Maybe try watching it on Dave through a VPN. Its not like there’s anything else worth watching on the channel.
I’ve started watching this from the beginning.
It turns out all the episodes in Seasons 1 and 2 were familiar. And yet, since I hadn’t seen them in years and years, they were still kind of new to me again.
One thing I will say about these two seasons, they were more science fiction, less comedy. Holly was the comedic factor, and he was a great comedic factor, while Lister and Rimmer were mostly playing it straight. And Cat was… well, Cat. It worked really well, I think. Even now, even though I didn’t laugh much, Holly usually got a chuckle out of me here and there. And the science fiction oddities and ideas of the show kind of carry it.
Season 3 really did change. It starts off with a Star Wars-like scrawl. I’m so glad I paused it and read it (it goes by so fast, you can’t read it without slowing it down). It explains the loose ends from Season 1 and 2, and it explains why Holly is now a girl, and it explains why the weird android Kryten from one episode in early Season 2 is back, and why he’s so different. It’s so funny that they did all this in a scrawl that’s too fast to read.
Season 3 is all about the comedy, and yet, it takes the time in nearly every episode of the season to slow down and ponder the loneliness and boredom and existential ennui felt by Rimmer and Lister. It’s so weird that they’re able to thread that fine line between being a pure comedy and yet being kind of depressing, while at the same time making the science fiction ridiculous and taking that up to 11.
Season 4 was more of the same, like Season 3, once again with the comedy, but also the loneliness.
And that’s how far I’ve gotten so far. I have to admit, there were several episodes in Season 3 and 4 that I’d never seen before, which surprised me. I guess trying to catch Red Dwarf marathons during PBS fund drives was not a reliable way to catch every episode after all.
I’ll start Season 5 tonight.
Ever read the Red Dwarf books? They upped the existential loneliness and sadness and pretty much did away with the comedy. It was weird.
I have not read the books. I have to admit, I pretty much assumed that they would be kind of like reading Douglas Adam’s books in terms of comedic science fiction writing. I’m kind of disappointed to hear that I was wrong.
Yeah, don’t read the books.
Excellent, I love this series, its a touch stone for me and my son as he loves it too. Interestingly he maintains season 1 & 2 are the best, personally Marooned alone elevates season 3 to the best for me, The new season is pretty good too so they are back on form!
You’re describing about 80% of British comedy shows that aren’t lowest common denominator, including obviously H2G2.
I agree with your son, I like those seasons best. Ithik because those were the ones I always seemed to catch on PBS late Saturday night when I was drunk/stoned in college.
Interesting. I’ll have to watch Hitchhiker’s Guide again as an adult to see if that’s true. But as a kid in the 80s, I thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen. I suppose Earth is destroyed, and Arthur is the last human, and all that. But I didn’t think the show slowed and contemplated that like the later books in the series did.
Maybe it’s more evident in the radio show than the TV show. I haven’t watched the latter for a long time. But I mean, the story does feature a clinically depressed robot.
Other examples: The Office, 15 Storeys High, The Young Ones (it even has an episode called “Boring”), Black Books, Alan Partridge. Boredom and existential ennui is pretty much the default mode for UK comedy, other than mass market sitcoms designed to be the equivalent of a Chuck Lorre show, since at least the early 90s.
I haven’t heard of those! Except for the Office, of course. I’d agree with that example. Are all of those worth watching?
Was Moffat’s Coupling regarded as a mass market sitcom btw? It’s still the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
EDIT: Btw, Season 5 episode 1 was quite cheerful, for once! Rimmer falls in love! And it is reciprocated! Never thought I’d see that.
They’re among the best comedies of all time. The Young Ones may not have aged as well, however, at least if you didn’t grow up in the UK.
Not in the sense I’m talking about — it was on BBC2 — but it was consciously modelled after Friends. I’m thinking about stuff on BBC1 and ITV like Only Fools And Horses, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps and Mrs Brown’s Boys.
Though even some mass-market shows have a hefty dose of boredom and ennui — The Royle Family springs to mind, and it’s not entirely absent from OFAH either.
Sad to see that out of these, I can only find one on a streaming service in the U.S. And that’s Black Books, which is on Hulu. None of them are on BritBox, for example. How disappointing!
Not surprised at the first two (one is pretty obscure, the other old) but I’m a bit surprised about Partridge. Try looking under the official titles: Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge, and I’m Alan Partridge.
Unfortunately, though, most of the best British comedy doesn’t make it over the channel. Most Americans have never heard of Big Train or Smack The Pony or The Day Today or Black Books or Green Wing or Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace (though I know that has a following here), to name just a few.
The Young Ones was and remains amazingly funny, though a lot of its commentary on the economy and government under Thatcher whooshed right over my head at the time.
A good friend of mine from Ireland sat me down and made me watch the whole run, it was great. He’s a huge fan of Dylan Moran, also Irish, who I really only knew previously from Shaun of the Dead.
He’s about to do a UK tour again, having just done the Edinburgh Festival with a new set. Looking forward to seeing him live again for the first time in about a decade.
Yeah, it was steeped in the emerging alternative comedy scene that came out of the Comedy Store, so it reflects that scene’s sensibilities and interests, much of which consisted of anti-Thatcherism.
Back to Reality is the best.
When it comes to british comedy, I really enjoy Yes, (Prime) Minister!