Spaced: 10 Things To Love About Edgar Wright's Hidden Gem

3. Surreal Shenanigans

A flexible approach to reality is something that is a little lacking in modern comedy. Between the stubbornly real and the incurably nihilistic, any surrealism is kept firmly to the dream-sequence.

Spaced breaks this standard, giving us both the personifications of thought processes and frequent daydreams that break with tangible world. Although the most frequent offender is Brian, the erstwhile avante-garde artist of the cast, each character gets one or two moments that pull them comfortably out of reality.

We also get flashbacks to childhood memories, where the juvenile versions of our characters have perhaps a little too much similarity to their adult counterparts, especially the facial hair.

With a couple of animated comic-style sequences that seem almost the proof of concept for Wright's work in Scott Pilgrim, the more flexible presentation of reality in Spaced provides a welcome relief from some of its heavier moments, not to mention some truly hilarious scenes.

Contributor

My passion for all things Sci Fi goes back to my earliest days, when old VHS copies of Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet gripped my tiny mind with their big, noisy vehicles and terrifying puppets. I'd like to say my taste got more refined over the years, but between the Warhammer, Space Dandy and niche Star Wars EU books, perhaps it just got broader. I've enjoyed games of all calibre since I figured out that dice weren't just for eating, and have written prose ever since I was left unsupervised with some crayons next to a white wall. I got away with it by calling it "schoolwork" for as long as I could, and university helped me keep the charade going a while longer. Since my work began to get published, it's made all those long hours repainting the walls seem worth it.