Spaced

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Television series
Original title Spaced
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Year (s) 1999-2001
length 27 minutes
Episodes 14 in 2 seasons
genre Sitcom
idea Jessica Hynes ,
Simon Pegg
production Nira Park
First broadcast September 24, 1999 (UK) on Channel 4
occupation

Main actor:

Supporting cast:

Spaced is a British sitcom by and starring Jessica Hynes and Simon Pegg that ran on Channel 4 from 1999 to 2001 . Edgar Wright directed all episodes .

action

The plot revolves around the writer Daisy Steiner (Hynes) and the science fiction fan Tim Bisley (Pegg), two twenties who pretend to be a couple to move into a surprisingly cheap apartment. The landlady Marsha Klein ( Julia Deakin ), her daughter Amber and the artist Brian Topp ( Mark Heap ) live in the same house . Tim and Daisy often have visits from Mike Watt ( Nick Frost ), Tim's best friend, and Daisy's best friend, Twist Morgan ( Katy Carmichael ).

main characters

Tim Bisley (Simon Pegg)

Tim's dream is to become a cartoonist in "Dark Star Comics", until then he will be working with his boss Bilbo Bagshott ( Bill Bailey ) in the comic book shop "Fantasy Bazaar". The reason why he has to look for a new apartment in the first episode is that his girlfriend drops him after five years in favor of Tim's former best friend Duane Benzie ( Peter Serafinowicz ) and throws him out of the shared apartment.

His created comic universe revolves around a mutant he created, who bears the name "The Bear", and a crazy doctor who has made it his life's mission to track down the "Bear" again in order to investigate the reasons for his transformation in more detail .

Tim is also an amateur skateboarder and fan of the original Star Wars trilogy. In the meantime, he loses his job at the comic book store due to an argument over Jar Jar Binks . Tim has been afraid of dogs , lightning bolts and bamboo since childhood .

His club name in the clubbing episode is "Timothy B."

Daisy Steiner (Jessica Hynes)

Daisy's career aspiration is to become a writer, which she is more or less successful in avoiding. Unlike Tim, she is a happy, optimistic person. She also tends to talk her interlocutors into the ground, which means that Tim often speaks to her with the slogan "Skip to the end." interrupts. Her motivation for the move is not clear due to Tim's saying, but it is obvious that she wants to leave her old flat, as it is a drug den. An old childhood dream of Daisy is to own a dog, which she temporarily solved with a cardboard box in her youth and which comes true in the course of the first season, which leads to some conflicts with Tim. Her dream of traveling through Asia came true between the two seasons.
As the series progresses, it becomes apparent that she is in love with Tim and consequently jealous of Tim's friend Sophie, who appears in Season 2.
Club name: "Happy Daiz"

Marsha Klein (Julia Deakin)

Marsha is Tim and Daisy's landlady at 23 Meteor Street and lives in the house herself. Until the penultimate episode, she believes that Tim and Daisy are a couple, even if their behavior is sometimes quite noticeable. She has a strong predilection for red wine and you can hardly find her without a wine glass in hand. Almost as often she argues with her daughter Amber, who moves out at the beginning of the second season. In addition, Marsha seeks Brian, which can be traced back to an incident during a negotiation about the amount of the rent.
She lives in the apartment above Tim and Daisy.

Brian Topp (Mark Heap)

Brian comes across as psychopathic and sociopathic at first , which is because he is very shy and fearful. He is a conceptual artist who specializes in painting and multimedia installations. He describes his styles as anger, pain, fear and aggression, which, according to him, are 'somewhat more complex than watercolors'. He takes his inspiration from his depression and the fear of the lustful landlady Marsha. Although he does get together with Twist, his sexual orientation does not seem very clear, so he asks Daisy if when she asked if he 'rented downstairs' she meant whether he was gay and he denied it with relative ease when Tim directly denied him responds to it.
Club name: "Brian Can't"

Mike Watt (Nick Frost)

Mike is Tim's best friend and his lifelong dream is to join the regular army, which is impossible as a childhood accident that Tim blames has limited his eyesight. As a result, he has to be content with the Territorial Army , from which he was previously discharged because he stole a tank during a maneuver in France and tried to take Paris with it. In the last episode of the 1st season he is reassigned to the TA. From season 2 he lives in Amber's former room in Marsha's apartment.
Club name: "Mike Le Watt"

Twist Morgan (Katy Carmichael)

