Blackadder Goes Forth

Well this really is the end. You know how I said I hated depressing endings to comedy shows? This is the crown jewel of the lot. But I'm happy the writers did take it more seriously, this is The Great War, it was an unbelievable event and took more lives than I dare to say so of course it would be a bit more serious in instances despite it still being well written and very funny. We join our usual gang of Edmund, Baldrick, and George as they are on the edge of no man's land and Edmund tries every trick to not go over the top. I firmly believe that the writers and creators of this series knew this would be the last one, not only were there few historical periods to play off of but how do you pick up after one of the strongest and most impactful endings in television? The first time I sat to watch this, I was floored, absolutely stunned silent by the last 4 minutes of the last episode, and I heard tale that the producers were incredibly nervous about it thinking it wouldn't respect the british soldiers who really did put their lives on the line but were relieved to hear surviving members of the war praise it and said it did do justice by them. I can't name another television show with that sort of approval. But how's the rest? Very well done I would say. Cast gives a sterling final bow, Rowan might be giving the best performance of the whole show here, Hugh is such a joy to watch and I'm happy they brought him back, Tony still in my opinion shined brightest during series 3 but still has his moments, thank the lord Stephen Fry was given a much larger and regular part I don't know what it is but he slays me in this series, and most interesting of all is Tim who went from an absolute prat to a very cold and very biting persona who is really the antagonist to Edmund this time around. Plus I would really love to give a noted credit to Geoffrey Palmer who had a surprising cameo in this series, the man is nothing less than a treasure in my eyes and I swear on my future grave I will review all of As Time Goes By one day to fully pay my respects and admiration to him. The set design and costumes are incredibly well done too, though the sets are the smallest we've gotten they capture the environment of such a situation and the costumes look completely legitimate. I adore the writing in it's criticism of war and good situations with fun characters, this is a damn fine series. Though it may not be my favorite I feel because of the creator's intentions and the story that it told, yes I would say objectively this is the best. 4 stars, 9/10, this has been quite a journey. One more week to go before the horror. Good luck everybody.

Blackadder II

This is the one that will be the hardest to top.

Years back when I first sat down to watch the entire run of Blackadder, series 2 was my absolute favorite. The plot is somewhat similar to the first with Edmund Blackadder living under the rule of Queen Elizabeth The First, but instead of trying to usurp control of the throne, he's constantly battling the idiocy of the times. Where the first series was still trying to find it's footing, the second is on top form with an amazing cast and simple but fun concepts for episodes. Easily the best performances are from Rowan Atkinson and Miranda Richardson, they just crack me up with Rowan being deadpan and sarcastic to the Nth degree and Miranda for lack of a better word, being very simple. It's just so damn funny seeing Queen Elizabeth acting like a silly and spoiled child, and precisely nothing like any other sort of regal performancein media. It's an absolute joy. Tony Robinson and Tim McInnery return as Baldrick and Percy, this time playing the oafs to Blackadder which they handle perfectly. The writing for this series is where the most praise should go, you can tell they put effort into the scripts and it really does work and really the writing is why this series is so highly regarded in the comedy world. It's difficult to pick a favorite episode, it's a toss up between Potato and Beer. One has a fun cameo by Tom Baker, and the other is the perfect storm for poor Edmund to be in but it is outstanding. This is a definite improvement for the series and one thing I noticed is that they really don't shift the cast up, nearly every supporting cast member from series 1 makes an appearance here and thusly the supporting cast from this in some small way makes their way to series 3. So there's always this tight knit sense of community both on screen and off screen, which makes it even more enjoyable. 4 stars, 8/10! And next time we get to see Hugh Laurie shine before he became a big name doctor here in the States.

The Black Adder

Happy Christmas to me.

One more week of reviews after this and I refuse to be party to any merriment or all around joy to humanity, so join me as we visit cynical Britain once more as we see all iterations of the classic Blackadder series. It's very humble beginnings for the series as we enter the 15th century following the ascent of King Richard IV and not historically Henry Tudor, and we encounter the meek and backstabbing Edmund who tries every trick he can to take the throne. Not the most involved of plots but nevertheless a very entertaining and fun series, obviously with many a nod to Shakespeare. I will fully admit of all the subsequent entries in this show, the first season is definitely weakest in terms of comedy. But don't let that stop you from watching it, it's a good start and still has it's moments. Any scene with Brian Blessed is glorious, Rowan Atkinson has some genuinely funny moments, no doubt the more historically knowledgeable will get a kick out of the narration, but I think it's more satirical of the time period. To poke fun is not neccessarily always funny, but wit is always wonderful. And any chance I get to feel good about myself by recognizing Shakespeare dialogue without reading any of his works is awful nice. This is one of the more lavish BBC productions I've seen at that period in time, there was a lot of on location filming at a proper castle and it's subsequent grounds, with more than just leftover period costumes, the whole nine yards, and it does look good. One aspect that must be addressed, because this is the oldest BBC show I've reviewed though I've seen many from the 60s to the 2000s, is the fact that location shooting or really anything outside the studio is shot on film and not all film stock is the same so it does have a grainy look to it whereas the studio footage had those proper big three lensed cameras so it looks really good. It's actually really interesting to sort of chart the character progression between all the series, because a good chunk of this cast gets brought back each time even if they don't play the same characters. Queen Victoria from the christmas special is the Spanish Infanta in this series and is marvellous to say the least for example (Bit out of sync but hey welcome to the timey wimey show!), so we'll compare notes on each. I don't actually think any sort of future series was even spared a thought of at this point, and could have very easily been just a one shot but it flourished throughout and could arguably be said that each series is better than the last. But of course more on that, in time. I give it 3 stars, 7.5/10! And we'll time warp tomorrow to the age of Queen Elizabeth I for Blackadder II.