Steve McLaughlin Season one will always be my favorite as it started an excellent series of Blackadders. The episodes improved throughout season one culminating with the Black Seal. The episodes look very dated as they didn't use sets and filmed in various locations, subsequently changed after the first season in an effort to save money. The scripts are absolutely perfect though, you can read the Black Seal and find it hilarious as it is so well written. This is also the last season as well where Baldric is the intelligent one increasingly becoming more thick as the series continues. 10/10 overall. Some of the best writing ever. Very British and clever along the lines of top comedies out of the UK. Glad the BBC kept up the series and allowed this wonderful show to continue.

winstonfg That said, it's not too bad; just not the classic mixture that gelled in the next series. As others have said: too much Bean, not enough Blackadder. If you already liked Rowan Atkinson, you'll enjoy his facial muggings; but aficionados will miss the stylish, scheming sociopath we came to know and love.My pick, for those who want to check it out, is "The Queen of Spain's Beard", with Miriam Margolyes as the Spanish Infanta. Very funny, and full of the sort of quotes we associate with the later series.Thank God the BBC had the foresight to see its potential and schedule a second series because, as we all know, the rest is history.

gut-6 This is the first series of "Black Adder" and the only truly great one. The scripts are masterpieces of TV comedy writing - one belly laugh after another, and all perfectly structured plotwise, while at the same time being bizarre, original and very intelligent, without resorting to the pointless unfunny absurdity of lower quality Python. There are too many highlights to single out any particular episode or scene. They are the finest thing Richard Curtis or Rowan Atkinson would ever write. For me the first series was right up there in the pantheon just behind the Young Ones (my gold standard of TV comedy) and ahead of Fawlty Towers. It made me understand for the first time why Rowan Atkinson was so admired as a comic actor. I still laugh when I remember his Earl of Doncaster impersonation or the way he said "Hello peasant!" The supporting cast is also outstanding, especially Brian Blessed, Rik Mayall, Frank Finlay and Jim Broadbent as the show-stealing Spanish translator. Their acting considerably enhances the jokes. In fact there is not a dud performance in the whole series, helped no doubt by the absence of Fry and Laurie.The usual and irrelevant complaint about the first series is that the character of Edmund is contemptible, stupid and weedy rather than strong, clever and sarcastic. But the original Edmund is for laughing at, rather than laughing with. The former category of comic characters is invariably much funnier, while the latter is the domain of unfunny standup comedians desperately trying to be loved. Perhaps having a strong, admirable lead character gives the audience somebody to identify with rather than mock and deprecate, but I struggle to understand why that is desirable in a comedy. I never could understand why Ben Elton's sub-Carry On humour in the later series was more highly regarded by some. Perhaps it is because the later series had a louder laugh track?Although the budget may have been considered exorbitant, it allowed for much more variety in the type and setting of the jokes than the later studio bound, cheap-looking and visually tedious series. The large budget wasn't wasted, but used to good comic effect, especially in crowd scenes like the witch trial. The opening theme is perhaps the grandest, funniest and catchiest original theme song ever heard in a TV comedy. We may never see television comedy with such high production standards ever again, so enjoy this one. It is one of the few comedies that bear repeated viewing.

Karl Young The central premise of The Blackadder is that Richard III did not in fact lose the Battle of Bosworth field and that the Plantagenets continued to rule for "thirteen glorious years" before Henry Tudor became King.The first episode deals with the afore said battle and it's immediate aftermath and is presented from the point of view of Prince Edmund who is second in line for the throne and who is also looking to make that "second in line" into "first in line". In this first series Edmund is incredibly slippery, stupid and a bit of a weasel - for the viewer he's not a particularly likable character and the programme overall suffers because of this.Despite the weaknesses in the main character the show is still very good value for money. Every episode has enough jokes to keep you laughing throughout and on the whole the show holds up a lot better than most British comedies from the mid-eighties. That said though this first series of Blackadder is no where near as good as the sequels, for one it is just not as sharp or witty. Meanwhile Prince Harry and Lord Percy are no match for their successors George and Darling in terms of comedy value - the "Hello Darling" line still cracks me up every time.Also the observational humour is not quite as strong here as it is in later series of Blackadder - although this may just be down to my own lack of familiarity with this particular period of British history.Despite it's shortcomings, and although often though it is very easy to see why Michael Grade did not want to re-commission Blackadder for a second series, The Blackadder is still very much worth watching especially for 'The Archbishop' episode which is simply brilliant.