Product Description

The foul tempered and wildly eccentric bookshop owner Bernard Black (Dylan Moran) is back for a second season. Bernard's devotion to the twin pleasures of drunkenness and willful antagonism deepens and enriches both his life and that of Manny (Bill Bailey), his assistant. Bearded, gentle, sweet and good, Manny is everything that Bernard isn't and is punished by Bernard relentlessly just for the crime of existing. They depend on each other for meaning as Fran (Tamsin Greig), their oldest friend, depends on them for distraction.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Other
Outtakes
Photo gallery

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20162 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2006-11-14
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 144 minutes

Features

• The foul tempered and wildly eccentric bookshop owner Bernard Black (Dylan Moran) is back for a second season. Bernard's devotion to the twin pleasures of drunkenness and willful antagonism deepens and enriches both his life and that of Manny (Bill Bailey), his assistant. Bearded, gentle, sweet and good, Manny is everything that Bernard isn't and is punished by Bernard relentlessly just for the cr

Amazon.com
How do the British make surly misanthropy so entertaining, even downright delightful? Britcom Black Books springs from a dingy London bookstore owned by Bernard Black (series creator Dylan Moran, Shaun of the Dead), a bilious, petty xenophobe whose only pleasures in life are drinking, smoking, and berating his one long-suffering employee, Manny Bianco (Bill Bailey, Saving Grace), whose bursts of competence only drive Bernard to greater heights of apoplexy. Bernard's only friend in the world is Fran Katzenjammer (Tamsin Greig, also on the equally blackhearted Green Wing), who's similarly enslaved by her appetites and dabbles in personal fads that she drops as soon as they become inconvenient.

The second six-episode series of Black Books takes a series of relatively modest set-ups--Bernard wants to ask a customer out on a date; Manny tries to emulate upscale chain bookshops; Fran needs to find a job--and spins them out into deranged, surreal, and sometimes near-apocalyptic conclusions involving infestations of rat-like creatures and illiterate mob enforcers, often accompanied by spasms of slapstick comedy and arias of verbal abuse. None of these characters is "likable" in the usual sitcom sense--which is exactly why they've earned radically devoted fans, who savor every nasty, jittery moment. Black Books would give an American TV executive a heart attack; fans of similarly loopy Britcoms like Fawlty Towers and Spaced should dive right in. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

You said we'd never mention Canada!!!
Dylan Moran is brilliant. The perfect antidote to those oh, so perfect american sitcoms filled with bright and shiny people. You know, the ones with impossibly white teeth who never look rumpled or stinky or real. Moving walls, thongs, and summertime girlfriends...this one's got it all. You will need your pause button as you'll laugh right through the next jokes!

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll cringe
There's something here to offend entire demographic populations. I really dig that about this show! Both seasons are fantastic, but this one is better because it's not just the 3 of them bugging each other. There's more interaction with the outside world. Bernard gets a date!!?? WTF!!! MANNY gets a date! Omigah! Watch it drunk; watch it sober. It's all good. And, apparently, there's a season 3. Bring it on.

4.5 stars; o.k. . .5 stars
OK--I had really high hopes for season 2 and I have to agree with a previous reviewer--it just didn't have the *consistent* 'umph'--the anger; the moments of dada; the feck-it-all-I'm-too-drunk-to-care--that season 1 did. (Although I thought the last episode of season 1 was a bit of a dud--but I forgave it--they must have been tired. And drunk from all that hilarity).

Yes, Bernard, in general, was not as mad as he once was in Season one . . .but that's all right: I still think this is far better than anything produced for network TV here in the US.

For that, I'll give it 10 stars!

Schubert . . .that's too much, my friend . . .too much!