Spaced

Finally, I've seen Spaced. It's been on my Netflix queue for ages--before the July '08 release--and at long last TPTB there decided I was worthy to gaze upon the DVDs.

I am so thankful I did. It really doesn't matter that the show's almost 10 years old, it's still funny--frequently laugh out loud while watching it by yourself funny. The premise is that two friends, Tim and Daisy, pose as a married couple in order to be able to rent a flat, which they both really need (this point is rarely revisited after episode 1). The two friends interact with the owner of the building and the other tenant, and two friends from outside the building, and well, that's basically it.

They hang out, talk, go to the pub, occasionally do sit-com-y things, even more occasionally work, and hang out some more.

That's it, that's the whole show.

Oh, they eventually get a dog. Forgot that bit.

Now, I realize that doesn't sound like much of a show, much less one to make an effort to watch, but it is.

What sets Spaced apart from the rest? Why does that set up turn into something that holds up so well both across time and the Atlantic? Here's my top 3 ideas:

1. Visual Style--there is a very discernable style to the way the show is shot, lit. There aren't a lot of sit-coms that focus on those kind of things (percentage-wise, there aren't a lot of shows period that focus on it)
2. Their embracing of Pop-Culture. Each episode is replete with pop-culture references. Not the way that Family Guy will interrupt their story (all 7 minutes of it per episode) to make a joke; nor the way that there was a Superman in each Seinfeld episode if you just look for it hard enough. It's in the way the characters talk, the way they think.
   
   When they're thinking traitor, they don't think of Benedict Arnold or even Judas first, they think "Lando." When they're searching for a quick way to describe someone, it's "She's shallow, Brian. She's like Cordelia out of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and latterly Angel, the spin off series which is set in LA." Which is honestly, the way a certain age bracket thinks and talks--and not the way sit com characters talked before the nineties.
   
   Which is one of the reasons it translates so well for American audiences. It doesn't matter if you say aerial or antenna, aluminium or aluminum, you know the pain Tim was feeling thanks to The Phantom Menace--even 18 months later.
3. I think the core of it is the characters and the way they interact with each other. These aren't the most appealing people, and on the whole aren't nearly realistic, but they do talk to /react to each other in a very real way.
   
   There's not one character you can count on for the goofy antic, clever line of dialogue--no Chandler Bing, Barney Stinson, or Jeff Murdock. Most of the lines of dialouge aren't that quotable out of context (tho' there are the exceptions--

   Duane: You Know what they say about love and war.
   Tim: Yeah, one of them involves a large amount of physical and psychological pain and the other's war. )
   

   There something very relatable in the way that Tim talks to Daisy or his landlady. It's easy to see yourself sitting on the couch next to them, at another seat at the kitchen table as they talk about whatever. It feels like friends (who might as well be each other's family) talking about whatever friends talking about. Very comfortable, relaxing, and fun.

Not only do you get 6 hours of a great TV show, the US release DVD set contains a bunch of commentary tracks, including some by notable US fans of the show--like Diablo Cody, Kevin Smith, and Quentin Tarantino. Listening to them is an education in itself (and almost as fun as the show).