Twist is Daisy's best friend, although it isn't clear why, as the two have no obvious similarities. She's always dressed for the new trends, and she often goes on some form of diet to keep her in shape, while Daisy is more inclined to wear jeans and sweaters and not to drastic weight loss measures. She makes a living in what is always described as a 'fashion job' in a laundry business. She had a relationship with Brian, which broke up during the second season.
Club name: "Twist O'Lemon"

Episodes

season 1

1. Beginnings

Tim and Daisy get to know each other in a tea house, where they often meet to look for an apartment. On the verge of desperation, they come across an ad offering a fully furnished two bedroom apartment for a very affordable price. The only condition is that only couples can rent the apartment. Daisy and Tim decide to pretend they're a couple by memorizing each other's résumés and creating a fake photo album. So prepared, they make their way to the house to view the apartment. After just a short survey, they will receive approval and they can move into the apartment. Tim and Daisy later meet their roommates Marsha and Brian.

2. Gatherings

To avoid work, Daisy convinces Tim to throw a housewarming party. Since Tim's friends pass the time with skateboarding and science fiction fairs and Daisy's contacts are limited to the newsboy, the number of guests is limited. In addition to the residents, Mike, who is responsible for security, Twist and the newsboy, who kills time with Gameboy games, are also present. In general, the enthusiasm of those present is limited, which does not put Daisy in a good mood. She fights the techno music that is booming from Amber's party from Marsha's apartment with party music that Tim finds rather embarrassing. At the end of the episode, the entire party, except for Marsha, who has drunk herself into delirium , and the newsboy, decide to join Amber's party.

3. Art

Brian receives an invitation to a new play by his gender-neutral ex-lover Vulva, while Daisy is invited to an interview at a recognized women's magazine and Tim develops paranoia of zombies under the influence of Speed and Resident Evil 2 . While Brian is rehearsing a behavior to impress vulva that fails miserably, things don't look better for Daisy because she didn't cut a good figure at the interview and the jury gave her the victory sign and the exclamation "Girl Power." ! " has passed. In the evening Brian, Tim and Daisy go to Vulva's play, from which Tim, under the influence of his zombie paranoia and twiglets, which make him aggressive, pulls Brian and Daisy out, because everyone else looks like zombies to him.

4. Battles

To deal with the fact that her boyfriend Richard broke up with her, Daisy decides to buy a dog. Tim is not happy because of his fear of dogs, which goes back to his childhood, but grudgingly agrees to the purchase. While Daisy is choosing a dog at the shelter, Mike and Tim go to a paintball event where they meet Tim's mortal enemy, Duane, who has taken his girlfriend off Tim. At the end of the episode, Mike sacrifices himself so that Tim can get revenge on Duane in a rather unusual way.

5. Chaos

The dog Collin creates some tension within Tim and Daisy's shared apartment. When Tim loses Collin in the park late at night, it is clear to Daisy that Tim hates the dog and deliberately let him go. She has to drop this suspicion when she receives a mysterious letter which reveals the whereabouts of the kidnapped dog. To get the dog back, Tim rounds up Mike, Twist and Brian to start a dangerous rescue mission that is easier than planned due to an unexpected ally.

6. Epiphanies

Tim's friend and bike courier Tires, who suffers from severe mood swings, invites the group to a rave. A night at the disco seems like the right thing for Mike, who was kicked out by the Rough Ramblers, an outdoor sports club, for a disastrously unsuccessful Eskimo roll. While Mike begins to enjoy his life again with the help of the remix of the A-Team theme song, the first romantic feelings develop between Tim and Daisy.

7. Ends

Everything in the house seems to be changing. Tim's ex-girlfriend wants him back, which Daisy severely depresses and leads to an argument between the two, which Tim opens his eyes and gives Daisy the motivation to write several articles. Brian, in turn, is on a cloud of happiness as Twist is dating him and this rendezvous is going pretty well. It's the same with Mike, who was accepted back into the Territorial Army and he finally sees a purpose in his life again.

season 2

1. Back

Daisy is returning from her vacation in Asia, which she financed with a few items sold and (mainly) with her aunt's estate. Her joy of being back is limited, however, as a lot has changed within her apartment. In the meantime Mike has moved into her room because he was kicked out by his mother and she feels neglected by Tim, who acts as if she has never been away. That all goes down, however, when two government agents in black suits and sunglasses appear and claim that Daisy smuggled highly confidential data into the country. However, the friends can defend themselves against the agents through Daisy's newly learned martial arts and prove Daisy's innocence with the help of their vacation videos.

