Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus

Familiar and reliable jokes (the woodcutter's song) were harmed by the German version, but the new sketches devised specifically for Fliegender Zirkus are great. Typical Bavarian restaurant ("Throw the gentleman out the window with the roast potatoes... And I would recommend hitting a madam on the head with a chicken"), the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood with John Cleese in the title role, Dürer's paintings brilliantly set in motion by Gilliam's animation madness, the Frenchman who hasn't really been to the toilet in five years, the breeding of doctors, The Merchant of Venice... But my favorite TV show is the one with the man who wrote Shakespeare's works (plays alone, sonnets with his wife) and the woman who can dig her way through an elephant. I'll give it four and a bit stars. (09/26/2010)