- "No one can tell you what Spaced is. You have to see it for yourself."
- ―Tagline
Spaced is a situation comedy co-written by and starring Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes, and directed by Edgar Wright. The first series of seven episodes was broadcast in 1999, with a second series of seven episodes following in 2001.
Synopsis[]
Tim Bisley and Daisy Steiner are two London twenty-somethings who meet by chance in a cafe while both are flat-hunting. Despite barely knowing each other, they conspire to pose as a young professional couple in order to meet the requisites of an advertisement for a relatively cheap flat in the distinctive building at 23 Meteor Street, Tufnell Park, which is owned by and also houses the landlady, Marsha Klein. Also in the building is Brian Topp, an eccentric conceptual artist who lives and works on his various pieces in the ground floor flat. Frequent visitors are Tim's best friend, Mike Watt who ends up becoming a lodger after Marsha's daughter Amber "flies the nest", and Daisy's best friend, Twist Morgan.
The series largely concerns the colourful and surreal adventures of Tim and Daisy as they navigate through life, decide on what they want to do with their lives, come to terms with affairs of the heart, and try to figure out new and largely unproductive ways of killing time. Tim and Daisy repeatedly stress that they aren't a couple to everyone but Marsha, but despite (or because of) this, romantic tension develops between them, particularly during the second series.
The central comedic conceit of the series is that it portrays the rather ordinary lives of Daisy and Tim using overblown Hollywood blockbuster clichés.
Episodes[]
Series One[]
- "Beginnings"
- "Gatherings"
- "Art"
- "Battles"
- "Chaos"
- "Epiphanies"
- "Ends"
Series Two[]
- "Back"
- "Change"
- "Mettle"
- "Help"
- "Gone"
- "Dissolution"
- "Leaves"
Themes[]
Youth[]
- "We've potentially destroyed her faith in today's youth…young adults."
- ―Tim Bisley on Marsha Klein [src]
One of the most prevailant themes throughout both series is the notion that the main protagonists, as twenty-somethings, are not as young as they often act, and many of the incidental characters they meet are younger than them—such as Daisy's boss at the temping agency ("Change") and the couple who attempt to rent Tim and Daisy's flat following Marsha' departure ("Leaves"). This was confirmed on the series one DVD commentary, as something of an antidote to other sitcoms whose twenty-somethings are the youngest and coolest characters in the show.
The theme is first addressed in detail in "Gatherings". Daisy's lacklustre party is contrasted with Amber's party, which the group is fascinated by and ultimately joins by the end of the episode. One of the party-goers mistakes Tim for Amber's dad, and he himself remarks upon how stupid he sounds while speaking about "firm young melodies, kicking tunes, thumping bass". Daisy also remarks upon how "thin" Amber's friends are, and refers to her own friends as a group of "loveable twenty-somethings".
However, the main characters still consider themselves youthful in other aspects. Mike refers to a thirty-six-year-old businessman as an "old man" after first calling him "kid" ("Battles"). Daisy considers skateboarding to be childish, which Tim is quick to deny, though is promptly seen amongst a group of children at a skate park. Daisy later receives a vision of herself as an old woman, still bogling to Aswad, which motivates her to focus on her writing ("Ends").