Black Books

It may have a sort of cheap vibe to it's execution, but for whatever reason a drunken Irish bookshop-owner who hates people indiscriminately somehow resonates with me on a higher level, and I've rewatched all 18 episodes more times, than I can count.

Hilarious and often times delightfully surreal comedy for the creative class of wine-sods. But when all is said and done we have to ask ourselves: Is this 'The Wire'? No, not really. 'Black Books' is just funny because it's funny.

Gets a lot of love, but it's distinctively average.

Impossible not to love. Moran and Bailey are super weird and very, very funny.

The first episode is the funniest. Tricks you into thinking the whole show is hilarious. Turns out it's just averagely funny. I enjoyed it though, would recommend it to anyone looking for a comedy show, but I was disappointed that it wasn't all as funny as the pilot promised it would.

I want to like this more, since there's so much comedy here -- the main character is a disheveled hoot, Bailey works well as his daggy side-kick, and the episode where they have to make the wine is a fucking blast. It's just too bad the writers for this show just had to force in "the human element" into about the two or four last episodes of each season. Just make me laugh, god-dammit, I don't want your lacklustre drama

Never really clicked for me.

Sartre described "bad faith" through a waiter who overplays his role to avoid the terror of existential freedom. Black Books’ Bernard Black is that waiter inverted. He underperforms retail with heroic hostility, yet his misanthropy is just another rigid costume. With codependent friends Manny and Fran, Bernard turns his shop into a hilarious modern No Exit. They need each other to avoid the void of real life. Hell isn't fire; it's a customer entering the shop. - Full Review

Feels like an early unrefined prototype for the I.T. Crowd, but IMO Black Books lacks the character chemistry and the jokes to make it fun to watch. I saw 5 episodes before giving up on the series.

[through season 3]