"Extras" - Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant

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According to the TV guide I read this afternoon, this starts on Thursday July 21, 9pm BBC2. Let the sick, giddy excitement begin!

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:12 (twenty years ago)

First thing that worries me - special guest stars for each episode. This is usually A Bad Thing. But my faith remains strong.

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:13 (twenty years ago)

What is the premise?

― Felix Leiter (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:16 (twenty years ago)

"Extras is the hotly-anticipated new comedy series from the creators of The Office, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

Ricky plays Andy Millman who, having given up his day job to be an actor, finds he just can't land the big parts.

In fact, he rarely gets a speaking role so spends most of his days stuck in a green room with other extras, envying the A-list stars, with his fellow actor, Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen).

Each week Extras has a different setting and cameo appearances from guest artists including Samuel L Jackson, Kate Winslet, Ben Stiller, Ross Kemp, Vinnie Jones and Les Dennis."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/extras/

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:19 (twenty years ago)

You had me until Ben Stiller. The comedy kiss of death.

― cousin larry bundgee: the next generation, season two (bundgee), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:20 (twenty years ago)

Is it just me, or does this sound rubbish?

guest artists including Samuel L Jackson, Kate Winslet, Ben Stiller, Ross Kemp, Vinnie Jones and Les Dennis.

Because it shouldn't be just me.

― Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:20 (twenty years ago)

Ben Stiller ruining otherwise potentially good show seconded.

― geyser muffler and a quarter (Dave225), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:22 (twenty years ago)

Like I said, guest stars = not good. But this is Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant we're talking about. I totally believe they can make it work.

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:23 (twenty years ago)

I don't see the guest stars being a huge problem in the right hands, like say The Garry Shandling Show. I think Gervais/Merchant would be smart enough to not rely on a guest star to carry an episode.

I also don't know who Ross Kemp and Les Dennis are. The british Ben Stillers?

― cousin larry bundgee: the next generation, season two (bundgee), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:24 (twenty years ago)

Now don't get me wrong, Ben Stiller sucks, but he has cameoed on basically every single one of my favorite sitcoms: Arrested Development, Freaks and Geeks, Curb Your Enthusiasm, etc. So this may be a GOOD sign.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:25 (twenty years ago)

I've heard that Par1s H1lton met Ricky Gervais somehwere, praising his work, and Ricky pretended not to know her. When she said, "I'm P4r1s H1lton," Gervais said, "Sorry. Didn't recognize you w/out a cock in your mouth."

― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:25 (twenty years ago)

That Stiller cameo in Freaks and Geeks is PAINFUL.

― cousin larry bundgee: the next generation, season two (bundgee), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:26 (twenty years ago)

He was alright in Curb Your Enthusiasm - I guess because he played himself as an actor, instead of a zany zoolandesque character.

― geyser muffler and a quarter (Dave225), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:28 (twenty years ago)

Ross Kemp = former soap opera star with face (and acting style) like a depressed bulldog.

Les Dennis = former crap "family" comedian turned crap game show host turned public cuckold turned reality TV loser and "most likely to completely lose his shit at some point and get taken down by an armed response unit".

*cough*iquitelikebenstiller*cough*

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:29 (twenty years ago)

Although yes, when he has creative control he's pretty reeky.

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:29 (twenty years ago)

stiller is the only guest star who will conceivably shine. what y'all got against him? i want to be proved wrong re the others, but come on, vinnie jones.

― n_RQ, Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

Stiller was okay on AD. Sam Jackson has mercifully cut down his appearances lately.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

Vinnie Jones will be fine if they use him as a sight gag and take the piss. Which should be easy enough.

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:32 (twenty years ago)

I ate Vinnie Jones' unwanted Penguin bar after I was his waiter in a Watford restaurant.

― Felix Leiter (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:32 (twenty years ago)

Sam Jackson has mercifully cut down his apprentices lately.

― Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:32 (twenty years ago)

just wanted to get that in.

― Felix Leiter (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:33 (twenty years ago)

Ben Stiller was on Undeclared too! He actually wasn't that bad on Undeclared.

― Leon C. (Ex Leon), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:33 (twenty years ago)

I thought Stiller was pretty damn funny in Arrested Development. But basically I was saying that even if he does suck, he seems to have pretty good taste about which shows to cameo on, so this could be a good sign for "Extras."

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:34 (twenty years ago)

http://www.defamer.com/hollywood/gossip/paris-hilton/

― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:35 (twenty years ago)

this sounds shit

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:35 (twenty years ago)

Did you like The Office mandee?

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:36 (twenty years ago)

If this isn't fucking appalling I'll be very surprised.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:36 (twenty years ago)

I am excited. Even with the guest stars.

― sleep (sleep), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:36 (twenty years ago)

Gervais/Merchant are GOD. Have faith, people.

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:36 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, it doesn't sound good. sorry

― Felix Leiter (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:37 (twenty years ago)

Let's be honest, everything Gervais has done in his life other than The Office has been terrible.

Whether or not this will be worse than Max and Paddy is going to be the real question.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:37 (twenty years ago)

Nooods, I adore the office - but guest stars make me think of Arli$$ and other crap HBO shows thoughout the years

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:38 (twenty years ago)

GOB and Buster were hilarious in Stiller's AD appearance, so yeah, N/A wins.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:39 (twenty years ago)

I think Extras should guest star ME

i'd amp up the ratings on that already sinking ship!!!!

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:40 (twenty years ago)

Everything Gervais has done has been great! I think as a writing partnership him and Merchant are pretty focused/perfectionist. The problem is the weight of expectation after The Office.

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:40 (twenty years ago)

Oops, I meant The Larry Sanders Show upthread ... not the horrible It's Garry Shandling's Show that preceeded it.

― cousin larry bundgee: the next generation, season two (bundgee), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:40 (twenty years ago)

Everything Gervais has done has been great!

http://www.poetaster.co.uk/11.jpg

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:41 (twenty years ago)

You had me until Ben Stiller. The comedy kiss of death.

Not so on Arrested Development. The episode he guested in last season was one of the best.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

Luckily, this will take another four years to reach Canada, so I'll have fair warning if the suckery exceeds my tolerance (I have a high suckery tolerance, I read comic books, dammit).

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

One of the things that interests me is the fact that guest stars in sitcoms invariably don't work (Larry Sanders and CYE are kind of exceptions because of their formats). It's like they've given themselves the challenge of overcoming a bad idea.

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

Comedy isn't as funny as drama, though.

― Felix Leiter (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

I thought Gervais was funny on The 11 O'Clock Show, like Ali G before him he was the only bit worth watching the programme for.

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

I also think mandee should cameo on EXTRAS. I'd watch it.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

How are CYE and Larry Sanders much different than this? They've basically combined those two shows to make this one - studio/green rooms and documentary style.

― cousin larry bundgee: the next generation, season two (bundgee), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

i just hate the idea that we're supposed to be thrilled that so-and-so is playing a cameo when usually it's just annoying

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

I think NED and IAN RIESE MORAINE should cameo on this as a pair of Venutian twins.

― Felix Leiter (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:45 (twenty years ago)

I don't know if this will be documentary style. At one point Gervais was saying he didn't want to do that again after The Office.

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:46 (twenty years ago)

Okay, now it sounds even worse.

