I decided to do a Series page, as they are sort of their own genre. Nowadays with Netflix etc, it all gets confused, though even I have practically stopped buying DVDs. Anyway, not much to relate from a young age if I discount the childhood TV classics like Goldorak or Les Merveilleuses Cité d’Or. La Petite Maison dans la Prairie? Yes I guess.
After that, I mostly got a taste of British comedy series when visiting my sister in England, or when I went to Uni there. When I started working and got my own place, there was this little channel called Canal Jimmy which was showing a lot of UK comedy (and not just comedy) and also American Series. So yeah, between some sitcoms (no, don’t start me on Friends, Neighbours, EastEnders or Coronation Street, I sure have watched one or several episodes of these but have absolutely no idea, though I did like Seinfeld and Dream On), so again, like with films, it will be a messy and pretty random list, trying not to be too exhaustive and certainly not very chronological. I’ll probably separate comedy from other (i.e. mostly crime), and to be fair there are many I watched and liked without a wow factor and so I may have to be selective.
The Young Ones: probably some of the first series I watched. Four English students of very different styles coexisting in a house. Plenty of laugh, fun and some classic moments. And RIP Rik Mayall.
Fawlty Towers: I got into that later. Still a true classic of British comedy. You can argue with this or that way of expression, but it provides some quintessential British humour.
While I’m with John Cleese, before was Monty Python’s Flying Circus. It’s a bit hit and miss at times, so you might want to stick to some best of compilation rather than watch the whole of the series, but I have had many many mad laughs watching some of these classic sketches. The Déjà Vu one, for some reason is the one I remember laughing the most at.
The Fast Show follows in the same tradition of fast-paced sketches with recurrent characters and a similar brand of humour. Not all of it is funny, but again, the ratio of hilarity vs shrug of shoulders is very very high. Should I say ‘Brilliant!’ ?
The Day Today/Brass Eye. Well, they’re separate, but both bear the genius of Chris Morris. Spoof news and documentaries that managed to fool a few famous people while filming. Cake anyone?
Nathan Barley. This got mixed reviews, another one from Chris Morris in fact, but watch it now and it’s quite clever.
Alan Partridge : (Knowing Me Knowing You/I’m Alan Partridge). Probably less immediately funny than a lot of those comedy shows, but some very clever British sense of humour throughout all the series.
The Office. I’m talking about the UK version (I have never actually watched the US version, but heard some people say it’s good and possibly better than the original). Extremely funny, and as ever with anything bearing the mark of Ricky Gervais, you struggle to know if RG himself is an absolutely insufferable arsehole or just a clever if slightly bitter comedy genius. But back to the Office, it’s another staple of British comedy that will make you laugh.
Sticking with Ricky Gervais, I also liked Extras, not always sure of his other series. I think After Life may be slightly overrated, the ending didn’t touch me the way it seemed to touch others, but perhaps it was a case of watching it at the wrong time or in the wrong frame of mind, as I found a lot of stuff touching in previous episodes (by the way, I have now strayed from pure comedy shows, though might go back to that further in my list…).
Only Fools and Horses. This went for many many seasons (possibly a couple too many) but between regular episodes and some of the specials, it is a series that has brought me a lot of laughs throughout the years. The chandelier stuff, or Del Boy falling through the bar counter are bona fide classic moments of British TV.
Red Dwarf. For those who like their sci-fi goofy rather than serious. It’s frankly outrageous at times, the characters are funny and the situations sometimes hilarious.
Spaced. One of my all-time favourite series. Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson star in this, it’s not just about the characters, but the way this is filmed and narrated just makes it special and pretty unique and appealing. A must-watch. Which reminds me I forgot some films in the film section, but in the free-form of these pages, I will mention here that I do like a lot of the films from Ed Wright who directed this, also starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost : Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz…
If you want something a little disturbing, try The League of Gentlemen. I don’t even know how to describe this, but it’s quite funny/scary in its own way.
An old classic now: Allo Allo. The story of the French resistance. Sort of. Quite funny even for a Frenchman.
More classics with Blackadder. There are several series covering different eras of history (and the future in a Special). For those who only know Rowan Atkinson through Mr Bean (oddly that’s all he seem to have been known in France for), this is HIS show and it’s funny all throughout, a lot of cynical humour but it’s stood the test of time.
Coupling. Definitely one I randomly came across when they started to show it on Jimmy from the first episode. It’s extremely funny. I mean…The Giggle Loop. Impossible not to burst up laughing watching that scene.
I was going to ask a whole lot of Crime Fiction series, but actually, it’s all good, but I can only randomly name a few. Will they be declared as classics? I don’t know. Thing, is, I enjoyed watching these, but like for the books, it’s clever at time, can have good atmosphere and characters, but maybe that was a time I was consuming too many of these. So yes, en vrac, Les Témoins, Unforgotten, The Missing, Marcella, Line of Duty (actually never got round to watching the final series yet, but everyone said the end was disappointing, what I liked was in the second (I think) series, a bit was filmed near Aston Uni, including a big scene in the now disaffected Fire Station near campus -edit 19/5/2023, I have now watched the last series (6) and it’s not at all as bad as I feared)…
The Returned (Les Revenants): quite good, a bit supernatural, French and with a sountrack by Mogwai. What’s not to love?
The Bridge. Scandi noir, very good. Saga Noren and her strange ways lead the investigation.
The Tunnel. Started as an adaptation of the first series of The Bridge, it’s practically copied from it. Then second series went in a different direction but wasn’t as good. Nice to have a series that is pretty much half English half French, my kind of thing.
I’ll finish with what I could have started. I know, theoretically, you’re supposed to start with the best. So that if people don’t bother further, they’ll have seen the best or paid attention to that. But then in my reverse culture (or is it a French vs English thing?), you keep the best for last. You’ve come that far, patiently and now you are really going to enjoy yourself. Of course, I’m a little different as my aim is always to have everything there, and I’m not the most naturally ordered person. I can see both point of views (best first, or best last…I suspect best last is a personal taste but for a show you need to put best first AND last), but that’s why it’s easy to get me wrong. What I say first is not necessary or always the main point. Neither is what I say last. I’m very much an equalist………as long as all is meant. Anyway I digress, all this to introduce…
Twin Peaks. And so we are back to David Lynch from the film section. I think that was another one I discovered on Canal Jimmy(I’d vaguely heard of it before, of course). And I just fell in love with it. The scenery, the characters, the atmosphere, the bit of supernatural, the scope for intepretation. The Owls are Not What They Seem. The theme tune, etc. etc. And even though people often consider it lost its way particularly in S2 and I know Lynch himself said he probably would have done it differently if not pushed by the TV network, I like it all, and there’s a sweetness in the romance between Annie and Agent Cooper. The film (Fire Walk With Me) complements it nicely. And then one year, it was announced that there would be a third series. When it finally aired, it was….wow. Lynch clearly had more creative freedom there, and it went in all sort of ways. Don’t try to explain it, make sense of it, just appreciate it. Lots of loops were not closed, parallel stories not all concluded and in fact, what’s the conclusion? But it’s just an incredible work of art. Part 8 (‘Gotta light?’) stands on its own as a unique tour de force. You come out of it thinking ‘what the fuck did I just watch?’. Also, the artists handpicked by David Lynch (some this series introduced me to, like Lissie and Chromatics) are just top notch, including Sharon van Etten, Eddie Vedder, The Veils, Au Revoir Simone,… so yes. I kept the best for the end, I’ve not watched many series more than once, but Twin Peaks I sure have.
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