Other Crap

I have recently been trying to binge-watch the best TV shows of all time.

In comedies, I’m working on Blackadder, Seinfeld and The Adventures of Pete and Pete. I didn’t bother with Monty Python and SCTV because I know those by heart.

In documentaries, I’m revisiting The Civil War, and still seem to be finding a lot of dust in the room when I watch it.

In drama, I’m reviewing The Sopranos, Harry O, The Prisoner and I, Claudius. I have not yet started on Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul.

I have not found any of them disappointing. They have all held up well, but the one that is remarkably fresh is The Prisoner, which is now more than 50 years old, but looks and feels almost like a new show. The only thing that dates it is that the technology now appears a little cheesy. That show was decades ahead of its time. The sets and photography are gorgeous, while the concept and plotting still mark it as perhaps the most innovative and ingenious show in history. (Although, to be honest, the ending was too far “out there” for me. The show always had an allegorical subtext running parallel to its “real” world, but the final episode had no ground in reality. It was purely a surrealistic allegory, part Kafka, part Salvador Dali, part Groucho, which was heavy-handed for my taste.)

Anyway, that project has nothing to do with the Fun House or Other Crap, but since I, Claudius had quite a bit of nudity, I figured that I may as well capture it, even though Aesthete and Oz have already done it better:

Episode 1

In the very first scene of Claudius’s reminiscences, the show gives notice that it will be R-rated. His tale begins with some sexy, topless African dancers performing for Augustus.