(1).jpg?1203968740) By Felix Vasquez Jr. | In a month or so, fan boys all across America will finally be able to set their hands down on a bonafide box set of “Spaced” on DVD without having to take a second mortgage. |
For those of you unaware, “Spaced” is a mélange of pop culture references and sight gags mixed with the traditional sitcom premise of a struggling cartoonist who coops up with his new friend, a budding journalist.
In order to stay in their flat, they have to pretend to be a “professional couple.” Hilarity ensues, but far from the usual sitcom trappings you’ll find in a first tier network. “Spaced” only lasted two seasons sadly, but fans of “Spaced” were offered a neat resolution, and retribution to the end of a cult classic as it’s stars Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright, Nick Frost, Nira Park, and Jessica Hynes (Stevenson) went on to great careers in the states. And “Spaced” fans were the first ones let in on their comedic gifts long ago.
As a hardcore fan of the series for three years now, I bring you the ten best moments of the series, bar none. Thankfully, this is only the tip of the iceberg.
They met in a coffee shop. She an aspiring journalist looking for a flat. He, a costumed mascot/comic artist… looking for a flat. After finding friendship in one another, and engaging in a long saccharine montage of laughs, giggles, and hardships, Daisy finally breaks down, and they find themselves in the middle of the funniest bit of episode one: synchronized crying, melodramatic screeching, and a run down of the series psychotic yet charming array of characters including Mike, Brian, Twist, and Marsha. It All Starts here… hopefully it doesn’t end with evil Mice-Spiders.
Daisy comes home from Asia to discover Mike is now renting her room, and she has a chance to show off her exploits in the country with three two hour VHS tapes! This is thanks to her snazzy new painfully outdated camcorder she copped off a dealer in Singapore. Sadly, it doesn’t garner the attention of the boys very long, and you can’t help but laugh at Daisy’s difficulty lifting the gigantic ten pound camcorder with a goofy grin.
Sometimes the dialogue and relevance to the episode didn’t really matter so long as the pun was funny. Take Tim’s reaction to Daisy’s dog. Take Tim’s reaction to Daisy’s dog chewing… bamboo. And take the opening scenes of the pilot where Tim and Daisy decide on their flat, and following along a certain Hanna Barbera show, reconsider their creepy new flat they suspect is haunted. While Tim and Daisy stand around like Freddy and Velma, investigating the strange noises emanating in their new flat with the “Scooby-Doo” theme wailing overhead. Such subtle sight gags are only the surface of the genius constantly practiced by “Spaced.”
Okay, if you’re going to watch “Spaced,” you can’t just watch it. You have to absorb it with undivided attention, because the pop culture puns are so quick, you won’t be able to spot them without watching the series two or three times. Watch it four times if you have to. Take Tim’s run in with long time hopeful Darkstar Comics in the finale where, in a desperate attempt to yank the embarrassing sketches of Damien Knox and confronts him in the midst of a quick escape from security falling back on Mike just like Sarah Connor in “Terminator 2.” Watch it, it’s… it’s magnificent. Take notes, Tarantino.
Bilbo: I once punched a guy out for saying that "Hawk the Slayer" was rubbish.
Hell, if you get that reference, then you’re automatically in my cool book.
“I’ve had a few things to work through… with George Lucas.”
4. “Twiglets” Make Me Violent
It is pretty obvious where the potential premise of “Shaun of the Dead” emerged from. The gang, big fans of Sam Raimi and Romero, took the elements from the series and combined them in to a twisted hybrid. Take an irresponsible slacker, his demented friend, and a messy flat, you mix it up with local yokels, add a zombie apocalypse, and you have arguably the first rom zom com ever made. In a haze of twiglets and late nights, Tim awakens to a flat filled with rotting walking dead, and he gladly takes them out “Resident Evil 2” style with his shotgun channeling some horror masterpieces in the process. Thankfully it’s only a horrible nightmare after hours of the horror video game, but the seeds were already planted for the horror classic that would take fan boys by storm…
3. I See Cyclist People
“There’s been an accident… Somebody got hurt…” Only the gang from “Spaced” had enough comedic know how to rip a scene from one of the best supernatural horror films of all time (“The Sixth Sense”) and still be able to retain the sharp timing and originality we haven’t seen from anyone else… ever. Sitting beside each other in a traffic jam, Mike speaks to Tim about a cyclist who’s been run over in the street up ahead. How does Mike know this? Well, he and Tim just ran over her.
Action buffs true to their words, Pegg and co. bathed episode “Battles” with references to almost every war movie ever made, as well as “The Exorcist,” “The Shining,” “Commando,” and just about any other action movie you can recollect. Here, Tim comes face to face on the paintball field with his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend and series villain Duane. Here, Tim avenges the loss of his friend Mike by facing off with Duane, and having a long time coming Mexican stand off, a la John Woo.
1. Air Gun/Slow Mo fight
I don’t give two flips who you are, if you’re a man with twigs and berries then there’s a good chance you’ve had a mock gun fight with your fingers at one time or another. As a young boy, or a young teen, or just a guy on his sixth bottle of vodka, you’ve had an air gun fight at one point in your life whether in a school yard, at home, or during a funeral. Writers Pegg and Stevenson sum up the male bonding experience in a nut shell with the ritual that taps in to every man’s lust for violence, the moment between friends that sheds all insecurity and prompts every red blooded individual with genitals to prop their fingers like fire arms and blast each other away with imaginary weapons of mass destruction ranging from rifles to 12 gauges. And loving it. This is truly the most brilliant “Spaced” has ever been. It’s funny because it’s true.