― Felix Leiter (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:46 (twenty years ago)

N/a and I should write a vehicle for Mandee wherein she plays a nonchalant actress who works as an extra on Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant's EXTRAS.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:47 (twenty years ago)

yeah im going to prematurely say "Phenom" was better

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:49 (twenty years ago)

PHENOM~~!

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:50 (twenty years ago)

The sitcom about me will be called “Extra! Extra!”

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:50 (twenty years ago)

Phenom? That sitcom with that guy from High Fidelity and the latter-day Seaver? And possibly Charles Nelson Reilly?

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:51 (twenty years ago)

No, it was William DeVane. And Judith Light, wtf? How'd I ever forget her?

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:52 (twenty years ago)

the magazine i work for is running a preview piece about "extras" this saturday; the guy who wrote it has seen two or three of the episodes. he says it's very "small-feeling", obviously deliberately so; that gervais is obviously going out of his way to create a minor cult hit rather than some huge whizz-bang sequel to the office.

he also says it's very, very good. the set-up invariably involves the guest star being made to look like a tool: there's a joke, for instance, involving ross kemp's resemblance to both vin diesel and zippy out of rainbow. but the actors (ie the real-life actors, not the characters who play, umm, actors ... christ, i hope my editing of the piece is less confusing than this post) are obviously happy enough to be sent up, so ... i dunno, i think it'll be a far cry from the usual celebrity-cameo nonsense.

gervais's character (andy millman? something like that) is apparently more like gervais's public persona/smarmy act than another brent; more cocksure, more arrogant. there are the usual jokes based around people's excruciating inability to conduct small talk, plus typical gervais-style inappropriateness (apparently his character says of a woman with MS: "what's her problem? is she drunk or just mental?")

from what our man says, i think it'll be good but not earth-shattering; i think the problem will simply be that people are going to expect it to be the funniest thing since sliced blackadder, and are going to come away thinking, oh, is that it?

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 19:13 (twenty years ago)

character (andy millman? something like that) is apparently more like gervais's public persona/smarmy act than another brent

truly, he has the range of a fully-fuelled B-52.

― N_RQ, Wednesday, 13 July 2005 19:19 (twenty years ago)

I keep thinking this is going to be a bigger budget version of Chewing the Fat's Ronald Villiers sketches. I hope to be proved wrong, but I'm not sure I will.

(Did Chewing the Fat ever make it out of Scotland, or was it just Still Game?)

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 19:29 (twenty years ago)

Chewing The Fat was great (this is coming from a non-scot).. Watching the first series of Still Game and i don't think it's quite as good.

Ronald Villiers was the star of Chewing the Fat by a mile..

― Jack Battery-Pack (Jack Battery-Pack), Thursday, 14 July 2005 05:17 (twenty years ago)

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1527879,00.html

sounds promising.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Thursday, 14 July 2005 07:46 (twenty years ago)

"Yous are all pirates, eh?"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/tv/chewinthefat/images/villiers/untitled1.jpg

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Thursday, 14 July 2005 07:51 (twenty years ago)

ha! see, it's even funny just as a quote and a picture.

i think i could make a strong case for the whole CtF axis being the best thing to happen to comedy since "father ted".

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 14 July 2005 08:55 (twenty years ago)

It's not even the right picture...

"Robert de Niro writes his lines on his cuff?"
"He does when he works with me."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/tv/chewinthefat/images/downloads/postcards/chewin_post_ronald.jpg

Re: your strong case. The Karen Findlay Show.

I rewatched series 1 of Still Game the other week and it was much funnier than I thought it was the first time I watched it. Now I have s2 and s3 to watch, thanks to the wonder of b1t t0rr3nt.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Thursday, 14 July 2005 09:14 (twenty years ago)

Re: your strong case. The Karen Findlay Show.

karen dunbar? ok: there's always an exception. bits i've seen have been moderately funny, but i don't think i've ever watched an episode all the way through.

for me it was "the big man" who was the true god of CtF. although that had a lot to do with the fact he seemed to have been modelled entirely on one of my then bosses.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 14 July 2005 09:23 (twenty years ago)

Dunbar, aye. Karen Findlay was the woman with the yams, wasn't she...

I think my favourite was probably Invisible Boss.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Thursday, 14 July 2005 09:26 (twenty years ago)

I can't believe this thread has gone so long without anyone linking to the trailers/teasers that have been released:

here

The teasers/clips aren't particularly funny to me, but I do like the bit with Sam L Jackson. The cameos are clearly going to be the actors playing themselves (the "Jonathan Ross and Ollie" vid has got a clip from the actual Extras show, if I recall correctly), and yeah, probably taking the piss quite a bit.

I don't have a tv so I guess I'll download this this weekend. I suspect it'll be as grimly suggests - quality, but not particularly hysterical. (i miss the office.)

― sean gramophone (Sean M), Thursday, 14 July 2005 11:15 (twenty years ago)

There's no way they'll be relying on the guest stars to carry the show - I suspect all the cameos will be peripheral, actors for the extras to carry the rest of the show around.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 14 July 2005 11:27 (twenty years ago)

I ate Vinnie Jones' unwanted Penguin bar after I was his waiter in a Watford restaurant.

What kind of restaurant serves fucking Penguins!?

― JimD (JimD), Thursday, 14 July 2005 11:55 (twenty years ago)

my kinda restaurant (thank you very much).

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 14 July 2005 11:57 (twenty years ago)

what the hell!

guys, how can you hate on ben stil http://www.popcultmag.com/criticalmass/movies/2001/zoolander.jpg

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Thursday, 14 July 2005 16:04 (twenty years ago)

He did that look in the mirror one time and thought that it would be funny to do an entire movie based on it. I would disagree with his original assessment.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 14 July 2005 16:14 (twenty years ago)

He did that look in the mirror one time and thought that it would be funny to do an entire ~~movie~~career based on it. I would disagree with his original assessment.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 14 July 2005 16:16 (twenty years ago)

dodgeball, guys! dodgeball! you gotta give him a break for dodgeball.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 14 July 2005 16:45 (twenty years ago)

I think Stiller has become a bit of an easy punch bag for comedy snobs. Zoolander was meant to be stupid! It's great fun. Especially the Jerry Stiller bits. That man is a GOD.
Starksy And Hutch was pretty weak though.

Anyway, Extras. I really hope they take the piss out of Vinnie Jones properly. Ricky Gervais's solo shows were pretty patchy though. He really needs Merchant to give him that warmth. And being set in the world of TV/film, I can see it as being less human than the Office. But we shall see...

As for CtF - Still Game might not have as many big laughs, but it's more satisfying over all I feel. It's also one of the few mainstream TV shows with a social conscience, that actually captures life in Scotland. Really gives you another side of Glasgow from the Scotland With Style tourist board guff, while having a wit, warmth and humanity Rab C Nesbitt lacked.
Villiers is great though - is he not getting his own show?
Karen Dunbar has its moments, but that horrible sub-South Park animation with the talking kebabs has to go. It's rank! She's doing a sitcom about her club singer, who's her best character other than the randy old lady, so that's intriguing.

― Stew (stew s), Thursday, 14 July 2005 20:53 (twenty years ago)

Rab C had a fair bit of warmth and humanity and conscience though. Still Game is utterly fantastic though.

I find people talking about the best bits of CtF much funnier than actually watching it. Should we have a separate CtF thread? Maybe there is one.

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 14 July 2005 20:57 (twenty years ago)

though x 2 = I really should proof-read.