2. Change

As he yells out of the store at a young fan of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace , Tim loses his job at the Fantasy Bazaar and goes to the local employment office with Daisy, who wants to receive unemployment benefits again after her stay abroad. While the officer who looks after Tim understands his point of view on Episode I of Star Wars and gives him unemployment benefits, Daisy's supervising officer refuses to pay because she did not properly deregister before her vacation. Brian is struggling with completely different problems. So his creativity has left him since he was together with Twist. Mike, in turn, finds permanent residence in Amber's former room in Marsha's apartment, from which she moved out very sonorously at the beginning of the episode.

3. Mettle

Daisy is found a job in the kitchen of a restaurant, where she soon has her first problems with her arrogant boss. Even if she is bullied by her, Daisy remains brave for a while and with her generally positive attitude raises the mood in the kitchen. Tim and Mike, on the other hand, reached the quarterfinals of Robot Wars with their fighting robot , when their robot "Private Iron" was sabotaged by envious people from the second round. Together they whip up the robot and challenge the saboteurs to take revenge in the 'Robot Club'.

4. Help

Tim receives an offer from the comic publisher 'Darkstar Comix' and is asked for his portfolio. Since Daisy puts a caricature by the publisher Damien Knox in the portfolio out of naive willingness to help, Mike and Tim break into Darkstar to steal the unfavorable picture. There they get unexpected help from Knox's assistant Sophie, while Marsha, Daisy and Collin spend their time jogging and Brian goes out to dinner with his mother, who thinks he is a lawyer.

5. Gone

Since Sophie turned him down, Tim decides to go out with Daisy instead of her. On the way they have trouble with Duane and a gang of young people, which they can avoid with the help of a 'trick' by Daisy or the connection of male psyches and a shootout of a different kind.

6. Dissolution

The relationship between Tim and Sophie takes shape, which hurts Mike and Daisy and also makes them jealous. Marsha, who still believes Tim and Daisy are a couple, feels very sorry for Daisy and threatens Tim. At the same time, Brian and Twist's relationship falls apart. The conflicts culminate at Daisy's birthday party.

7. Leaves

After learning that Tim and Daisy lied to them about their relationship for a year, Marsha sees no more reason to live in the house and decides to sell it. Only something “damn spectacular” could dissuade them from doing so. Daisy has apparently resigned to having to move and wants to do so, since her dog Collin seems to be more comfortable with the neighbor. Tim's friend Sophie has a job offer from Marvel Comics and is moving to Seattle. Tim has made it his mission to restore the house community, dissuade Daisy from moving to Colwyn Bay, and take Sophie to the airport. He can only do this if he comes up with something “damn spectacular” as well as unconventional ways of getting around.

credentials

In the individual episodes there are many camera settings or lines of dialogue that were taken from various well-known films, series and video games. The aliases in the episode 'Chaos' characters from the original Star Wars trilogy and the prologue of the 3rd episode are based on Resident Evil . For the episode Help they were able to win the actress Olivia Williams , with whom they reenacted a key scene from the film The Sixth Sense . The end of the episode Dissolution is a copy of The Empire Strikes Back . The complete story arc Daisy subsequently Mettle is a tribute to the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest . The DVD of the 2nd season and both DVDs of the Collectors Edition have a so-called 'Homag-O-Meter', another subtitle track, which shows which film is currently being played.

future

A third and final season has been requested from the British fan base for some time. Many see the epilogue at the end of the making of 'Skip to the End', in which Tim and Daisy have a child, as a teaser for another season, while others see it as the final end of the series. Simon Pegg is reluctant to give any clues about it, but in a radio interview he stated that he would like to shoot a one-hour special episode that brings all the loose storylines together into a coherent ending.

The film Shaun of the Dead is also seen as a spin-off by some fans of the series , as a large part of the Spaced actors have a role in the film and their characters are in parts similar.

Guest appearances

Throughout the series, Ricky Gervais , Mark Gatiss , David Walliams and John Simm made one-off guest appearances. Director Edgar Wright has several hidden cameos in both seasons.

Actors Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes and Nick Frost all guest roles on the UK sitcom Black Books . The main characters of Black Books played again in the films of Edgar Wright: Bill Bailey in Hot Fuzz and also previously in Spaced , Dylan Moran in Shaun of the Dead .

In addition to Bill Bailey, many of the actors from Spaced have minor appearances in Edgar Wright's subsequent Blood and Ice Cream trilogy : Jessica Hynes and Peter Serafinowicz in Shaun of the Dead , Julia Deakin in all three films, Mark Heap and Michael Smiley in The World's End , Reece Shearsmith in Hot Fuzz and The World's End , Kevin Eldon in Hot Fuzz .

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