Monty Python's Flying Circus

Netflix' unlimited free online streaming is really quite nice.

I've seen a couple of the movies and some of the more famous sketches before, but this is the first time I've sat down and really watched the series that is loved by so many and inspired so many others. These 45 episodes are filled with both brilliance and nonsense, a lot of which doesn't hold up too well but most of which does. Everyone knows some bits like the dead parrot and the Spanish inquisition, but there's plenty of less famous stuff that's just as clever. The wordplay, absurd situations, and prototypical mockumentary make for a pretty consistently enjoyable program. They like playing around with expectations, breaking the fourth wall a lot and having the credits play halfway through the episode and stuff like that. They also tend to tie all the sketches together loosely with little bits in between to create a slipshod, strange narrative through an episode, something which I wish more sketch shows did.

Not everything is great though. I believe when people say that Terry Gilliam is a good director even though I haven't seen his movies, but most of his wacky animations in the series are more just odd than really funny. I guess it doesn't take much of a real gag to make the English laugh. Sketch comedy is a bit of a hit-or-miss proposition, and it wasn't terribly rare to be more bored by something than I should have been. The Monty Python films are pretty darn consistent, but that's easy when you don't have to put out half an hour every week. John Cleese easily had the most post-Python success of any member, as an actor at least, and he left the show after the third season, leaving the shortened fourth as a shell of the show's former self. It's not that he's so much funnier than the other members, but his inclusion is essential to the group's success as much as anyone else's, and while there are some decent laughs in the end, it's just not the same show. Sort of a disappointing end for a groundbreaking series, but at least they made those movies to redeem the name.