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Released by: BBC/Warner Brothers
Released on: 7/22/2008
Director: Edgar Wright
Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost
Year: 2008
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The Series:
Before Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright came to the attention of fans and critics everywhere with the success of Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz, there was Spaced, a two season sit com that aired on the BBC before the pair moved on to theatrical features. While Spaced has been available via an R2 complete series boxed set in the UK, it's only just been made available in North America thanks to the efforts of BBC America's home video division.
So what is Spaced? It's a bit like Three's Company hopped up on geek and pop culture steroids. When the series begins, Tim (Simon Pegg) has just been dumped by his girlfriend. He meets a cute, quirky girl named Daisy (Jessica Stevenson before she became Jessica Hynes) and the pair become fast friends. Daisy's wanted to move out of the flat she shares with her slacker friends for a while now and when she discovers the perfect apartment, Tim helps her out by posing as her boyfriend because the listing specifies that it's for 'professional couples only.' The pair fake their way through the interview with the bizarre landlady, Marsha (Julia Deakon), and settle into their new digs.
Once they move in Daisy gets to know Tim's childhood friend, Mike (Nick Frost), a pudgy gun enthusiast who wants nothing more than to join the army that he was once kicked out of, and Tim gets to know Daisy's best friend, a 'fashion expert' named Twist (Katy Carmichael). On top of that, they meet Brian (Mark Heap), the tortured artist who lives downstairs, and adopt a terrier.
The series is very character driven and while it revolves around Tim and Daisy's day to day plights, the supporting cast is a huge part of what makes the series work. Marsha's constant bickering with her teenage daughter and manic lust for male attention provide ample subplots and laughs while Brian's unusually sexual relationship with Twist allows the show to explore those characters with some admirable depth resulting in some genuinely hilarious moments. As the show progresses, Mike eventually moves in while Daisy is touring Asia, and once she returns he shacks up with Marsha. Everyone's lives begin to intertwine and the subplots all tie into one another resulting in an incredibly well written series.
Tim and Daisy are what tie everything together, however, and Pegg and Stevenson (who co-wrote each of the fourteen episodes that comprise the series) are the rock that anchors the show. What makes Tim and Daisy interesting is how believable they are. Tim wants nothing more than to be a comic book artist. He makes his living working at a comic book shop where he berates those who enjoyed the Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (“Jar-Jar Binks makes the Ewoks look like fucking Shaft!â€) but tends to spend most of his spare time watching genre films (look for Evil Dead and Dawn of the Dead quads on the walls of the flat) and playing video games. Daisy claims to be a writer but rarely produces much work and while the does submit a few articles here and there, she's content to let the welfare checks role in. Her obvious self esteem problems result in her tendency to overcompensate and become a little overbearing at times. Regardless, their interplay is as heartfelt as it is amusing and they come across as real people rather than typical sit-com stereotypes.
What gives the show its 'cult classic' status isn't the character development or quirky storytelling, however - it's the barrage of pop culture references that make up many of the shows jokes. Many of these stem from Tim's obsession with comic books, video games and movies. At one point he fantasizes that he's in a Resident Evil video game and at another point we see him as Ash from the Evil Dead films. He and Mike enter a Fight Club style underground robot wars competition in one episode while the whole cast get entrenched in a Matrix inspired conspiracy involving Daisy's vacation footage.
Ultimately, Spaced turns out to be a nice mixture of genuinely sweet situation comedy and off the wall pop culture insanity. It's a blend that shouldn't work but which really does. Great stuff.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Each episode is presented in 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen and for the most part the material looks great even if it is interlaced. A few shots in a few episodes have that certain soft quality that you associate with British television but that's part of the show's look and not a flaw with the transfer. Detail levels are strong and color reproduction looks nice and accurate. Skin tones are good, there aren't any problems with mpeg compression artifacts or print damage and there's only a hint of shimmering.
The English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track is nice and strong. The levels are all well balanced and the dialogue comes through nice and clear. There aren't any problems with hiss or distortion and the sound effects and score all sound quite good.
Here's where this set really excels! Discs one and two start off with a batch of commentary tracks - two per episode! Each episode contains a commentary from Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright and Jessica Hynes with periodic input from Julia Deakin, Mark Heap, Nick Frost, and producer Nira Park. Carried over from the R2 release, these tracks are a lot of fun and as informative as they are amusing. The same sense of humor that makes the series so much fun is rampant on these tracks as well as they people who made it happen basically give us a play by play over each episode and detail the genesis and evolution of the show as it plays out.
Exclusive to the American set are new commentary tracks from Spaced fans and aficionados like Kevin Smith, Diablo Cody, Matt Stone, Patton Oswalt, Quentin Tarantino, and Bill Hader who are joined periodically by Wright, Pegg and Peterson. These tracks aren't as informative as the first batch and they tend to be less specific about the making of the show and its history and instead tend to focus more on why the series is funny and on the pop culture references. They make for a fun listen and it's nice to see BBC American put some exclusive content in this set.
Discs one and two also feature a whole batch of outtakes from the two seasons of the show, an 'Homage-O-Meter' (which does a great job of pointing out all the spoofs, parody bits and, well, homage bits that make the show so much fun for pop culture junkies), trailers for various episodes of the series, cast and crew biographies, and still galleries.
The third disc in the set contains an excellent feature length eighty minute documentary entitled Skip To The End. While this covers a fair bit of the same ground as the commentary tracks, it's still a fantastic retrospective look back at t he history of the show through the eyes of those who worked on it. Not only are there interviews here with pretty much all of the main cast members and a few of the crew members, but there's input from Spaced fans like Harry Knowles and Eli Roth. On top of the interview bits we also get a guided tour of the locations used for the series courtesy of Pegg, Wright and Stevenson, all of whom seem to really enjoy this look back and who bring a wonderful sense of camaraderie and enthusiasm to the project.
Up next is Spaced On Stage 2007, a reunion and question and answer session with Pegg and Wright that was conducted at London's National Film Theater. Andrew Collins moderates a talk with the pair that covers their work in some detail. After that, the rest of the cast (save for Stevenson who wouldn't attend but who provides a fun video clip) appear and this turns into a Q&A. The audio is a little garbled at times but this is a fun and interesting talk that fans of the show should really enjoy.
If that weren't enough, look for a Spaced Jam music video by Osymyso, another batch of even more deleted scenes, some hilarious unused raw footage, more (different) cast and crew biographies and yet more outtakes. Each of the three discs in the set features animated menus done in the style of Tim's comic book art, which is a nice touch. You can watch each episode individually (chapter selection is provided) or through a handy-dandy 'play all' option.
The Final Word:
Spaced: The Complete Series is an hilariously funny and genuinely enjoyable sitcom that thinks outside the box and delivers some very original laughs. BBC's DVD collection presents the entire series in great quality with a mammoth amount of supplemental material that is just as interesting and entertaining as the series itself.