Spaced: Leaves Rewatch

May 4, 2015 4:35 PM - Season 2, Episode 7

Mike comes up with a foolproof plan to stop Marsha from selling the house, Brian comes up with a foolproof plan to get Twist to come back from Manchester, Daisy comes up with a foolproof plan to get her writing career on track, Colin comes up with a foolproof plan to stop running away from Daisy, and Tim comes up with a foolproof plan to commit to the woman he loves. Who will succeed, and who will fail?

Spaced Trailer at IMDb.
Lemon Jelly - The Staunton Lick
References and more for this final episode at the wonderful online resource, Fried Gold; this bit of insight is quite good:

"Once again the most important division in the lives of the occupants of 23 Meteor Street is age. The episode opens with a young couple being shown around the house (as Marsha is trying to sell it), the scene is a carbon copy of the scene from episode 1 in which Marsha showed Tim and Daisy around. Daisy is more interested in the fact that the couple are younger than her than the fact that her house is being sold from under her feet
"Excuse me," asks Daisy "how old are you?"
"I'm 25 and my wife's 24."
Daisy: "Really?"
"Yes"
Daisy: "Bloody Hell."
She then turns to Tim after they've left: "They were younger than us."
Tim: "Only physically."

Later in the episode Daisy's fear of the older generation raises its head, an old woman has enticed Colin into staying with her by tempting him with a wide screen TV. The old lady, played by Georgina Beer, is wonderfully scary and embodies the fear that a lot of the youth have for the older generation."

The A/V Club comments on this episode (in a double-review of "Dissolution" and "Leaves" by Todd VanDerWerff):

"But none of that really matters in the face of 'Leaves,' which is the sort of series finale all shows deserve. You’ve got the motif of people almost leaving, of the group almost splitting up. You’ve got big, 'only in the series finale' moments like Mike, Tim, and Daisy breaking into Marsha’s room to find out where she’s gotten off to. You’ve got the montage at the end that lets us know everybody will be OK. And you’ve got the show paying off long-time running jokes, by doing things like having Mike endanger his position by stealing another tank, this time to impress Marsha enough to get her to keep from selling the house. (I was unspoiled on this and pleasantly surprised to see it happen.) 'Leaves' is just a terrifically executed little piece of television, one that pays off all of the character relationships built to this point and makes it feel momentous that they choose to stake out their territory here, with each other."

Originally aired: 13 April 2001

Quotes:

Daisy: "Colin's gone."
Tim: "What?"
Daisy: "He went next door."
Tim: "Oh Daisy, I'm sorry. How did that happen?"
Daisy: "Well, he walked."
Tim: "Right, right - sorry. Well, my mum used to use 'going next door' as a euphemism for being dead."
Mike: "Whoooa - so my rabbit's dead?!"
Tim: "Well it's been 18 years, Mike - where'd you think he was?"
Mike: "Next door!"

Sophie: "We can still have sex on the Internet..."
Tim: "That's what I was doing before!"

Skip to the end.

posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome (5 comments total)

Incidentally this is not the final episode. If you can get a hold of the special edition DVD with the documentary at the end, they include a little coda of Tim and Daisy. I'll see if I can find it on youtube later.

I just think Spaced is this lovely little perfect show. There's this cozy perfect nature to it that makes me list it up there with Father Ted, another short brilliant series about an atypical family.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 2:45 AM on May 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

Take my comments from the last episode thread and insert them into this thread, with my apologies for being a bonehead.

I could always wish for more Spaced, but I feel like it didn't end badly for a two season show. It was solid enough, and sweet, and the little coda they did later is just icing on the cake.
posted by angeline at 8:57 AM on May 5, 2015

Ah, here it is
posted by Cannon Fodder at 10:47 AM on May 5, 2015 [3 favorites]

My absolute favourite reference moment occurs in this show, when Colin is walking to the neighbours house and Daisy is watching from the window - just a few notes of the theme song from The Littlest Hobo are played. Awesome moment for a person who watched way to much Canadian TV as a kid.
posted by nubs at 11:43 AM on May 5, 2015

I loved the opening tribute to The Royle Family. That was a truly splendid show. I'm all nostalgic now.
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 10:16 PM on May 30, 2015