Black Books (2000)

Black Books parents guide

Some strong language and some innuendo or implied sex, which is more than most TV-PG titles carry. Beyond that, nothing scary and no jump scares.

Our estimate: fine from about 13, higher than the TV-PG suggests, because of the language.

Scare

Not scary

Jump scares

None noted

Gore

No gore

Violence

No real violence

Sex and nudity

Mild

Mild means innuendo, or sex implied off screen, with no nudity.

Language

Moderate

Some strong profanity, a few f-words.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

What is Black Books about?

Black Books centres around the foul tempered and wildly eccentric bookshop owner Bernard Black. Bernard’s devotion to the twin pleasures of drunkenness and wilful antagonism deepens and enriches both his life and that of Manny, his assistant. Bearded, sweet and good, Manny is everything that Bernard isn’t and is punished by Bernard relentlessly just for the crime of existing. They depend on each other for meaning as Fran, their oldest friend, depends on them for distraction. Black Books is a haven of books, wine and conversation, the only threat to the group’s peace and prosperity is their own limitless stupidity.

Cast and crew

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Black Books is on our Comedy on Prime Video, Comedy on Tubi, The Roku Channel and Comedy on The Roku Channel lists.

More like this feeling

Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.

• “funny but not stupid, under two hours”
• “a fun halloween movie, not too scary”
• “a movie that will make me cry”

Lists with the same feel: Weird and surreal and Gentle.