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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 177407" data-attributes="member: 23">Already, I'm two thirds of the way through what's turning out to be a remarkably quick and easy Britcom to watch:<img src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BODZjOGMxMGUtYTY3YS00NjcxLWFkY2EtYzc3NDVkZjk0YWY2XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTA4NzY1MzY@._V1_.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Perhaps best described as After Henry meets Peep Show with a healthy dash of Fawlty Towers, Black Books has been on my viewing radar for some time now.There is going to be a bit of adjustment time switching to a relatively contemporary series after a long time of watching more gentle and vintage series. For someone who has more or less entirely detoxed from American TV for a significant period of time, the most jarring thing about Black Books is that there is something vaguely mid-Atlantic about it - certainly compared with the majority of other series in this thread.Whether it's that the product has become more Americanised or the product is representative of a culture which has become more Americanised is difficult to say. Perhaps a little of both. Certainly the language feels less British than anything I've recently watched. There's been at least one "can I get...?", for example. And I've also noticed a "sick" (meaning generally off colour, in lieu of "ill" or "unwell" - though in this case it may be an Irish thing rather than an American thing). But it's the delivery and the general tone of the series that also feels as though cues are being taken from American series as well as British sitcoms of the past. There's something very frenetic, animated and knowing about the series and the characters. Dylan Moran in particular has done a number of jerky movements very reminiscent of Matthew Perry or David Schwimmer on Friends.This has created an interesting (at least to me) juxtaposition of most of the characters being terribly British at the same time. In a way the way I'm approaching the series sums up its very premise: that I'm watching the death throes of an old, outdated brigade. Like three red squirrels defending their little piece of England from the invasion of greys, defeat seems inevitable. It's been worked into the storyline more than once, with huge Borders-like bookstores, replete with coffee bars, comfy sofas and huge muffins threatening their very existence. They've taken the "if you can't beat 'em..." to uncomfortable effect which perhaps is a comment in itself.All said and done, there is something quintessentially British about Black Books, and particularly the characters it inhabits. Cynical, lazy Bernard could easily be Philip Roath from It Takes A Worried Man... Or perhaps Basil Fawlty. And there's something a little Pythonesque about the more surreal aspects.As a viewer, the beats of laughs in the series are very different from recent series. Rather than a gentle stream of humour that lifts and keeps me afloat to create a feelgood factor, there's a still glassy pond that is completely flat at times. From this, a huge geyser will erupt anywhere from one to four times per episode and send me flying into heady heights of laughter, the after effects of which keep going for some time.Just when I was thinking the series could be a trial, along came this scene:[MEDIA=youtube]0S8naugGW6M[/MEDIA]Soon topped by what's been the pinnacle for me so far - the old actor boyfriend who is an object of revulsion for Fran... until he speaks (shame about the cropping and quality here, but still funny):[MEDIA=youtube]HESgkYIwvyA[/MEDIA][MEDIA=youtube]ydW04Q3-7zM[/MEDIA]Then there's a scene like this which is surreal, wacky and completely charming:<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf74JmBiPto" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf74JmBiPto</a>(Don't try this at home, kids).</blockquote>

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