Hello and welcome to (Working Title) In Defense Of, a blog series where I talk about movies and TV shows that people think get more hate than they deserve. Although most of the time, I will try to talk about movies that people hate yet have some people who like it or if I like it for some reason. As I am unsure of how to start the first blog post about the first movie I chose to review, I am going to discuss the first series of Blackadder. Now as a whole, the show is a classic of British TV and had a cast of some of Britain's best comic actors, but the first series even among its cast and crew, is considered to be the odd man out among the whole. And I am on the side of that it is not as good when compared to the three series that followed. It also was expensive at the time for no real reason and the price tag was one of the reasons that lead to the three year gap between series 1 and 2. Other contrasts that cause ire are the switched character traits of Edmund and Baldrick, where in later series Edmund is more of a suave, pompous yet intelligent man while Baldrick was made out to be "the idiot to end all idiots", they were more of a sniveling coward and smarter than his superiors respectively. There are many things that I could go on as to why series 1 is inferior to series 2-4, but does that mean that as a whole it should be ignored?
Let's start with the setup first. As each series takes place in a different period of time, the first series, also known as The Black Adder, takes place towards the end of the Middle Age, under the guise of a secret history that starts around the time of the Battle of Bosworth Field, only having Richard III winning the battle and Edmund accidentally assassinating him in the first episode. The show then follows the new king, Richard the IV; Edmund, who adopts the title of the Black Adder due to his greatly exaggerated tale of the battle; Lord Percy, Edmund's friend whom he belittles on a constant basis; and Edmund's squire Baldrick. The premise itself is more in tune with the show as a whole as how the series does use the time period itself for comedic effect, also giving way to use of many references to Shakespeare. It also sets up the main trio of Edmund, Percy, and Baldrick, who also have a same type of friendship in series 2, although Percy would not appear in series 3 and would then change into Captain Darling in series 4. The cast also can be pretty wonderful, with a major point awarded to Brian Blessed as Richard IV. A detraction though has to be the size of the cast. Often so, there are too many characters, where there is something going on with the main trio, Richard IV, Prince Harry, and whatever side characters come into play within the episode. This may be why the following series shortens its cast each time as it does have the bonus of giving the plots more focus.
And as with the whole, because there are a lot of characters, some of the episodes do drag or are not as funny as they could be. While that could be a difference in the type of humor they were going for, an example I could go with for a show that doesn't have a lot of laughs yet can be one of the funniest things is Fawlty Towers, as the first half of episodes can be mostly setup to the the second half jokes but at least there is some humor in that first half too. Then again, I remember hearing in a interview somewhere about how Atkinson and Curtis were trying not to be that show but I may be wrong on that part or maybe I'm thinking about Not The Nine O'Clock News and how that was trying not to be a Monty Python ripoff. That's not to say there aren't any good episodes in it, which is far from the case. The last episode of the series, The Black Seal being my favorite, is a wonderful episode but another one I like is The Archbishop, which is where I realized that a lot of the musical cues were often hilarious in the show, an example in the episode is where Richard announces that Edmund is to be the new Archbishop of Canterbury. The odd music cue, with the terror on Edmund's face along with the getup he had on, especially with the weird Black Russian codpiece, makes the scene a highlight of the episode. There is also where the trio are trying to figure out how to make money by commercializing artifacts with Percy telling about how he has a real one in a finger of Jesus while Baldrick tells him otherwise is also rather funny and shows how well they work together.
There is also the aesthetic look of the show as a whole. Despite the price of the show and the effort to make everything look like it belonged in the time period, which they do well, it looked like a million bucks yet cost a million pounds. While I do applaud the look of the show, there are some aspects of the set that somehow feel off, in a way I really cannot put my finger on it. Also the quality of the film stock is kind of in question as it does feel rather cheap in a way. The locations they take place in also are really well selected but are often not utilized to their full potential. I probably won't go into full detail on that aspect due to my lack of knowledge of how such things work.
I should also put a word out on the opening and ending themes of the show. For the most part, if you heard one of the Blackadder opening themes, you know the main melody and as a whole it is one of my favorite TV themes. The series 1 theme when compared to the others, while being my least favorite, is still rather good. It's not like the Blackadder II version, where it starts off sounding like it is going to be an epic but instead is played on a recorder with a guitar solo occasionally in the background or even the army styled Goes Forth version, but there is this sort of bombast to it that fits the time period and works as getting one excited for what is to come, which does add a little humor to the situation as well. The ending theme is good too yet its only real comparison maybe is II's due to how they do have lyrics added that usually follow with the story of what happened in the episode. The better version out of the two is probably II's by a small margin mainly due to the minstrel type vocalizing and instrumentation, following in the footsteps of the opening theme. Also a key change doesn't hurt.
As stated earlier, the show does improve with each passing series, as the writing manages to improve. This may have to do with having Elton replace Atkinson as a main writer since it would seem to take some pressure off. There is also adding Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry as cast members in the following seasons that manage to add some good humor to their characters, fully realized in Blackadder Goes Forth. The sets and quality of the show improve as well yet it goes back to the question at hand, is The Black Adder so much of an odd man out that it should be ignored as a whole when compared to Blackadder II, Blackadder the Third, and Blackadder Goes Forth? I think it depends but to be honest, I think it's worth at least one go around. It may be a far cry to what they others have to offer but that might be why it is worth checking out. There can be some admiration to be had as to where the show started\and the beginnings of how the characters interacted with one another. Also on a whole, it does have some sore of humor as with each passing descendant, Edmund Blackadder manages to be smarter yet is stuck being in lower class rank. Also there is The Black Seal, which is worth watching no matter what especially with the ending being as ridiculous and dark as it is.
Next On In Defense Of: Episode #1 - Superman Returns
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