(Did Chewing the Fat ever make it out of Scotland, or was it just Still Game?)

Last year, I knew it did, as I said so, about as coherently as I structured that last post on the Still Game : (BBC2 series) thread. (I think I meant that it got networked across the UK after having being run in Scotland for a few series first).

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 14 July 2005 21:08 (twenty years ago)

i saw a couple videos at the store of gervais doing stand-up. are those worth seeing?

my favorite office scene is still the hotel customer roleplay: "'I think there's been a rape up there!'... Get their attention."

― Ô¿Ô (eman), Thursday, 14 July 2005 21:53 (twenty years ago)

So is this argument still going on then, or no?:

http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/2005-07-12

the second one down, obviously, not the letterman bit. on one hand, i can understand what RG is saying but on the less-dumb hand it's kind of silly for him to think he isn't already somewhat in the mainstream anyway. i mean, i love ricky and the office, but that quote really sort of makes him seem like a twat.

― Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (Plastic Gas Booby Trap), Friday, 15 July 2005 01:18 (twenty years ago)

or sound like one, that should be.

― Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (Plastic Gas Booby Trap), Friday, 15 July 2005 01:19 (twenty years ago)

In interviews, Gervais has been fairly insistent that he wants Extras released quietly with no big push. Whatever the truth, or his motivation, I think he's read the way the BBC works nowadays very well, because once a cult sitcom goes BBC1 it immediately goes shit, as if the Beeb are frightened that making viewers think for more than 1 second about a gag might be too elitist.

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Friday, 15 July 2005 01:25 (twenty years ago)

right, i understand his fears about it and why he would prefer it if people actually watched because they really wanted to instead of it just being on. i was more referring to the part about "going mainstream" and how he doesn't want to be seen in that sort of light as a big ol' show. but, like, dude you were just at live 8 and everybody knew who you were. i think it's a little late to try and be on the lowdown now. especially since you've got guys like samuel l. jackson and ben stiller on your new show.

perhaps my fear here is that since ricky and steven kind of HAVE gone mainstream the product will, in fact, take a nosedive.

― Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (Plastic Gas Booby Trap), Friday, 15 July 2005 01:34 (twenty years ago)

(that's not to say that i don't still have my hopes up for the show)

― Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (Plastic Gas Booby Trap), Friday, 15 July 2005 01:35 (twenty years ago)

my tv is like blocking the roffles or something --- where are they?

― Enrique, naked in an unfamiliar future where corporations run the world... (Enri, Thursday, 21 July 2005 19:20 (twenty years ago)

Amon, the stand up is patchy, very funny in parts.

I love it that this thread caused Dean Gulberry to post the words "Les Dennis"!

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Thursday, 21 July 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

stiller was ok, maybe, but in general this was dire.

― Enrique, naked in an unfamiliar future where corporations run the world... (Enri, Thursday, 21 July 2005 19:32 (twenty years ago)

I quite liked it.

(then again, I probably have terrible taste)

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 21 July 2005 19:34 (twenty years ago)

it just felt played. gervais offends someone! and then digs deeper! oh no!

― Enrique, naked in an unfamiliar future where corporations run the world... (Enri, Thursday, 21 July 2005 19:37 (twenty years ago)

But how is that different to The Office?

(I suppose, really, it's missing the Tim and Gareth characters)

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 21 July 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

i'm surprised HBO isn't running this concurrently since they co-produced it; everyone's just going to torrent it now

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 21 July 2005 19:42 (twenty years ago)

Some of the darkest comedy I can remember seeing on tv. A nicely nuanced performance from Gervais, who was a revelation.

Brent was a deluded, vain, arrogant idiot a cartoon figure. Millman is something all together more tragic, desperate and stupid but dignified and with a strong moral core in a most amoral business. Most importantly painfully aware of his shortcomings. This will bear (and need) repeated viewings, 'layered' as Stiller may say.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 21 July 2005 19:44 (twenty years ago)

http://www.wcbnet.freeserve.co.uk/images/Les_Dennis.jpg

― Dr. Glen Y. Abreu (dr g), Thursday, 21 July 2005 19:46 (twenty years ago)

if anyone knows where to find a torrent of this, please do post.

― don weiner (don weiner), Thursday, 21 July 2005 19:49 (twenty years ago)

yeah think it was tentative but could be a good show yet, very hasty to make a judgement. there were a few laugh out loud moments, and yeah it definitely isn't Brent II.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 21 July 2005 19:52 (twenty years ago)

There are people out there who obviously couldn't wait to brand Gervais as sold out, and this quiet lack of hype hasn't allowed them to do that. Good stuff from Gervais.

As for the programme itself, i thought it was good in parts. The parts with Goran uncomfortably recommending Gervais's character for the part on the strength of top shop vouchers, and the 'Boots' digression were hilarious. Other things like the scene with the big shoe man didn't work as well.

Definitely the programme of the week, although that's not saying much in this dire time for TV.

― Edwich Mansfield, Thursday, 21 July 2005 19:59 (twenty years ago)

yeah i am quick onna draw here. my main problem with it was gervais, doing gervais. the boots gag, the japanese/chinese confusion, it all felt a but deja vu.

haha xp -- the boots gag, oh come on now.

― Enrique, naked in an unfamiliar future where corporations run the world... (Enri, Thursday, 21 July 2005 20:00 (twenty years ago)

buggery. i missed it. fuck.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 21 July 2005 20:01 (twenty years ago)

does anyone know where this will be available for download? I'm not familiar with any british torrent sites.

― Lovelace (Lovelace), Thursday, 21 July 2005 20:06 (twenty years ago)

I thought it was very good, but I also made an interesting comparison: new series Fat Actress was on FX at the same time. This is Kirstie Alley playing overweight former star Kirstie Alley, so there's a level of bravery vaguely in the Larry Sanders mode, but it's still kind of gutless, and the humour is fatally poised between 'we would not mock people for simply being arguably overweight' and 'haha look at that enormous arse', without getting either sufficiently right. I'd watched Extras before that, so it wasn't a case of that looking sharp in comparison.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 21 July 2005 20:14 (twenty years ago)

ukn0v4 will have it

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 21 July 2005 20:15 (twenty years ago)

what is the adress to that site? when I put that name in googles search engine nothing comes up.

― Lovelace (Lovelace), Thursday, 21 July 2005 20:39 (twenty years ago)

try replacing the 4 with an "A"

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Thursday, 21 July 2005 20:45 (twenty years ago)

Is it true that gervais wrote an episode of the simpsons?

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Thursday, 21 July 2005 20:46 (twenty years ago)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/frontrow/

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Thursday, 21 July 2005 20:48 (twenty years ago)

(and the 0 with an o)

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Thursday, 21 July 2005 20:50 (twenty years ago)

Shit, I completely forgot this was on. Is it going to be repeated? (I can get BBC3&4 if that helps)

― Teh HoBB (the pirate king), Thursday, 21 July 2005 20:51 (twenty years ago)

yes it's at that site. thanks much.

― don weiner (don weiner), Thursday, 21 July 2005 20:57 (twenty years ago)

the bbc seems to not care very much about that site since it's been around for fucking ever and they definitely know about it. it's well self-policed though, the second things hit DVD they disappear from the site.

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 21 July 2005 21:01 (twenty years ago)

although I might add that it's got 43 leechers and the seed isn't even going yet. the tracker could use some work.

