Spaced (The Complete Series)

I love Simon Pegg.

Before watching Spaced, in its entirety in about 4 days (no small feat when you work 7 days a week and spend a total of about 8 hours at home in any given day, 6 of which should ideally be spent sleeping), I really, really liked Pegg.

Now I kind of want to move to England and birth his children.

Pegg is probably best known for his role as Shaun in the hit rom-zom-com Shaun of the Dead (a film which is on my Perfect Movies list). He was also fantastic in the follow-up action parody, Hot Fuzz. Pegg, and his regular sidekick/co-star Nick Frost, both have a knack for fully embracing the genre which they are satirizing, so you end up with a movie that could just as easily join the ranks of it's source material, as much as is could be considered a comedy twist.

With Spaced, we see Pegg's comedic starts, and you can certainly see where the clever, hilarious, pop-culture steeped roots of his later films began. Pegg partners with Jessica Stevenson, a slightly pudgy "everywoman" type, who just happens to be a gifted comedic writer and a great actress as well, and together they play Tim & Daisy.

Tim has just been chucked by his live in girlfriend, and Daisy is at her wit's end living with her stoner flatmates. They meet at a coffee shop, and over the course of several weeks of failed searching for apartments, they agree to pose as a couple in order to secure the perfect flat. Thus is the premise of Spaced established.

The supporting cast is made up of Tim and Daisy's respective best mates Mike (a weapon's expert, played by the hilarious Nick Frost) and Twist, a ditsy, rude blonde who works in fashion (aka a laundromat). In their new flat they meet Marsha, their middle-aged, alcoholic landlady (Julia Deakin is fabulous in this role), and the fidgety, socially awkward artist Brian, who lives below them (Mark Heap, as Brian, has created one of my absolute favorite supporting characters of all time).

As the two 8 episode seasons unfold, so to do the multitude of movie and television references, and more than that, the relationships between the characters deepen and become exponentially more real. Tim and Daisy are versions of people we all know, they are versions of ourselves.

The show has many strengths, but I primarily appreciated their sense of continuity. When Daisy gets Collin, her dog, it is not a one episode gag. Collin sticks around for the long haul, and become a slight character unto himself. Marsha's nearly invisible daughter Amber is never seen as more than a pair of legs running away. Mike and Tim's troubled past is always documented through a flashback sequence to two children together, one with Mike's signature mustache, before being interrupted; and by season 2 you know exactly what to expect when someone asks what Brian paints (anger. . . sadness. . . rage)

The show is witty, charming, and abundantly fun. My only complaint was that the series finale lacked the conclusion I was hoping for, and that it didn't last nearly long enough (where's the movie like we got with Extras or the Office?)

Keep your eyes peeled for the Ricky Gervais cameo in season 2.

**** out of *****
4 out of 5