Saturday 27 August 2016

TV Series Review: Red Dwarf

For the last couple of weeks we've been rewatching Red Dwarf before bed. It's become a tradition for us to watch something funny before bed, you don't want to be going to bed right after watching something scary and disturbing (like Criminal Minds).


Red Dwarf was perfect for this.

It's one of those programmes that I've seen often enough to be able to switch in and out of as I want to, with the exception of the later episodes which I watched a little closer because I've not seen them as often. It is brilliantly funny and very clever. And we've got the Smeg Ups DVD now as well, so we got to watch lots of outtakes.

I've been watching Red Dwarf for pretty much as long as I can remember. It originally started back in 1988 (when I was two!) so I've grown up watching it. I can remember sitting in bed watching it on TV feeling really mature, that must've been about series seven or eight.

The early series are definitely my absolute favourites, with Backwards probably being my top, because it's just so clever (though it kind of makes my head hurt to think about it too much). Though the episode with the Tongue-Tied song is pretty cool too (for obvious reasons).


Sorry, you'll probably have that going round in your head for the next couple of days.

Series eight is probably my least favourite of the original run and while I enjoy Back to Earth, now that they've made the tenth series it's kind of dropped slightly in my ranking. I feel as though Back to Earth was very much made by the fans for the fans, whereas the tenth series returned to how it felt at the beginning.

Of the new series Lemons is my absolute favourite. The gang travel back in time and end up meeting Jesus. With the Dwarfers things aren't going to go smoothly and they end up taking him back with them, into the future, where he learns all the bad things that people have done in the name of Jesus and vows to change. Oh, and he discovers a brilliant new invention called a 'bag'.

Series ten seems to combine the original set up of the early series with a more modern sense of humour and style of filming. I think that's why I've enjoyed it so much. Things that people find funny have changed quite a bit in the last thirty years so it's cool to see that Red Dwarf has grown up as its viewers have aged as well.

And it appears that we've got some new episodes coming up in the near future as well. According to Wikipedia the new episodes will air in the next month. I hope that means they'll be out on DVD in time for Christmas!

Last night we started watching our new bedtime viewing, inspired by the fact that it first aired fifteen years ago; Scrubs. Expect another review of that sometime in the future.

7 comments:

  1. The only thing I truly liked about Red Dwarf was the theme tune. It always surprises people when I say I'm not into Red Dwarf, given my appreciation of sci fi and comedy, but I think there are two types of people in this world (to quote Peep Show) Red Dwarf fans and HitchHickers Guide to the Galaxy fans, and I fall into the latter category. Weirdly though, I've been watching a lot of Chris Barrie lately thanks to GOLD's repeats of The Brittas Empire, which I really did love growing up in the 90s. I did a Theme Time for that signature theme this week, but I need to do one for Tongue Tied definitely :)

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    1. Yeah, I would've thought it was your kind of a show. Then again I'm a bit of an exception to the rule since I have fond memories of watching Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as well.

      I saw your Brittas Empire post. John's a massive fan and is desperate to rewatch it, but I'm not keen on it myself. Even when I was younger there was something about Mr Brittas that just sort of made me uncomfortable and it's not a vibe I get from Arnold Rimmer.

      I'd love to see you do a post on the Red Dwarf theme and Tongue Tied! :-D

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    2. Then see it now hehe

      http://randomramblingsthoughtsandfiction.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/theme-time-howard-goodall-and-jenna.html

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  2. I've never heard of this series before.

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    1. I know that it did air in America (the eighth series was sent out in its entirety in error and the network held off airing it until it had all shown on the BBC first, even though they were within their rights to premier it). There was talk of an American version as well but I don't think it ever came to fruition.

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  3. It aired sporadically here on PBS, so I've seen a couple episodes, but not much more than that. I liked what I saw. But I never got into it because I never figured out when it would air. This is one show I plan to hunt down and watch all of it at some point.

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    1. It's so frustrating when channels kind of kill a good programme by not showing it consistently. The same thing happened over here with Third Watch, then they stopped showing it altogether because no one was watching it.

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Let me know what you think. :-)