― don weiner (don weiner), Thursday, 21 July 2005 21:05 (twenty years ago)

He was on Alias? As a terrorist?

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Thursday, 21 July 2005 21:06 (twenty years ago)

IRA bomb maker. In a fit of brilliant scheduling Five snuck it out at quarter past midnight on a Thursday morning a few months ago, which, for some reason, is when they always show Alias. Hmm.

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Thursday, 21 July 2005 21:09 (twenty years ago)

Now if Catherine Tate had played Andy Millman, that would have been easier than watching Gervais's acting deficiencies. He kept slipping into his patchy stand-up routine when proper dialogue would have been better. The 'club foot' scene was, charitably, an homage to Seinfeld.
Ben Stiller played a cross between Brent and Artie Ziff.

I am watching 'The Office' on UK Gold and it is still great. In fact Ricky even acts in it.
I'll still watch 'Extras' though, even though the tone is wildly inconsistent. But 'Absolute Power'? Now that is shit.

― snotty moore, Thursday, 21 July 2005 21:34 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, it was quite strange to watch Stiller do Brent. The "but if he'd watched Dodgeball seven or eight times? [pause] Well, ok, he'd still be laughing..." could have come straight out of an office script.

And yeah, overall it just seemed to be 50% office-style comedy of embarassment (which has worn a bit thin), and 50% Gervais being pretty similar to his normal cocky XFM persona, which is usually funny but didn't seem to fit. I didn't hate it, I'll watch it again, but I don't remember actually laughing at any point...

― JimD (JimD), Thursday, 21 July 2005 21:54 (twenty years ago)

Gervais' talk show was mildly funny. People never seem to talk about it.

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Thursday, 21 July 2005 21:59 (twenty years ago)

I didn't hate it, I'll watch it again, but I don't remember actually laughing at any point...

I'd go along with this. Gervais' mugging to camera grates hugely, though

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 21 July 2005 22:00 (twenty years ago)

I caught the last five minutes and it was worth it for

"Do you know who I am?"
"Is it Starsky or Hutch? I can never remember..."
"Was that supposed to be funny?"
"You tell me, you were in it."

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 21 July 2005 22:41 (twenty years ago)

any one know how i can download last night's episode of Gervais' Extras?? Urgently need it and totally clueless on how to commit thos offence!

― Nicola Baggott, Friday, 22 July 2005 07:55 (twenty years ago)

I watched it and I laughed a few times.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 22 July 2005 08:01 (twenty years ago)

i only saw the last scene as well, which i've been told by several people was much better than the rest. still, that five minutes would beat five hours of the execrable catherine tate show.

― lauren (laurenp), Friday, 22 July 2005 09:46 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, Catherine Tate - what's that all about?!?!??

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 22 July 2005 09:47 (twenty years ago)

being torturously unfunny, apparently.

― lauren (laurenp), Friday, 22 July 2005 09:54 (twenty years ago)

the eventual stiller/brent face-off was the best bit, yeah. part of it was the 'wtfness' of ben stiller being on a bbc2 comedy.

― N_RQ, Friday, 22 July 2005 10:02 (twenty years ago)

I like very much "I'm not bothered". Not watching it, just thinking about it.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 22 July 2005 10:03 (twenty years ago)

the "i'm not bothered" sketch reminded me of what someone said on a little britain thread about vicky pollard being funny due to the rapid-fire tongue-twisting of matt lucas. remove the verbal dexterity, and you're not left with much.

― lauren (laurenp), Friday, 22 July 2005 10:23 (twenty years ago)

The "Starsky and Hutch" exchange quoted above was funny. The Scottish woman character didn't work at all - a desperate spinster, ooooh how original!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 22 July 2005 10:25 (twenty years ago)

I enjoyed - well, that's probably the wrong word. I *appreciated* one of Catherine Tate's sketches because it mentioned slightly-obscure places in East Yorkshire.

I didn't laugh once during it, though. Most of the time I just couldn't see the point.

Absolute Power was good, though. I think I am (re)developing a James Lance crush.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Friday, 22 July 2005 10:30 (twenty years ago)

absolute power was great.

― lauren (laurenp), Friday, 22 July 2005 10:35 (twenty years ago)

The Catherine Tate Show- it's like Absolutely meets Naked Video... ON DRUGS!!!

― Alison Graham (Dom Passantino), Friday, 22 July 2005 10:38 (twenty years ago)

... Mogadon

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 22 July 2005 10:40 (twenty years ago)

I could only manage about 3 minutes of Catherine Tate before I switched to some thing on bbc3 about a man with a three inch knob. He kept getting it out.

― JimD (JimD), Friday, 22 July 2005 10:42 (twenty years ago)

Oh no, don't tell me Jimmy Carr's on BBC3 now as well!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 22 July 2005 10:43 (twenty years ago)

hahaha!

― N_RQ, Friday, 22 July 2005 10:45 (twenty years ago)

catherine tate is horrible but the "I'm not bothered" is much funnier than vicki pollard.

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 22 July 2005 10:56 (twenty years ago)

i know this is a bit late in the thread adam but please explain the phrase "watford restaurant"

― ambrose (ambrose), Friday, 22 July 2005 11:00 (twenty years ago)

Yes, the 'Starsky or Hutch' scene was the best one. But Extras was standard stuff, low-grade Gervais, comedy cast-offs, 2nd-rate cruise control time. As ... extras on a DVD it would have made a nice surprise, but as episode 1 of a brave new show it was remarkably disappointing.

― the bellefox, Friday, 22 July 2005 13:18 (twenty years ago)

Are you coming to the pub, Foxy?

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 22 July 2005 13:28 (twenty years ago)

I have only just seen that thread. I am a bit confused. I didn't know things were happening. It's a possibility.

― the bellefox, Friday, 22 July 2005 13:30 (twenty years ago)

I was confused yesterday. But today I am on the ball.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 22 July 2005 13:37 (twenty years ago)

Still Game on now.

― Masked Gazza, Friday, 22 July 2005 20:01 (twenty years ago)

I watched it last night and I laughed at Super Army Soldiers and some other stuff. It is a nice half hour, I think.

Although Questions of Security with Huw Edwards was better, even if I did drop off towards the end.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 29 July 2005 10:02 (twenty years ago)

i had to switch over because ross kemp was so bad.

― N_RQ, Friday, 29 July 2005 10:09 (twenty years ago)

Got home in time to see the last ten minutes or so of Extras - Ross Kemp's performance was truly lamentable. This premise can only work if the actor being sent up turns out actually to be a good actor; once you realise that he really is awful, the point of the joke is lost.

Catherine Tate was untidy and not helped by some lousy material but I agree that her teen chav is funnier than Vicky Pollard ("Naughty Rascal" indeed!).

Absolute Power I watched for about ten minutes and then switched off - insufferably smug, like everything else with John Bird's name on it.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 29 July 2005 10:17 (twenty years ago)

I'm not sure if I liked it. I did laugh, but not much. Have to watch it again next week to make my mind up. :-)

― nathalie's body's designed for two (stevie nixed), Friday, 29 July 2005 10:25 (twenty years ago)

I thought Ross Kemp was supposed to be bad.

It looks like it's going to eb the same thing every week. Good, I like that.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 29 July 2005 10:29 (twenty years ago)

he was bad at being bad. he was trying to send himself up, but it fell flat.

