cult film freak: EDGAR WRIGHT DIRECTS THE BRITISH CULT TV-SERIES 'SPACED'

Nick Frost & Simon Pegg in SPACED Years: 1999-2001 Rating: ****1/2

From 1999 to 2001, England's best kept secret was a two-season sitcom titled SPACED that many Americans would discover only after learning director Edgar Wright and actor Simon Pegg didn't create SHAUN OF THE DEAD out of thin air, having had tons of practice with a vehicle also about nostalgia-loving slackers... and Jessica Stevenson, who plays "the other group" leader Yvonne in SHAUN, is not only Pegg's SPACED co-star but his co-writer/creator...

The plot's deliberately familiar, liken to THREE'S COMPANY which was, ironically, one of many great American 1970's situation-comedies that, including ALL IN THE FAMILY, originated in England...

Simon Pegg & Jessica Stevenson in SPACED with

Herein Jessica plays procrastinating would-be magazine writer Daisy to Pegg's video-game playing comic book store clerk/artist Tim, both having sporadic reveries showcased by Edgar Wright's creative detours from the otherwise mainstream-looking single camera sitcom style...

The weird stuff's said to be a homage to TWIN PEAKS and yet THE MONKEES, with its surreal sequences backing up a particular reference or comment, may also be an influence, consciously or not...

Jessica Stevenson is SPACED with Simon Pegg

Right up front, Daisy and Tim pretend to be a romantic couple to live in an affordable apartment, run by the second-strangest character who's smitten with weirdo number one...

Julia Deason, as chain-smoking landlady Marsha, hybrid of THREE'S COMPANY Mrs. Roper and the same show's one-season cougar Lana, suffers unrequited hots for Brian Heap as pretentiously tortured painter, Brian, who makes SEINFELD neighbor Kramer seem ordinary...

A much skinnier Nick Frost in SPACED

And last but never least, hefty scene-stealing sidekick Nick Frost as gun-loving ex military Mike, who, starting a career as Pegg's best friend that'd carry into the beloved Cornetto Trilogy, turns up only on occasion during the garage-band-vibe of a grainy low-budget first season..

That's until, like HAPPY DAYS when Fonz moved into the Cunningham's garage, Frost becomes our bogus-couple's Season Two's roommate (this device carried into SHAUN OF THE DEAD): a cost-effective way of keeping all the characters close at hand...

Jessica Stevenson is SPACED

Unfortunately the brighter-lit second season's more optimistic and animated, less neurotic and cynical characters seem a bit like the standard American sitcom parodied in season one...

And yet, overall, Simon & Jessica's SPACED.... also including Daisy's flaky BFF Katy Carmichael and a dog named Colin... fits like two pairs of extremely comfortable shoes.