Joy In The Morning

With only a smidge left on my H&R Block income tax card -- not enough to do any real damage, but just enough to buy a used copy of The Complete Jeeves & Wooster on DVD, with $30 knocked off the price tag -- I'm pretty darn satisfied with myself, wot? The British comedy series that began in 1990 which featured Hugh Laurie (House) as Bertie Wooster -- young playboy, landed gentry, and the mental facilities attributed to no doubt many generations of aristocratic inbreeding -- and his manservant Jeeves, played spot-on by Stephen Fry (Blackadder, Wilde) who's deft wit and overall functional intelligence wrangles his not-so-quick-on-the-draw charge out of one social contretemps after another. Being a huge fan of the books by P.G Wodehouse over the years I can see where a television series can only cut the comedy straight down the middle line, being that the meat of the book's humor comes from the narrative that is Bertie's internal monologue, which the show lacks. Having already owned the first season, the show relies more on fleshing out the physical comedy and broadening it, which is just duckie with me, considering. Laurie also plays Wooster a little more dimwitted than I remember him in the books. Wodehouse's Bertie is highly educated, but a little slow in the common sense department. Fry is a touch young to play the seasoned Jeeves but Fry is so amazing in pretty much everything he does he's nothing but a gleeful pleasure to observe. Really looking forward to the rest of this series. And the extra money left on my card with the money I saved buying used!