Before Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, director Edgar Wright and actor/writer Simon Pegg collaborated with actress/writer Jessica Hynes on the cult BBC sitcom Spaced (1999-2000, TV-14). Pegg and Hynes play Tim and Daisy, slackers who meet at a pub and decide to pose as a couple to get a great flat. They’re not […]
And now for something completely different. In 1969, five overeducated British comics and an American illustrator ambushed the BBC with the strangest show in British history. How they got on the air is anyone’s guess (rumors of blackmail were quickly hushed, though the Python’s penchant for sheep gags… but enough of speculation), but their irreverent […]
Created by (then) Marvel Comics CEO Avi Arad, the syndicated Mutant X: Seasons 1 and 2 (2001-2003) was an early Marvel live-action series developed as a kind of a hip, low budget X-Men knock-off by way of the comic book spin-off The New Mutants, albeit with more attitude. The show kicks off in a two-part […]
Lost: Complete Series (2004-2010) – The very definition of high-concept television, this addictive survival series turned metaphysical mystery is arguably the most successful and certainly the most richly and deeply woven show of its kind. What began as an exotic Gilligan’s Island through The Twilight Zone turned into a mind-bending show with supernatural echoes and […]
A vampire, a werewolf and a ghost walk into a bar. No, it’s not a joke, it’s a scene in the BBC series Being Human, a supernatural drama about a trio of “monsters” sharing an apartment in Bristol and trying to live as humans despite the challenges to normal life. Mitchell (Aidan Turner), once the […]
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return revives the cult comedy show built around robot puppets heckling bad movies with Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt as the new mad scientists (“the mads,” as the fans say) and Jonah Ray as their human test subject. “The deceptively ingenious structure of the show offers a double experience, of […]
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Collection 1 – With the newly revived Mystery Science Theater 3000 coming to Netflix later this year with a mix of old and new cast members, Netflix has picked up a selection of episodes from across the show’s original ten season run, with selections from both the Comedy Central and The […]
Firefly: The Complete Series, Joss Whedon’s short-lived foray into sci-fi television, was (purposely or not) sabotaged by Fox when it finally premiered on network TV. The 14 episodes (that’s counting the movie-length pilot as a single episode) were rearranged by the network brain trust, completely disrupting the carefully constructed narrative that he wove through the […]
Roswell: Seasons 1-3 (1999-2002) – You could call it X-Files meets Dawson’s Creek, but this mix of teen melodrama, UFOlogy, and deadly government conspiracies (based on the Roswell High series of young adult novels) has more in common with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Like that show, Roswell tackles the usual problems of growing up—changing hormones, […]
Peter Gunn (1958-1961), the stylish late-fifties private eye series created by Blake Edwards, stars Craig Stevens as TV’s most debonair private-eye, a sardonic small screen Cary Grant with high society tastes and underworld connections. Edwards is far more famous for his comedies than his crime stories but the man had a real flair for noir, from […]
