There's some really cool restrained, subtle direction, storytelling and acting as early as the first episode, inbetween the escalating craziness, and I've enjoyed that mix ever since (though it's certainly come out more in season 2). But honestly, even the pulpier, disbelief-straining parts show such a high level of…

I absolutely agree. Of course, it became one of my favorite shows on TV about two episodes in. I was kind of baffled by AV Club's persistent failure to provide any real coverage (especially since I started watching it because of an enthusiastic recommendation in an AV Club binge-watch list.

He was really bad at being a successful villain, but he was a fantastic character and I think that's more important. They had plenty of other villains who were good at being evil. (Angelus, for starters.)

My father died shortly after I was born and as he was just someone my mom was in the early stages of dating during college he's really not come up much since - my mom hadn't had time to form a really strong connection with him and didn't want to presume on his family because of that. And there's a lovely fellow who,…

Exactly. I saw the Mr. Bean movie (or one of them, if there's been multiple ones) and…yeah, Blackadder's the way to go. That said, it's fair to describe Blackadder as the smartest man in the room in the latter three series, but that should not necessarily be construed as him being smart.

I've been intending to check out the original, but I'm wondering if the American version is distinct enough to be worth watching as well. Too often American remakes of stuff appear to exist almost exclusively because the American public refuses to deal with subtitles.