Hey, I Remember This Show: Red Dwarf

Well, it is cold outside...

But seriously, folks. This used to be one of my favorite sci-fi shows back in the 1990s until it started going downhill after the seventh season. The local PBS station used to show episodes of it just before Doctor Who and since I regularly saw excerpts from such episodes everytime I tuned in early to catch Doctor Who, I eventually got hooked. It didn't hurt that the show has a catchy theme song as well. Jenna Russell sings it in the outro sequence below.



As for the intro, my favorite intro of the various seasons was this:

All the British Shows That I Have Seen

1. Blackadder.

Uneven historical satire concerning a fictional British nobleman named Edmund Blackadder and his various descendants. When it is off, it is merely mediocre, but when it is on, it's one of the funniest shows on British TV. So I guess it is a good thing it is so often on.

Today it is best known for being the show on which actor Hugh Laurie first got his start. Unfortunately for Laurie fans, he does not appear on it until the last episode of the second season. But he is worth waiting for. And Rowan Atkinson -- who plays the title character -- is pretty funny too. Miranda Richardson and Stephen Fry also make notable appearances but unfortunately, said appearances are rare after the second season.

2. Fawlty Towers.

John Cleese dabbles with the sitcom format and creates a show that produced more laughs in a handful of episodes than most American comedy shows ever produce. One of the few shows which I can forgive for using a stereotypical Hispanic servant since most of the laughs that occur in the show are at the expense of his employer.

3. Nighty Night.

There is undoubtedly a great TV show to be made about the banality of evil and the willingness of good folk to tolerate even the most outrageous behavior but this is not it. Indeed, the first time I saw this on DVD, it was all I could do after the first few episodes to resist pushing the fast-forward button.

The funny thing is that prior to seeing this, I actually looked forward to a British comedy show in which the most villainous character was female. Now I know better. Perhaps evil tends to be most entertaining when there is a chance it might be thwarted. Showing it triumph over and over can get surprisingly boring -- and that is without getting into the moral aspect of whether one would wish to see such a character get away with it on a regular basis. At least on other British shows, there is always a chance that the villain will be thwarted at the last moment.

4. Primeval.

My relatives in Detroit still remember my childhood fascination with dinosaurs and this is the one show I have seen thus far that has come closest to satisfying that fascination. Unfortunately, the show is a bit formulaic after the first episode and the last season ended on a cliffhanger. Plus the show spends way too much time on conspiracy theories and not enough on the prehistoric beasties which are the main reason most viewers tune in. The second season is the best but unfortunately, it will not make much sense unless you watch the first. And I cannot resist giving a special shout-out to actor Ben Miller, who not only has some of the best lines in the series but also does a damn fine job of playing a poor man's Alan Rickman.

5. William and Mary.

A dramedy (part drama, part comedy) about a romance between a middle-aged undertaker and a young midwife. Both have children and both have complicated occupations. The premise sounds like the setup for a very, very awful sitcom but fortunately, the writers did not go that route. Instead we get a stern dose of the type of liberal humanism that we rarely seem to get in an age dominated by the likes of Survivor and Two and a Half Men. The writers love their characters and it shows. Plus the characters appear to develop organically. Even the most outlandish events come across as real to an extent I wish most reality shows could pull off.

It is tempting to compare this show to Six Feet Under but that would be unfair. The show does not emphasize black humor to the same extent as SFU and it does not dwell on the dysfunctional for the sake of dwelling on the dysfunctional. It is probably not for everybody but I liked it more than certain recent movies which also dealt with funerals. If you are tired of shows which blatantly disrespect both their characters and their audience, I suspect you would like it too.

6. Yes Minister.

One of my all-time favorite political satires. Every time I think it is no longer relevant to modern-day politics, I stumble across yet another news story that proves I am being overly optimistic.

7. Yes, Prime Minster.

Another of of my all-time favorite political satires and an obvious sequel to Yes Minister. It is not as inspired as that show but it has its moments.

A Tale of Two Sitcoms

1. Black Books: The Second Season. Surprise, surprise. The second season of Black Books is actually pretty good. Or maybe I'm just getting used to the eccentric cast. Or maybe it's because they avoided doing another wicker toilet joke this time out. Anyway, I liked the second season better than the first season. The jokes seem to be better. The characters more polished -- or as polished as they can be in this setting. I can't wait until the third -- and unfortunately, last -- season.

2. Stacked: The Complete Series. Pamela Anderson pokes fun at herself. Yet again. And hangs out with a “wacky” bookstore crowd which is by no means as funny as the Black Books cast. Not bad but not particularly memorable either.

All the Things That I Have Seen, Part II

Recommended:

1. Veronica Mars: The First Season.

Basically an updated version of Nancy Drew with a bit of Buffy The Vampire Slayer-type snarkiness. Not that that's a bad thing. In fact, this is the best TV show I've seen in a while. Of course, the show does deal with some subjects like incest, date rape and classism that poor Pamela Sue Martin never had to deal with. But it handles them with a lot more subtlety than you would expect from a simple TV show.

Not Recommended:

1. Black Books: The First Season.

One would think that a show about an eccentric bookseller would be genuinely entertaining, but alas, no. The cast tries hard, but there seems to be no real backstory to any of the characters apart from what we learn in the first episode -- and that ain't much. It doesn't help that much of the show plays like a British imitation of Seinfeld. Bernard Black, the main character is a lot like Jerry. His assistant, Manny, is like a slightly more responsible version of George. And Fran, of course, is more than a little like Elaine. Normally, that might be a good thing but imitations this obvious aren't always that flattering.

I Heart Lucy (Davis)

I saw the second season of The Office last week and I was so impressed that I went ahead and bought The Office Special, which is basically the final episode in the series.

My favorite character in the whole series. Dawn Tinsley, of course. Played by real-life actress Lucy Davis.

I guess the reason I like this character is so much is that she reminds me of some of the many real-life artists I've met -- artists who are forever trying to strike a compromise between the demands of the Muse and Mammon.

I suppose I'm a little like Dawn in that I don't exactly pretend to be in my dream job right now but am not yet successful enough to quit it in favor of what I'd like to do.

Someday perhaps. Someday...

Office Politics

I finally saw the complete first season of the BBC series The Office this week. I've heard about it for years, but didn't even think about checking it out until recently.

The show itself starts out slow. (If you're looking for the easy humor of Fawlty Towers, you'd best look elsewhere.) But the show eventually becomes more interesting and the ending is surprisingly bittersweet.

What's so interesting about this show isn't so much what it does but what it doesn't do. Though there are bits of rude humor, the show makes it clear early on that it's not exactly interested in catering to Benny Hill fans. And though there are signs of a potential romantic relationship between two major characters, said relationship doesn't exactly develop the same way it would in an American sitcom like Cheers or Friends. It's tempting to compare the show to Yes Minister because it too has a major character who relies all too much on jargon, but in many ways, it manages to be even more subtle than that series.

I kinda liked this show although I wouldn't exactly describe it as the feel-good sitcom of the year. And to think this entire show does so much in only six episodes.

American sitcom creators should be ashamed of themselves.