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| Stylized poster for Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson's The Black Adder |
QUICK REVIEW:
The Black Adder is the first season of the long-running historical BBC sitcom, made upon the success of Fawlty Towers (1975-79) by writer-creators Richard Curtis (Notting Hill (1999), writer) and Rowan Atkinson (Bean (1997)).
The series is, in short, a barrel of laughs. The way that it stomps on and around Anglo-Saxon history, culture and traditions, - and the English language none the least, - is irreverent madcap fun, and it gets combined with a boastful pomposity, black humor en masse and actors with superb skills in mimicry and comedy; first and foremost, of course, Atkinson himself, but also Brian Blessed (Hamlet (1996)) as Richard III is phenomenal. The character of Black Adder is abominably ugly and hilarious; Atkinson's job here is a triumph for BBC and for England!
The plot in the show is often incoherent and always gaga. Because the season only spans six episodes, I will delineate their plots very shortly here:
1. The ever-scheming protagonist decides against the alias 'Black Vegetable' in the first episode and goes ahead with 'Black Adder' instead.
2. In Born to Be King, a primitive, Scottish duke comes visiting.
3. Prince Edmund 'Black Adder' is appointed bishop of Canterbury.
4. In The Queen of Spain's Beard, Black Adder tries to play homosexual so as to avoid matrimony with the horrid, Spanish queen, but instead ends up marrying a little girl!?!
5. Pest!
6. Black Adder joins a gang, who end up poisoning the entire royal house and themselves. SPOILER Everyone dies!
The anarchy of the show is redeeming fun, and is basically about the royal outsider, Edmond 'Black Adder', who wishes so badly to be king, but never succeeds in his many ploys to achieve his goal.
The edition that I enjoyed seeing was the official BBC release, but it badly needed a restoration, and I think it a scandal, if BBC still hasn't awarded this grand series proper care in that regard.
Another critique is that Black Adder is choreographed and filmed as if it were a recorded theatrical play. This is no great impediment, since smiles and laughs erupt so frequently, as one sees the series, but it still is a rather lax concept for a visual medium.
Here are some more faces of the singular Rowan Atkinson as Black Adder. Click to enlarge
Related review
Rowan Atkinson: Bean/Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie/Bean: The Movie (1997) or, A Bean in America
A 1 minute clip from the episode The Queen of Spain's Beard; unfortunately without Atkinson
What do you think of Black Adder, the first season?
What's your favorite part/line of the show?
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