Thanks! Sorry to hijack but I’m always on the prowl for something new to watch.
I have never found Black Books to be funny, nor do I like The IT Crowd. I do like absurd surreal comedy of the Ben Elton kind, but not so much of the Graham Linehan kind.
I loved Black Books, own all three series on DVD. Of course, I love Dylan Moran’s curmudgeonly stand up routines as well. Black Books is where I first saw Bill Bailey I think and I find him hilarious as well as musically talented. Simon Pegg pops up in the third series as a very funny manager of a competing bookstore.
I’ll have to go back and check it out. I caught a few episodes several years ago and liked it.
I loved it. I started watching it for something to keep me entertained while the boyfriend wasn’t home because I didn’t think he’d enjoy it. I got 2 episodes in before stopping it and waiting for him to come home. He ended up loving it too.
Pointless, off-topic trivia: Tamsin Greig and Simon Pegg were in the Doctor Who epsiode “The Long Game” (Re-boot S01.E07). (They didn’t have any scenes together.)
Bill Bailey was in the DW episode, “The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe” (Christmas 2011 special).
Started watching on the strength of this thread.
I knew from the first strains of the Tom Waits-like theme that I would like it, but I can admit that the first episode left me wanting a little more.
I watched the next two episodes the next day and laughed my arse off. (Admit I might have a bottle of wine to thank for that.)
Put me in the mind of Father Ted, Steptoe & Son, Mrs. Brown’s Boys’s, et all.
Cracking good stuff.
Uneven. The best episodes are extremely good, but there are too many duds.
Green Wing, which I watched because I recognized Tamsyn Gregg in a Hulu ad, is far better overall, though it would have worked better in a half-hour format.
It definitely is, I’ve watched it briefly over the past few years and very funny humour
We watched the first two, and while it had its moments, mostly I found it meh. It relies far too much on Dylan Moran making funny faces for excruciatingly long periods while the laugh track is cranked to 11.
I’ve never much warmed to Black Books. It’s all right but seems kinda belaboured in its absurdity. I think though it was worse than the sum of its parts. Moran is a funny stand up, Bailey is a very funny stand up, and Tamsin Greig, is a great comic actress and she’s in stuff like Episodes which is pretty good. However all together and with the input of Graham Linehan, a brilliant comedy writer and creator, it just fails to dazzle me.
(Irony being I’m a quasi-alco who runs a bookshop. This should be MY show.)
I added it to my Netflix queue and watched two episodes last night. Very funny.
The wife and I both liked Black Books a lot. I agree the first episode is indicative of the rest of the series. If that first one doesn’t grab you, then you might want to pass.
:BUMP:
I’m bumping it because I have watched the first two series with my wife and thought I’d share my thoughts.
We like it, but are glad there are only 18 episodes. The nice thing about a lot of British shows is that there are not 150+ episodes. If Black Books went on for 40 or more episodes, I might have called it quits.
This is pretty much it. I’d put the ratio at 50/50 in terms of good vs. dull episodes. If that stays true, then 9 solid episodes out of 18 is actually a good achievement.
Having said that, Dylan Moran cracks me up and I already loved Bill Bailey from QI and other panel shows.
We’ll be watching The IT Crowd after Black Books is over. I hope it is decent, too.
I loved Black’s Books. My wife and I also really liked Green Wing.
The IT Crowd though fell super flat to us, and I even worked in IT support for a while. Just seemed like it was trying to hard for the nerd comedy nod… Then again I also hate Big Bang Theory.
Might I suggest Moone Boy