn. You can get it from railway sidings like everybody else.
Tim: I can't. I'm an adult. I'm supposed to leave it there.
Each of the stars finds the experience of moving in with a casual acquaintance of the opposite sex somewhat educational. Daisy learns about such male obsessions as porn, PlayStation, John Woo gun battles, Akira, comic books and Gillian Anderson. Tim learns… well, not much really, he just stays up all night playing Resident Evil 2. The faux couple is visited by such fascinating recurring characters as Marsha (wine-loving, easily bamboozled landlady), Brian (neighbour, tortured artist), Twist (Daisy’s stylish and tactless best friend) and Mike (Tim’s gun-obsessed mate who once stole a tank and tried to invade Paris).
Describing Spaced’s remarkable charm isn’t easy. The show is unconventional, melodramatic yet realistic, bizarre, endearing, gimmicky, riddled with pop culture references and hilarious. I’ve seen 13 of the 14 existing episodes and each one was outstanding. Hopefully the success of Shaun of the Dead will eventually lead to a North American DVD release, but until then, those of you with multi-region PAL-enabled DVD players can import the discs from the U.K. How’s that for a slice of fried gold?
As long as I’m cooing over brilliant British comedy, here’s another little series I like, only this one actually is available on DVD. Aardman Animations’ Rex the Runt (1998) is a series of 10-minute clay-animation shorts by Richard Goleszowski, the genius behind one of my favourite Christmas specials, Robbie the Reindeer in "Hooves of Fire" (1999). Here Goleszowski lets loose with some prime stream-of-consciousness nonsense, as Rex, the little Plasticine dog, deadpans his way through some unspeakably goofy adventures.
In one story, Rex and his buddies try to drill to the centre of the Earth, causing the entire planet to deflate like a balloon. A follow-up story has them shooting through the galaxy on the deflated Earth, pausing at an interstellar chicken restaurant and getting sucked into a black hole. Yet another episode sees Rex put through a meat grinder and his spaghetti-like form wriggles around on the floor complaining, while his guilt-ridden friend Bad Bob desperately tries to reconstruct him.
The typically British characters respond to all of this outrageousness with dry expressions of disgust like "Bloody ’eck!" "Nothing’s ever simple, is it?" or "Flippin’ Nora!" Meanwhile, little Vince, Rex's bucktoothed, deranged "pet" dog (yes, Rex is a dog with a pet dog, just like Goofy and Pluto) is afflicted with random Pavarotti disease ("Figarofigarofigaro!"), and Bad Bob invents a mechanical marvel he calls the "Go-back-in-time-o-tron."
Two 13-episode seasons were made and each is available on disc, although season one is far and away the best. Some of the episodes can be seen at www.atomfilms.com. Fun, short and demented. |
Copyright ©2005 FFWD. All rights reserved.