The start of an excellent series, this bears the marks of them not really having determined the exact tone yet. At this point, some gags and jokes are based on ridiculous and overdone stuff, such as costumes and people just being manic, yelling or talking in a goofy way. But the real core of the masterful satire and comedy of the franchise is already evident here, if less strong and with fewer memorable ones than later(particularly in the next one), including the satire, social commentary, verbal and clever material. Each of these make fun of one specific portion of Britain's history, and while occasionally bringing in a couple of other countries, the focus is always on their own. The English have a real talent for exploring their past with the helpful distance of humor making the horrible truth a lot easier to take in. This follows the first incarnation of Black Adder, a line who will work in devious and sly ways to steal what they can't earn, usually power. The plots tend to be well-written, and there are interesting twists and surprises, that mostly hold up. This is well-cast, with McInnerny and Atkinson garnering the majority of the genuine laughs. The latter sadly does his Mr. Bean thing in this, for almost the entire performance. This is relatively well-produced, though all the exterior shots and the fact that this is actually on the format of film are somewhat cheapened by the often weird, and never incredible, cinematography. The editing can be jarring, at times. Apart from that, it's fine. I recommend this to fans of this type of show, and urge anyone who enjoys what they do with words in this to watch the next three, as well. 7/10
Review of Blackadder