― N_RQ, Friday, 29 July 2005 10:30 (twenty years ago)

I don't know, I thought it (acting,...) was meant to be crap to show how sad that business really is. Maybe I'm seeing too much in it.

― nathalie's body's designed for two (stevie nixed), Friday, 29 July 2005 10:33 (twenty years ago)

I didn't think this week's Extras was as funny as last week's, but I haven't given up on it yet. I heard somwhere that the episode with Les Dennis in is supposed to be very good. We'll see.

Catherine Tate's Naughty Rascal was very well observed, and I laughed for about five minutes nonstop at the Muller Crunch Corner yogurt gag.

― C J (C J), Friday, 29 July 2005 10:33 (twenty years ago)

I liked the scene with Stephen Merchant as the crap agent.

(that *was* Merchant, right?)

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Friday, 29 July 2005 10:38 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I think so.

― nathalie's body's designed for two (stevie nixed), Friday, 29 July 2005 10:42 (twenty years ago)

Yes.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 29 July 2005 10:43 (twenty years ago)

I think Ross Kemp was poorly enough written to give any actor a hard job - the payoff was very obvious, from the very start. I thought Kemp fell short of being fine because of a failure of nerve: he wanted us to have no doubt that the actual Ross Kemp was not like the Ross Kemp we were seeing in this show, so hammed it up a bit. He is a somewhat better actor than this, but probably too limited for the role.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 29 July 2005 18:18 (twenty years ago)

I thought he was great! He looked so small and sad at the end. Bless him. Although I was thrown off a bit by 'put a bit of minge round it'.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 29 July 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

The Casualty joke was very good, I thought.

The more I think about it, the more I like this programme.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 1 August 2005 06:48 (twenty years ago)

The Casualty joke was weaker for being repeated in every BBC2 trailer-break for the past month.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Monday, 1 August 2005 07:58 (twenty years ago)

the 'put a bit of minge round it' line has been bothering me ever since.

― stirmonster (stirmonster), Monday, 1 August 2005 08:10 (twenty years ago)

calling Sean thingy "barry" all the time was good.

― Britain's Jauntiest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 1 August 2005 08:18 (twenty years ago)

Good job I missed the trailer breaks.

I thought I had misheard "minge". I'm not sure I get it.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 1 August 2005 08:36 (twenty years ago)

Alan, what I especially liked was not just calling him Barry, but telling Ross Kemp that he'd met his friend, Barry-off-Eastenders.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 1 August 2005 15:20 (twenty years ago)

got any jobs?
- there's a leaky pipe in the upstairs lav
right you are...

― Britain's Jauntiest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 1 August 2005 15:27 (twenty years ago)

I don't normally refer to these threads but i couldn't help but notice that someone mentioned the 'big shoe' scene in Ep1, adding that it didn't work well !?

Erm, that scene was nigh on perfection. I'd just like to add that i genuinely cried with laughter for the first time in quite a while this evening as i watched the aforementioned sketch.

Homeboy needs to seek professional help.

Thug hugs,

Craig

― Biggest Craig, Wednesday, 3 August 2005 19:54 (twenty years ago)

A sitcom written by Ricky Gervais and Stephin Merritt, that would be nice.

― Orange (Orange), Friday, 5 August 2005 08:04 (twenty years ago)

Last night I liked the Kate Winslet stuff about the dirty phone calls, but thought the CF woman was Gervais/Merchant by numbers. And the agent stuff is rubbish.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 5 August 2005 08:12 (twenty years ago)

I wonder how many complaints the BBC got last night? There must have been a few, what with the phone boning, cerebral palsy, catholic priests/child molesters etc.

I thought it was good, though there seem to be less laugh-out-loud moments as the weeks go by.

Ricky Gervais isn't actually acting though, is he? The Andy Milman character is similar enough to David Brent for me to think that this is just how Gervais behaves in real life, all the time.

― C J (C J), Friday, 5 August 2005 08:19 (twenty years ago)

I enjoyed, but possibly a little less than previous weeks. Only a little less, mind. I wonder if they will add this appearance to Kate W's credit card advert.

I think he is more annoying in real life.

Major difference - this character isn't in charge of anybody else.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 5 August 2005 08:21 (twenty years ago)

Half the time I really didn't know if I should turn the telly off or watch sth else. I'm still undecided if it's sublime or just so-so. I was laughing the rest of the time, nearly crying. I thought the bit about cerebral palsy/catholicism was very risky but I liked it nonetheless. Kate Winslet's dirty and Oscar talk was also very funny.

I think he is more annoying in real life.

You tink so? I think he's *pretending* to be himself which is what makes the agent stuff also brilliant. But in a less ha-ha funny way.

― nathalie sans denouement (stevie nixed), Friday, 5 August 2005 08:23 (twenty years ago)

And what was that dreadful *funny* program after it? Sheesh, what a bunch of crap.

― nathalie sans denouement (stevie nixed), Friday, 5 August 2005 08:24 (twenty years ago)

The Catherine Tate Show? I like CT a lot but, as I've said elsewhere, she's being let down by crap material.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 5 August 2005 08:27 (twenty years ago)

When I say real life, I mean on chat shows, which isn't really real life, I have just realised.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 5 August 2005 08:28 (twenty years ago)

The cerebral palsy stuff I found quite annoying, but it *shone* in comparison to how Catherine Tate handled material on people with cleft palates and port wine stains, which actually made me want to punch her.

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 5 August 2005 08:41 (twenty years ago)

Calm down Nicholas, it was just a bad mongrelisation of Abigail's Party with the Henry Fisher character in Ryman's 253.

I must say that, three weeks in, I'm not really feeling Extras. Winslet came across rather like Julie Andrews in S.O.B.; (wo)manfully trying her best, but a heart fundamentally not in it. Also there's the inevitable spiral of Gervais now being a media star, thus living his life in the media, thus all he can now write about is the media; and you end up thinking, what's this actually got to do with us? Whereas with The Office, you knew exactly what this had to do with "us," as it was an encapsulation of our daily "lives." From last night, the only "moral" I got was: if you want to win an Oscar, do a Holocaust film or play handicapped/retarded. Fine, David Thomson wrote a treatise on the same subject - some of which was virtually word-for-word last night's script - in the "20 Things You Should Know About Hollywood" section of his book Beneath Mulholland, written almost a decade ago. And, after Billy Connolly and Father Ted, is there any comic mileage left in Catholicism?

All in all it's rather like that sad decline you hear throughout Pulp's Different Class, which starts with woodchip on the wall and beds for a fiver from a shop down the road, and ends with Our Jarvis in Bar bloody Italia.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 5 August 2005 08:42 (twenty years ago)

Most of the Catholicism jokes fell flat, but it was worth it to have Kate Winslet dressed as a nun sheepishly mumbling "My fanny".

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 5 August 2005 08:52 (twenty years ago)

That bit was so funny our telly switched itself off and on again, by itself.

Plenty of mileage in Catholicism, I think. Michael Flatley joke v funny.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 5 August 2005 08:54 (twenty years ago)

The Reverend Michael O'Flatley. Quite amusing I suppose, but nowhere near as funny as Graham Norton and his disciples doing the Riverdance in a tiny caravan in Father Ted, which caused a bruise on my right buttock when I fell off the sofa laughing at it.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 5 August 2005 09:01 (twenty years ago)

The Catherine Tate Show? I like CT a lot but, as I've said elsewhere, she's being let down by crap material.

