Peep Show

Late one night, many years ago, BBC America happened to air a pair of episodes from a TV series I had never seen before, nor have they shown since, to my knowledge. That show was Peep Show, starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. I had become well aware of these two British comedians from their slightly more popular show, which BBC America seemed to like better, That Mitchell and Webb Look. I had seen, maybe, a dozen or so episodes of That Mitchell and Webb Look and I liked it quite a bit, so the comedy pairing of David Mitchell and Robert Webb was already a good thing, within my mind.

It wasn't until a few years later, while doing a full marathon of That Mitchell and Webb Look as well as The Mitchell and Webb Situation, that I decided to give Peep Show a proper try. Sadly, I must confess, my only access to any of these shows was solely through uploads I found on Youtube. So on a cold and anxiety filled night of December 25 2012 I laid in my bed with my laptop and watched as many episodes as I possibly could.

From the very start I was hooked. The show was shot in a very unique, interactive perspective of a first person view, which brought an interesting dynamic to the show. Sadly I found myself heavily connecting with David Mitchell's character, Mark Corrigan, who was very neurotic and seemed to share many of the same character traits as I had acquired through my anxiety.

Paired with his irresponsible flatmate, Jeremy Usborne, the show took me through an amazing adventure that seemed to hit far too close to home for it's own good. The experiences of life's ups and downs and twists and turns, paired with very solid writing and acting. Peep Show quickly became a series I wanted to see more of. Little did I know, the series had literally just finished up season 8 (December 24, 2012).

With a large gap between seasons 3, 4 as well as 7 and 8, I wasn't sure when I may see new episodes of what had quickly become one of my favorite TV shows of all time. Weeks passed as I rewatched episodes, in 10 minute chunks on Youtube, and soon I tired and decided to turn my interests to something else. But soon my love for the show was renewed as I found that it was on Netflix, without all the stupid clicking and waiting.

Now here is where this takes a little bit of a funny turn. I'm sure I may have mentioned, once or twice, that I'm quite a fan of Chinese pirated Famicom games, as well as their Famiclone consoles. Well, we all know China are the masters of piracy, and not even Peep Show has been spared!

One day (while at the outlet store, seriously!) I happened across what I thought was just a normal, region 2 DVD of season two. Upon closer inspection I noticed there was quite a bit of Asian characters on it (sorry that I can't distinguish between different Asian writing). Knowing that none of the Asian countries were withing region 2 DVD territory, I automatically assumed this was a Chinese pirated DVD.

Regardless of whether I'd ever be able to use it, I picked it up as a simple novelty, just to say I own it. But this tale gets even weirder. You see, for some reason whoever pirated this DVD didn't seem to like Olivia Coleman, so they replaced all her artwork on the DVD with Kylie Minogue. Yes, you read that correctly! Not only is this a pirated DVD, but they removed all traced of Olivia Coleman and replaced her with Kylie Minogue, at least on the artwork.

ORIGINAL DVD SLEEVE

PIRATED DVD SLEEVE

They even tried to sex up the front logo, by adding a suggestively nude lady to the Peep Show within the eye.

Again, this is region 2 and since I don't have a player, and don't feel like changing regions on my computer's DVD drive, I'll probably never get to use this DVD. I just find it to be a neat little novelty for a show that I really like. With Netflix I won't need the DVD anyway, at least until Netflix pulls a bitch fit and decided to bring it down for no reason.