As with any TV reunion show this was going to get a mixed reception. The good news is that what we have here is another cracking entry to the saga of the Blackadders. The bad news is that we probably didn't need it.
Edmund tricks Elizabeth, Melchett, George and Darling (whatever happened to Percy?) with a fake time machine, built by Baldrick, to celebrate the millennium. This is Blackadder so of course it all goes horribly wrong when it actually works. What follows is a time-hopping adventure that sees our antiheroes on a mad dash back and forth through time until they eventually get back to the present. In France-occupied Britain. The series never wasted an opportunity to insult the french, and it does so again here (Garlic Pudding?!) with the same no-holds-barred approach as ever.
We get to see more new Darlings, which is welcome since that was lacking before, like the frenchman Duc De Darling at the battle of Waterloo a setting that gives us the chance to have Stephen Fry back as the (toned down) Wellington - a nice inclusion from the end of BA3.
It's all a bit too silly though. For instance in one scene the only joke is seeing Stephen Fry speak Latin without trousers (because Fry is gay so he must dress like that LOL) and at one point Baldrick kills an entire species with his underpants. Also lacking is he opportunity to revisit old settings. We only get to see the Elizabethan Court, but it's a different set and is an advert for polo mints & Tesco clubcard and all Nurse Bernard does is grin inanely. I know that's all she ever did before, but couldn't she have at least ONE line? That's not too much to ask is it? Apparently it is.
Still, can't really complain. This still balances out as a passable episode. It's just a shame that the potential isn't quite fulfilled. This should have been longer, so as to draw more upon the ideas in play here, because then it would've been great. If you want a good Blackadder special try the Christmas episode or comic relief short instead.
Edmund tricks Elizabeth, Melchett, George and Darling (whatever happened to Percy?) with a fake time machine, built by Baldrick, to celebrate the millennium. This is Blackadder so of course it all goes horribly wrong when it actually works. What follows is a time-hopping adventure that sees our antiheroes on a mad dash back and forth through time until they eventually get back to the present. In France-occupied Britain. The series never wasted an opportunity to insult the french, and it does so again here (Garlic Pudding?!) with the same no-holds-barred approach as ever.
We get to see more new Darlings, which is welcome since that was lacking before, like the frenchman Duc De Darling at the battle of Waterloo a setting that gives us the chance to have Stephen Fry back as the (toned down) Wellington - a nice inclusion from the end of BA3.
It's all a bit too silly though. For instance in one scene the only joke is seeing Stephen Fry speak Latin without trousers (because Fry is gay so he must dress like that LOL) and at one point Baldrick kills an entire species with his underpants. Also lacking is he opportunity to revisit old settings. We only get to see the Elizabethan Court, but it's a different set and is an advert for polo mints & Tesco clubcard and all Nurse Bernard does is grin inanely. I know that's all she ever did before, but couldn't she have at least ONE line? That's not too much to ask is it? Apparently it is.
Still, can't really complain. This still balances out as a passable episode. It's just a shame that the potential isn't quite fulfilled. This should have been longer, so as to draw more upon the ideas in play here, because then it would've been great. If you want a good Blackadder special try the Christmas episode or comic relief short instead.