Black Books: Series 1 (2000), Series 2 (2002), & Series 3 (2004)

After the Spaced boxset, we moved on to the Black Books DVDs, which apparently is considered a sort of sister-show to Spaced, so that was serendipitous. 

I'd only seen snippets of Black Books when it was on Channel 4, and I liked what I saw, but I don't like to watch things unless I've been there from the beginning with the characters - I'm odd like that - so I got myself the boxset and then didn't watch it for aaaaages. The main draw to Black Books for me is Bill Bailey (Manny), he's the main 'known quantity' and I love his stand up, and I've also enjoyed Tamsin Grieg (Fran) in the (2nd) series of Love Soup, whereas I've only seen the very briefest bits of Dylan Moran's (Bernard) stand-up, and I wasn't that impressed. I was pleased to say that I enjoyed every bit of him in Black Books - which is a good thing since he co-wrote the whole 3 series of 18 episodes. 

I wasn't expected Black Books to be so surreal, especially when the basic premise is three friends who are involved in the titular book shop... and that's it. I suppose that gives excellent scope for any kind of script though, and so surreal isn't so weird. Bernard is a classic misanthrope in the vein of Basil Fawlty, Fran is the ditzy best friend, and Manny is the hilarious, somewhat slow-witted sidekick. The friends drink, smoke, drink, quarrel, drink, and then drink some more. 

The comedy in Black Books is so bizarre at times - my favourite scene being Manny eating scrambled egg out of a shoe, with a comb... because the house was that messy. Odd, but very, very funny. There's also a great array of guest stars, including Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson and Nick Frost from Spaced, along with Annette Crosbie as Manny's Moo-Ma. Watching the three series back to back in 2 or 3 episode chunks, I can see that series 1 and 3 are the strongest, and there are a few weak points in series 2, particulaly in the episodes written solely by Moran - the humour and plot just lacks a spark that the others have. That said, every episode is entertaining. Plus, the 10 mins of outtakes on each DVD are worth the price of the boxset alone.