Yes! I was excited because I had heard such great things about her, but maybe my expectations were probably too high. It just didn't do anything for me. In re to Gervais, you're completely right, Marcello, but I still enjoy it immensely. I realize I'm just *smitten* with his persona (and the Office), so I can't help but like it. :-)

― nathalie sans denouement (stevie nixed), Friday, 5 August 2005 09:04 (twenty years ago)

After watching all the episodes so far of this I reckon it really rips off 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'. In structure particularly. The way he introduces a few sub-plot things and then they all somehow tie up at the end.

Last nights episode for example. The confrontation about the phone call followed immediately by Gervais and Winslet laughing at the woman with CP. I could easily imagine Larry David in Gervais' place.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Friday, 5 August 2005 09:39 (twenty years ago)

It still feels a bit flat but it's not without a smattering of good moments. Trouble is, even though it's not a universally recognisable world (like The Office) you would expect some (more) insight into the goings-on of a movie set. The film Living in Oblivion did this perfectly but on Extras they just sit to the side having rather unconvincing conversations.
I would like them to try and get humour out of something other than 'Ricky makes an un-PC remark in the company of a "minority", attempts to talk his way out of it but only succeeds in digging himself in deeper'. I mean, I know comedy of embarrassment is Gervais' forte but blimey it's so repetitive after a while.
I liked the silliness with the agent but I don't think Merchant is the right man for the job. Also amusing: Gervais beginning to corpse as Kate Winslet said "my fanny".

Yeah, Catherine Tate needs much better writers. Her characterisations are fab though, especially the nan - very funny. Most sketches run on too long though, and some, like the “what am I like” woman really don’t need to be in it every week and only really deserves the duration of an average Fast Show sketch.

― David Merryweather Goes To Far (scarlet), Friday, 5 August 2005 09:48 (twenty years ago)

Too pissed now to comment properly, but don't overlook the comic awesomeness of when the priest asks Gervais "and does Father Flatley exist?" and he cuts across him with "Father Michael O'Flatley."

And it's great. Not as great as The Office yet, but higher highs and darker darks just maybe.

― Anti-Pope Consortium (noodle vague), Friday, 5 August 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

Well then. Ricky Gervais: Less funny than Les Dennis.

― JimD (JimD), Thursday, 11 August 2005 19:33 (twenty years ago)

That was the best episode so far - but, yes, not because of anything Gervais could do.

(apart from, well, actually write the thing I guess)

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 11 August 2005 19:57 (twenty years ago)

I enjoyed the non-Les Dennis elements more.

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Thursday, 11 August 2005 20:21 (twenty years ago)

That was a classic, more for the writing in the Maggie plotline than anything else, though LD's performance was gruesomely brilliant.

― Masked Gazza, Thursday, 11 August 2005 20:25 (twenty years ago)

Yes, I preferred the Maggie plotline.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 11 August 2005 20:28 (twenty years ago)

I give that episode eleven out of ten. I couldn't find anything wrong with it at all. It seems odd to dismiss the Gervaise elements of something which is so Gervaise-centric and Gervaise-propelled.

The second episode of my City of Men DVD, however, was a great letdown.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 12 August 2005 06:46 (twenty years ago)

Fuck, I missed it. :-(

― nathalie sans denouement (stevie nixed), Friday, 12 August 2005 06:53 (twenty years ago)

There was an interesting triple-decker subtext to last night's episode:

1. Les Dennis gamely parodies his own career and life in a good sport/Being John Malkovich kind of a way.

2. Les Dennis is actually desperate enough to want to appear on a show which openly denigrates and ridicules his decline.

3. Les Dennis is being canny as he thinks he can retrieve his career on the quiet, and RG is also fully aware of this, thus the writing in of the Graham Norton impression - the hoped-for hidden meaning of "I'm still with it kids" undermined by the mean-spiritedness of the impersonation itself.

Also there was yet another subtext to this episode, namely the unannounced rehabilitation of Gerard Kelly. BBC Scotland viewers of a certain vintage will recall that GK was hugely popular about 20 years ago as the star of the sitcom City Lights, wherein he played an incompetent but lovable (?) bank clerk. He then went on to play a rather hammy villain in Brookside. His role in Extras was a weird fusion of the two; the mincing about/open-mouthed embarrassment at being caught "in a meeting" was pure City Lights, whereas the darker stuff in the house with his daughter and Maggie was Resnais doing Brookside.

Easily the best episode of the series so far, I suspect because there was scarcely anything in it you could call "comedy." The panto scene with the sparse audience in particular reminded me of both Trevor Griffiths' The Comedians and the later pages of the Kenneth Williams diaries - the latter, when not concerned with his declining health, betray repeated spells in West End purgatory in duff plays which no one comes to see ("A fine draw YOU turned out to be!"). RG's camp genie was almost painful to watch, and I'm sure the visual and manneristic cops from Dustin Gee were not accidental. I'm surprised that DG didn't turn up in the script (LD as bereaved straight man makes a lot of sense when you look at his subsequent career trajectory) but maybe RG thought that might have pushed the sentimental button a bit too much.

On whatever level, an extraordinarily brave, if perhaps ultimately foolhardy, performance from LD.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 07:00 (twenty years ago)

Two and a half hours held in the thrall of tellycom last night: Extras (best I've seen, but I've only seen two; (whispers) but I could watch them all at work...), CT Show (I see her big face every day when I walk past the Geilgud Theatre), Absolute Power (not always good but top notch last night), QI (great potential to be revolting but feeling so well-disposed towards Fry after previous half-hour, gave it another chance and it was pretty good), Arrested Development.

Does anyone want to buy my stereo?

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Friday, 12 August 2005 07:35 (twenty years ago)

(whispers) but I could watch them all at work...)

You jammy sods!

I am seriously freaked out by Catherine Tate, can't watch it, don't like her.

I bet I end up being able to watch them all (at gunpoint) at work.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:14 (twenty years ago)

PS: I laughed a lot, Marcello.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:15 (twenty years ago)

The Catherine Tate Show, more than any other programme I can think of, is a programme which would have benefited from the late Graham Chapman walking onstage in military uniform and commanding that the sketch be stopped as it was "getting silly."

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:16 (twenty years ago)

Marcello, I'm sure that part of LD's baneful monolgue where he contemplates suicide actually quotes from Williams' 'suicide' note.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:17 (twenty years ago)

And Gerard Kelly is a mainstay of the Glasgow pantomime season, a case of biting the hand that feeds it, or at least nibbling it a bit.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:20 (twenty years ago)

There's a diary entry from KW circa summer of '76 which is quite similar to LD's monologue - he's gone as far as writing goodbye letters to his family and friends but decides against it when he turns up at the theatre and learns that the crap play he was in has been pulled.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:24 (twenty years ago)

Gerard Kelly a mainstay of the Glasgow pantomime season, eh? It all makes sense now. You go up there for Xmas and pass the Theatre Royal and it's all "he's still alive!" i.e. Mother Goose with Stanley Baxter, Johnny Beattie and Tiger Tim Stevens.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:25 (twenty years ago)

No kidding, but I went to see Stanley Baxter as Mother Goose (or was it Widow Twankey) on the 2nd date I had with my wife.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:31 (twenty years ago)

Also, viewers of a certain locale, will remember Gerard Kelly's mysterious assault, at the height of his fame, at the hands of a "local youth"... aye right Gerard, everyone knew exactly what was going on there

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Friday, 12 August 2005 09:12 (twenty years ago)

When I was a wee lad, my oldest stepsis used to work at the Kings Theatre in Glasgow and got me Gerard Kelly's autograph when he was doing the panto. I think it was Alladin. He had some good banter going with the audience, slagging off Greenock and the like. Very smart casting by RG and SM.

