A couple of days ago I saw an episode of Spaced for the first time on BBC America. I have no idea where in the series the episode fell. I found it a little hard to understand. I don’t usually have a problem with accents but there was a lot of fast talk that I had a little trouble following. Dropping in the middle of it made me a little confused about who was who. As a big Shaun of the Dead fan I am willing to give it a try. Is it worth it?
Also please explain the show’s title. What does Spaced mean in that strange British language of yours.
While looking for info on the show I did come acroos the trailer for the film Hot Fuzz which looks pretty damn good. Is it out yet over there?
Another hearty recommendation. Acquire by means fair or foul.
There’s dozens of references/homages/parodies of tv shows & films throughout. Robocop, Fight Club, Robot Wars, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest and *Grease *all get done in one episode alone. I sometimes only get an allusion on the second or third watch (although that may say more about me than any subtlety on the show’s part)
There’s a couple of shout-outs to the Spaced fans in Shaun of the Dead too, nothing major, just stuff you wouldn’t notice unless you’d watched the series.
Re: Hot Fuzz: don’t think it’s out here yet either, but is also on my ‘to watch’ list.
But I haven’t seen series one yet! I had trouble figuring out the players without a scorecard. I would like to see it from the beginning. Or does it matter?
Well, there is a introduction to each character at the start of the first episode of the second series, but you will miss out on a bit of character development from the first.
Most of the episodes could be watched stand-alone, I can’t think off-hand of any running gags or anything that you might not catch. I guess it depends on how much these things bother you.
FWIW, I think the second series is better than the first.
Good grief YES! Which episode did you catch (they’ve each got a theme) let us put it in context.
I bought both series on DVD and then had to buy a DVD player to watch them.
I’ll have to disagee a bit with mtk_ I think there are a lot of running gags that you won’t get unless you’ve seen you’ve seen a few episodes (they wouldn’t be running gas otherwise would they?) Things like Brian describing what he paints* and Tim’s opinion of The Phantom Menace.
That’s episode six series one, with a bit of unstated (IIRC) Ecstasy use*. They’re not as circumspect about dopage in a later episode.
The sort of thing you may have missed - the reason Brian (the painter) was desperate not to be left alone with Marsha (the drunk land lady), but perhaps it was sufficiently telegraphed.
explains why Brian didn’t get punched second time round, Tim and Daisy’s inane conversation about getting their own club and Tyre’s (the bike courier) weird behaviour and tendancy to dance to anything.
I did get the implied drug use. I’m not that thick .
One question that hasn’t been answered, does the word “spaced” have any other meanings in your strange language than it does in proper American English? At first I thought it was going to be a SciFi show.
.