While the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy will always be considered the crown jewels of Edgar Wright's career, the filmmaker's earlier TV series is arguably even better. The latest titles in Wright's filmography have seen him spread his wings across genres, including action (Baby Driver), horror (Last Night in Soho), and dystopian sci-fi (The Running Man).
These films have yielded mixed results in both critical reception and box office figures, and while a director should always be commended for taking creative leaps, it's safe to say many are clamoring for him to return to the witty comedies that established his career. The films in the Cornetto trilogy — Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World's End (2013) — were defined by their sharp British humor, earnest affection for cinematic genres, and the dynamic, unmatched comedic pairing of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Truly nothing like it has come along since.
Though Pegg and Frost have no confirmed future projects with Wright, it's certainly worth checking out the acting duo and director's first-ever collaboration, Spaced. Premiering on Channel 4 in 1999, Spaced sees series creators Pegg and Jessica Stevenson as twentysomething Londoners Tim Bisley and Daisy Steiner, who pose as a romantic couple in order to secure a cheap flat. Much of the series centers on their daily misadventures, often involving their best friends Mike Watt (Frost) and Twist Morgan (Katie Carmichael).
This may sound like a very mundane premise from the people who brought you the frenetic "Don't Stop Me Now" zombie bar fight scene, but Spaced is packed with the signature irreverent humor that defines the Cornetto trilogy. Not only that, but the TV series is consistently funnier than the movies.
Spaced wasn't your everyday British slacker sitcom; it was a playground for Wright to experiment with and refine his style. Almost every swing the director took resulted in comedy gold, and the weirder he went, the funnier the show became. Wright's signature editing flourishes are on full display in the series, as Spaced is full of hyper-stylized montages featuring fast cuts and whip pans as the characters carry out everyday, mundane activities like making a cup of tea or paying for groceries.
Edgar Wright has worked on several TV shows over the years, and he’s now speaking out about one of them getting a remastered release using AI.
The show is also a massive surrealist homage to the filmmaker's favorite cinematic genres. In one episode, an amphetamine-fueled all-nighter spent playing video games causes Tim to hallucinate a Shaun of the Dead-esque zombie attack while at a pretentious art show. Another sees Daisy and Tim have an alleyway finger-gun confrontation with a gaggle of juvenile delinquents, complete with actual gunfire sound effects. While Spaced may not have reached the incredible heights of the Cornetto trilogy's climaxes, the fact that the heightened surrealism was all centered on the unremarkable lives of London slackers actually elevates the humor.
With such a simple, non-gimmicky premise, Spaced could have run a lot longer than its 14 episodes across two seasons. However, in a 2019 Esquire interview, Wright revealed that he and the cast felt that, by the end of season 2, they'd grown out of their characters and decided not to continue. As disappointing as this may be, it ensured that Spaced never suffered a dip in quality and will forever remain an almost note-perfect series.
Sadly, the same cannot be said for the Cornetto trilogy, as iconic as it is. While Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz remain two of the greatest comedy movies of all time, there's no denying that The World's End is a step down from both Wright films. It's certainly fine on its own, but its bleakness and cynicism, not to mention Pegg's thoroughly unlikable protagonist, prevent The World's End from having that kinetic, comedic spark that had come to define the franchise.
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Rewatching the Cornetto trilogy is always a worthy endeavor, but it ends with a bit of a letdown. Spaced, by contrast, is a consistent laugh riot from start to finish.