― Stew (stew s), Friday, 12 August 2005 09:12 (twenty years ago)

... hence the "The wee bastard stole my watch" rentboy hilarity (xpost)

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Friday, 12 August 2005 09:19 (twenty years ago)

Oh I didn't know that. Was this the Glasgow equivalent of Kevin Spacey getting "mugged" in that park in Kennington at 4 in the morning while "walking his dog"?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 09:25 (twenty years ago)

It most certainly was!

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Friday, 12 August 2005 09:28 (twenty years ago)

Or, for that matter, Fred Elliott from Coronation Street inviting a young lad back to his flat for a "chat" and getting stabbed in the neck. Which, in court, produced one of the greatest testimonies in British legal history:

"Fred": "Next thing I knew the defendant had me on my back and I felt a prick..."

I thought that was the whole idea of the venture!

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Friday, 12 August 2005 09:33 (twenty years ago)

Loved Extras last night. Best one yet, I think.

Sometimes when I watch Catherine Tate, I am convinced that she is trying to be Jennifer Saunders.

― C J (C J), Friday, 12 August 2005 09:36 (twenty years ago)

It's because they look alike.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 12 August 2005 09:39 (twenty years ago)

And both seem to think they're funnier and more talented than they actually are

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Friday, 12 August 2005 09:39 (twenty years ago)

One of the classic Sun headlines following that Fred Elliott incident: "I'VE BEEN STABBED, I SAY I'VE BEEN STABBED!"

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 09:42 (twenty years ago)

I don't really get 'Extras' - but then I don't get all the fuss over 'Curb your enthusiasm' either.

I quite like Catherine Tate, though - if only because the "what am I like?" character reminds me of my sister.

'Abolute Power' is absolute rubbish. The idea of 'Mark Lawson: sit-com writer' can only have come from the person who thought 'Bob Wilson: anchorman' was a good move.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 12 August 2005 09:44 (twenty years ago)

Jesus, I found a description of the trial. "Invited him home to talk about the theatre" is a euphemism to rank alongside, "I felt the need to walk the dog at 4 am". Here's the nub of the matter tho:

"I suddenly felt somebody come up behind me and whizz me round so I was face down on the bed and then I felt a prick on my throat."

Ooooooh, I say!

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Friday, 12 August 2005 09:48 (twenty years ago)

"I suddenly felt somebody come up behind me and whizz me round so I was face down on the bed"

and it was amanda platell doing the whizzing yum yum...

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 09:57 (twenty years ago)

I'm sure the visual and manneristic cops from Dustin Gee were not accidental.

Marcello, can you actually remember what Dustin Gee looked like and how he characterised himself? Cos i'm buggered if i can...what was his "thing"?

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Friday, 12 August 2005 10:41 (twenty years ago)

He did a quite amusing Robert Mitchum and a terrible Vera Duckworth to Dennis's Mavis. He was very camp and kind of Mancunian, I quite liked him actually.

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Friday, 12 August 2005 10:45 (twenty years ago)

... and if Gervaise really was impersonating him, it was both an inaccurate and mean-spirited attempt

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Friday, 12 August 2005 10:46 (twenty years ago)

Dustin Gee also had a rather malevolent grinning/laser eye stare, best deployed in his rather good Bamber Gascoigne.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 10:56 (twenty years ago)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/images/400/thelaughtershow_1.jpg

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Friday, 12 August 2005 11:03 (twenty years ago)

Goodness!

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 12 August 2005 11:54 (twenty years ago)

"Ooh, Mavis!"

― JTS, Friday, 12 August 2005 13:44 (twenty years ago)

I think this most recent episode was a bit too British (if there is such a thing). I distinctly felt a breeze as most of the references flew right over my head. I think I maybe finally realize how it must feel to watch certain episodes of The Simpsons on the other side of the pond.

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Friday, 12 August 2005 23:07 (twenty years ago)

(I'm in America and watching via torrents, BTW.)

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Friday, 12 August 2005 23:08 (twenty years ago)

I think I maybe finally realize how it must feel to watch certain episodes of The Simpsons on the other side of the pond.

Or Larry Sanders, or Curb Your Enthusiasm, or Seinfeld or Friends or Cheers or Spin City or, hell, 90% of the decent funny stuff that's ever on tv here.

― JimD (JimD), Friday, 12 August 2005 23:19 (twenty years ago)

I thought it was funny again last night. In fact, the only thing to spoil my enjoyment was trying to guess what objections people would raise here, and no one has raised any objections. So I might as well not have worried about it.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 19 August 2005 13:13 (twenty years ago)

The series started badly - and every week it gets worse!

It's abysmal!

― the pinefox, Friday, 19 August 2005 13:15 (twenty years ago)

I only saw half of it but it seems so formulaic. :-( It was okay, but it feels as though they are just following a template. Last week cerebral palsy, this week it was racism. I can't really be arsed to watch it.

― nathalie starts to cry each time we meet (stevie nixed), Friday, 19 August 2005 13:18 (twenty years ago)

I like things that are always the same.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 19 August 2005 13:21 (twenty years ago)

Last night made me piss myself laughing.

― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, 19 August 2005 13:42 (twenty years ago)

I missed last night's episode.

Who was the featured sleb? What was the storyline?

― C J (C J), Friday, 19 August 2005 13:45 (twenty years ago)

Samuel L Jackson. He was hardly in it though.

The storyline was more or less like the others - they put their foot in it, they try to get out of it and get in deeper. This week it was racism and golly toys.

I knew I could rely on Markelby.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 19 August 2005 13:49 (twenty years ago)

Last night's was the first one where I genuinely felt embarrassed for him and his little Scottish friend, because they hadn't got themselves into the situation by trying to fuck over someone else, they hadn't said or done anything nasty, they just kept digging themselves in deeper and deeper. Also I could see how having Samuel L. Jackson standing there would put the wind up you. He is very intimidating.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 19 August 2005 14:04 (twenty years ago)

Do you think Larry David gets pissed off at Ricky Gervais going through his dustbins looking for script ideas?

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 19 August 2005 14:05 (twenty years ago)

I thought Samuel L was absolutely brilliant - I know he did almost nothing but he was flawless, it just gave the show a brilliant tension. Ashley whatsherface is superb casting, too.

― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, 19 August 2005 14:08 (twenty years ago)

He was the only guest not asked to take the piss out of himself, wasn't he?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 19 August 2005 14:10 (twenty years ago)

But he did nothing! Just stand there and glare!

― nathalie starts to cry each time we meet (stevie nixed), Friday, 19 August 2005 14:10 (twenty years ago)

Martin, I don't think Ricky dared to!

― nathalie starts to cry each time we meet (stevie nixed), Friday, 19 August 2005 14:11 (twenty years ago)

It's the same joke over and over again. Still, did make me chuckle but, unlike "The Office", who cares about any of the characters? Don't like the Scottish girl at all, but the gollywog bit was hilarious.

