Spaced: The Complete Series

After seeing 'Shaun of the Dead' and 'Hot Fuzz' I found this little gem of a show and love it. Well worth getting

I finally purchased it this month, and it's worth every cent. What an excellent show, full of orgional humor, outstanding characters and very funny takes on all kinds of films and film cliche's. If you're a fan of Peep Show and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, you're likely to enjoy this show. It's not as crude as Peep Show or It's Always Sunny, but it is just as funny.

It's an odd thing to find out about a television show that only lasted 2 seasons several years ago. I personally couldn't get enough of this show.

Written by Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the yet to be released How to Lose Friends and Alienate People) and Jessica Hynes (Son of Rambow), the show centers on two 20 somethings searching for an apartment. What they find is an ad for an apartment stating that "Professional Couples Only" may apply. The show takes off from there, when they attempt to forge a fraudulent relationship in order to secure a good apartment. That's the basic premise of the show, from there it turns into sitcom like situations, told in a very unusual way.


Now there's obviously things that we Americans won't get right off the bat. Phrases and slang we aren't 100% used to, but these thing didn't take away from the humor and sometimes insanity of this show. The show reminded me a little bit of Scrubs in the way it presented thoughts and quick cuts to flashbacks or character's thoughts. But the humor is centered really around homage to movies, games, and nerdom. The show is released right around the time of Episode 1... So expect many many jokes around that.... AND ENJOY IT! Added bonus, the man who actually did the voice of "Darth Maul" has a part in this series as a bad guy... PLEASE watch out for his lines mirroring Darth Maul's only lines.

Again, I loved this show. It wasn't quite like Shaun of the Dead, but it was a lot like Hot Fuzz in that it was obviously paying tribute to all the other genre's out there with quoted lines and music. There are so many small moments when they use one or two lines or just a few actions to mimic a movie, it's extremely well done. I guess the only other thing I'd have to say is, watch the series once and try to find all the lines from other movies... then watch it again with Homage Meter. I missed quite a lot...

I love all the episodes, especially the one with the performance artist named "Vulva". I've been a fan of Simon Pegg since I saw him on Dylan Moran's "Black Books"; I think that's available on region 1 DVD now too.

Spaced has shown up late on US shores, a late 1990's show from Britain. If you have seen Shaun of the Dead and/or Hot Fuzz, the humor is not going to surprise you.

The show surrounds the experiences of a couple who move in together as a matter of convenience when they both need somewhere to live. In their flat (part of a sub-divided house) we find an eclectic group of neighbours and friends. Recurring themes tie most episodes together. Almost every episode is some kind of homily to some kind of Pop Culture phenomenom. Star Wars and Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind are some of the visual and/or dialog references. Zombie movies later immortalized in "Shaun of the Dead" are previewed here (noting the series predates the movie).

Wright and Pegg deliver throughout. Hilarious and addictive.