I’ve watched 2 episodes of Black Books, and while I like the characters, I can’t get past the studio audience. It seems too forced.
Back in 1993, after years of not giving a fuck about most TV, Fox sucked me in to start watching two shows on Friday evening. The Adentures of Brisco County Jr and X-Files. Each delightful in its own way. I remember a hip Happy Hour when friends left, shamefaced, to watch TV. (Hey, we were** hip**.) Everyone thanked them for reminding us it was time & the bar cleared out.
Alas Brisco County only had that one season.
X-Files was mostly good for years. But I lost interest toward the end & stopped tuning in. Still haven’t seen all the episodes from the last 2 years, even though they’re available streaming.
(And I was surprised by the latest season of Supernatural. Or should I be surprised by a show that keeps proving that Death Is Never Final?)
Ok, some stuff on the same vein which you might not be aware of (and might have to find via torrents because commercially unavailable).
On the hour - 2 series, 12 episode radio only prelude to The Day Today. Stewart Lee and Richard Herring were involved originally, but there seems to be rights issues with that. But basically, a five year earlier audio version with its own jokes.
So thus in the same vein:
Stewart Lee and Richard Herrings stuff: Fist of fun, radio and television series (I’ve seen the radio stuff on torrents, tv stuff harder to find). Was available on DVD but seems not to be easy to find anymore. This morning with Richard not Judy - the later followup. Also Lionel Nimrods Inexplicable World
Chris Morris has been a bit sporadic in his output since. His BBC radio shows were on the torrents at some point, not sure if available legally, but he even manage to get banned from the BBC by getting lots of quotes about the death of a Tory MP, Michael Heseltine, who hadn’t actually died (still alive). Jam and the audio version, Blue Jam, are available on DVD and CD. I still listen to the CD which has some really sick and funny moments, including an acupuncturist who uses 6 inch nails on her clients… His career has been kind of tainted with involvement in Nathan Barley, along with Charlie Brooker, which was either massively before its time, or just plain shit. Never could watch more than one episode. His main output in the last ten years has been the very funny film: Four lions about a bunch of incompetent and stupid Yorkshire jidhadis.
Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews also did Father Ted about the same time, they wrote parts of The Day Today. Both were involved with Black Books. Graham Linehan later did the IT Crowd.
Armando Iannucci is a common link with a lot of this stuff, writing, directing and producing. He’s done his own stuff, including /The Armando Iannucci Shows, The Saturday Night Armistice (and Friday night) and Time Trumpet. He also wrote and produced In the Loop, The Thick of it, and created Veep.
Steve Coogans offshoots with Alan Partridge are really quite good. I won’t list them individually, but its pretty much shared writers, and of course a man who is the worst sports commentator and radio DJ ever.
Peter Bayhnam is a common theme throughout this stuff too, working with Lee and Herring, Chris Morris and Sasha Baron Cohen on his movies.
My wife and I can no longer watch shows with a laugh track or a studio audience. Except the IT Crowd, which we seem to like. I don’t know why it works still, but it does.
We still enjoy Falwty Towers, Blackadder, and MASH(though MASH is better with the laugh track off).
I tried Big Bang Theory once and was flabbergasted at how they pause for jokes and so forth. It was weird.