Line #13 YMMV/BlackBooks


1	* AluminiumChristmasTrees: ''The Little Book of Calm'' is a real book, and the tips Manny quotes from it are all in there too. (In the DVDCommentary, it's noted that it isn't as little as Manny's copy, which was made as a prop.)
2	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
3	** The moment where Bernard and Fran duck under their restaurant table to find a miniature bar, complete with bartender, quite literally under everyone's feet, is surreal even by this show's standards. They barely even acknowledge it, preferring to have an argument about how boring Manny's parents are.
4	** The fly in Manny's First Day. It comes in, interrupting them, lands on Bernard's desk for two seconds, then gets up and flies away, shutting the door behind itself....somehow. Then Bernard and Manny immediately resume speaking as if nothing happened.
5	* CrossesTheLineTwice: Fran [[spoiler:not telling Bernard that the only woman he ever loved is still alive]]? Terrible. Fran [[spoiler:furnishing a ridiculously large collection of evidence that the woman was still alive]]? ''Hilarious.''
6	* HoYay: Manny and Bernard towards [[EvenTheGuysWantHim Jason]].
7	* JerkassWoobie: Bernard, as is revealed in the final episode of the series. [[spoiler:Part of his misanthropic behavior stems from learning that a girl he loved is dead. And it wasn't even true!]]
8	* OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight: Graham Linehan left after the first series, which causes a divide between people who enjoyed the ''Series/FatherTed''-style rapid-fire insanity, crude misanthropy, and deeply-flawed {{Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist}}s he uses in his works, and those who enjoyed the later series' more absurdist elements, slightly more sympathetic characterization, and the absence of his apparently-obligatory CreatorCameo (he managed to appear ''three times'' in the first series).
9	* RetroactiveRecognition:
10	** The fast food/concessions worker from "The Lockout" is a very young Tony Way, a character actor who appears in smallish parts in high-profile shows such as ''Series/DoctorWho'', ''{{Series/Sherlock}}'', and ''Series/GameOfThrones''.
11	** The doctor in the first episode is none other than a young Creator/MartinFreeman, better known to modern viewers as John Watson and Bilbo Baggins.
12	** Elizabeth Marmar (Toni from ''Series/PeepShow'') in "The Blackout".
13	** Trebor, the creepy Middle Eastern man who attempts to take advantage of Manny in "He's Leaving Home" is played by Omid Djalili, who appeared in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd'' as [[http://pirates.wikia.com/wiki/Askay the pirate Teague shoots after questioning the code]] (as well as his twin brother), and the prison warden from ''Film/TheMummy1999'' (you know, the one who's [[spoiler:eaten alive from the inside by a scarab until he runs headfirst into a wall, killing himself]]). Creator/DavidWalliams also appears in this episode.
14	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece:
15	** The show is obviously written before ebooks and Amazon annihilated book shops small and large.
16	*** It's noticable for not being mentioned, but ebooks and Amazon had the least effect on small, used book stores, as opposed to large chains that sold new books.
17	** Manny is exploited for erotic photography that winds up in magazines. Pornographic magazines have been almost completely replaced with online sites.
18	** The way mobile phones are portrayed puts the show in a very specific time period. They certainly exist, and are popular enough to annoy Bernard into banning them from the shop, but aside from the early Nokia internet phone with a tiny keyboard Fran (slowly) books a holiday on, smartphones are yet to take over and every other one seen is a feature phone.
19	** Bernard and Fran's near-constant smoking in the book shop, as well as pubs, restaurants, and other places obviously predates the 2007 indoor smoking ban.

Context YMMV / BlackBooks