3 out of 5

Directed By: (TBD)

Totally serviceable, by-the-books ‘remembering (insert name of show here)’ style best-of special, that does its task of making viewers of the show wistful for some of the admittedly great bits that sprinkled the short series, as well as giving us the always fun exposure to what these actors are like compared to their roles.  There’re no real revelations here, except that it was interesting that Graham Linehan saw the show as being built around Moss’ character and that it was, actually shot in front of a live audience, but despite the rest of it just being pleasant and not really insightful, the hour is effectively split up to highlight different parts of the show so you don’t feel like you’re just treading water for any minutes… which is certainly an improvement over the last episode.  What was most satisfying to me, though, was the indirect confirmation that this was really, truly just a regular sitcom.  Graham’s twist on the formula was to take the oddball character from years of TV and make them the leads, and this was timed well with the emergence of accessible dork culture such that the show could be seen as heralding the blooming of that movement.  But these actors aren’t dorks.  And okay, Graham, you owned a ZX Spectrum like every kid of your generation, but it’s clear you don’t know what half the stuff was on your set… which is fine, he doesn’t act as though he does, and the fans had a wonderful time sending that stuff in… just, as I said, it was nice to confirm my suspicion.

Nothing to seek out, but not a waste of an hour, especially since it’s encouragement to revisit the series.