TV Review: Blackadder II (1986)

Blackadder II (1986) created by Richard Curtis

See my review of the first Blackadder here. 

Jumping ahead to Elizabethan England, Sir Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) is great-grandson of the original Lord Blackadder. Edmund follows in his ancestor's footsteps, trying to get ahead in his society without annoying the royalty, in his case, Queen Elizabeth (Miranda Richardson). The queen is a bit of a loose cannon, often playing jests or inexplicably switching from affectionate to execution-minded. She has a nurse (Patsy Byrne) and a sycophantic minister (Stephen Fry) who play along with her. They provide comedic jeopardy for Blackadder.

Blackadder has his own entourage of sycophants--a servant named Baldrick (Tony Robinson) and Lord Percy (Tim McInnerny) who is a bit of an idiot but willing to go along with Blackadder's schemes. The scheming is fun if a bit ridiculous. For example, Blackadder tries to upstage Sir Walter Raleigh by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, a seemingly fatal trip. Blackadder hires a salty captain (played delightfully by Fourth Doctor Tom Baker) whose ship doesn't really make it anywhere since he has no crew and no real sailing skills. The predicament leads to a lot comedy, some of it gross or bawdy. 

The show is both very mature and entirely childish. A surprising amount of humor is based around body parts and sex, something the British are more comfortable with (see Monty Python's stuff). The humor is often rude, with cutting remarks bandied about, mostly from Blackadder. There's more slapstick than I was expecting too, with characters thrown through walls or tossed about. Most of the characters are vain, selfish, and shallow. I did laugh a lot, so I guess it worked as a comedy.

Mildly recommended--this show isn't for kids but it is funny, and you have to excuse the mid-1980s BBC production values.