― Diddyismus the Blind (of Alexandria) (Dada), Friday, 19 August 2005 14:13 (twenty years ago)

I imagine they are gradually setting up the relationship between the Gervaise character and the Scots girl (I can't even remember their names!) into some will they/won't they Harry and Sally unlikely romance. Which would make the show even worse.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 19 August 2005 14:18 (twenty years ago)

Jerry, I just barfed a little bit.

― nathalie starts to cry each time we meet (stevie nixed), Friday, 19 August 2005 14:24 (twenty years ago)

not long now though, i think. i only made it to halfway through episode 2 -- doesn't sound like i missed much!

― N_RQ, Friday, 19 August 2005 14:27 (twenty years ago)

Yes but there's another series lined up

― Diddyismus the Blind (of Alexandria) (Dada), Friday, 19 August 2005 14:47 (twenty years ago)

Last night's 150min comedython was fairly drab, until AD saved the evening. Gave up on NewsnightPowerReview after four minutes in order to deal with a wasp.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Friday, 19 August 2005 16:01 (twenty years ago)

> until AD saved the evening

'funniest' thing on last night was the family using 10 times the national average gas and electricity. and £250 a week on food. the fools.

― koogs (koogs), Friday, 19 August 2005 16:26 (twenty years ago)

actually, no, the funniest thing on tv last night was Sounds of the Seventies on bbc4 because it included that great clip of Kraftwerk on Tomorrow's World. (repeated tonight iirc)

― koogs (koogs), Friday, 19 August 2005 16:49 (twenty years ago)

When I see people whom I like and respect talking about the hilariousness of last night's Extras, it troubles me. For the gulf between me and them, on this, is really, really big. It's vast - like an aircraft hangar full of eight miles' worth of terrible scripts.

JtN pointed out to me a few weeks ago about the appalling romantic-plot prospect. I agreed with him then, and I agree still more now. It's embarrassing, it's lame, it's another sign of the egomanic bullshit mode that Gervais has got himself into. He needed to be a loser, a comedy outsider, to write anything that would work. As a confirmed showbiz star, he's going to the Cannon & Ball of the next 20 years, but with the reputation of, of ... Orange Juice; which will be a lot worse than Cannon & Ball.

A puzzling thing to me is why people have started calling him 'Gervaise'.

― the bellefox, Friday, 19 August 2005 17:56 (twenty years ago)

I'm not sure The Pinefox has ever been more otm. Gervais is now a moneyed and feted TV star with whom no-one at the BBC is prepared to argue in case the golden goose waddles off elsewhere.

Saying inappropriate things in front of a gay/cripple/black. Telegraphed and hackneyed beyond endurance. It's.....terrible. When it is this predictable, when it is this lazy, how can it still be funny?

― Venga (Venga), Friday, 19 August 2005 19:32 (twenty years ago)

hmmm. i've seen three episodes now - samuel l, les and kate - and i absolutely love it. no, it's not breaking any boundaries. yes, the set-ups are obvious. but it makes me weep tears of pure laughter, and that's all that counts.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 19 August 2005 19:51 (twenty years ago)

It's really not good at all.

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Friday, 19 August 2005 19:52 (twenty years ago)

Ricky Gervais' interviews are funnier than this series.

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Friday, 19 August 2005 19:53 (twenty years ago)

I am untroubled by Greavsie's reputation. I was abroad when The Office became a big hit. Although I have seen it and like it a lot, I find it very sad, whereas Extras is a bit easier going. If anyhting, I dislike Greavsie in interviews, but I do think there is some kind of oddball genius at work in Extras. I suppose it's a bit like Denim. And of course the important thing is whether or not it makes you laugh. Last episode this week. I don't think there will be any romance between the lead characters. If there is, I will tear up my season ticket.

PS: Normally I hate things about the media by media people.

Other comedy discoveries of the day: Doctorin' the Tardis is funnier than That Nigger's Crazy by Richard Pryor.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 22 August 2005 07:12 (twenty years ago)

ironic use of stock sitcom meme #4378, viz. falling into bowl of soup but ON PURPOSE - C or D?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 22 August 2005 07:18 (twenty years ago)

I didn't like that bit very much.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 22 August 2005 07:43 (twenty years ago)

I think when I saw the falling-in-bowl-soup, my heart yawned. As much as I would like to love the show, I really can't (anymore). It's just not that funny. There's terrific bits in there, but the rest is just very VERY mediocre and drags the good bits down. :-(

― nathalie starts to cry each time we meet (stevie nixed), Monday, 22 August 2005 07:45 (twenty years ago)

ironic use of stock sitcom meme #4378, viz. falling into bowl of soup but ON PURPOSE - C or D?

It was much funnier when Malcolm McDowell did it in "A Clockwork Orange", missus:

"Um... well, put it this way... I feel very low in meself. I can't see much in the future, and I feel that any second something terrible is going to happen to me..."

― Diddyismus the Blind (of Alexandria) (Dada), Monday, 22 August 2005 08:21 (twenty years ago)

I don't sense the looming romance at all; I think it's part of the deliberate antigrotesquerie of Andy Millman - hapless but calculatedly more likeable than Brent, he can have a friendship with a woman without any sexual overtones.

But I've missed two of these, so I dunno.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Monday, 22 August 2005 08:25 (twenty years ago)

Is her name Heather, or am I making it up?

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 22 August 2005 08:27 (twenty years ago)

... hapless but calculatedly more likeable than Brent, he can have a totally unconvincing friendship with a woman without any sexual overtones

― Diddyismus the Blind (of Alexandria) (Dada), Monday, 22 August 2005 08:27 (twenty years ago)

Maggie Jacobs is her character's name

(xpost)

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 22 August 2005 08:28 (twenty years ago)

Also, isn't Madonna doing a bit in the next series? SURELY DUMBEST THING EVAH!

― nathalie starts to cry each time we meet (stevie nixed), Monday, 22 August 2005 08:33 (twenty years ago)

Also possibly unfunniest thing ever. Guaranteed to be a lot less funnier than Desperately Seeking Susan, anyway.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 22 August 2005 08:34 (twenty years ago)

Maggie, yes. Thank you. Strange how the names don't stick.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 22 August 2005 08:35 (twenty years ago)

Well, but, 'Maggie' sounds like 'Heather'.

― the bellefox, Monday, 22 August 2005 08:39 (twenty years ago)

Oho, this country was going to the dogs before Heather Thatcher took over!

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 22 August 2005 08:40 (twenty years ago)

See that girl that plays Maggie (or Heather), I used to know her a bit, well it was more her partner/boyfriend I knew

― Diddyismus the Blind (of Alexandria) (Dada), Monday, 22 August 2005 08:41 (twenty years ago)

... back when I ran in theatrical circles (*insert joke*)

― Diddyismus the Blind (of Alexandria) (Dada), Monday, 22 August 2005 08:42 (twenty years ago)

That was me on Friday, wasn't it?

(*joke duly inserted*)

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 22 August 2005 08:45 (twenty years ago)

Well done that man!

― Diddyismus the Blind (of Alexandria) (Dada), Monday, 22 August 2005 08:46 (twenty years ago)

I am impressed, Diddyismus the Blind. Thousands wouldn't be, but I am.

I knew it was some kind of Scotch name, the name that she had.

I think she is very good.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 22 August 2005 08:50 (twenty years ago)

I was totally impressed with how they managed to make the "saying offensive things in front of black people" so belly-laughable. This worked mainly because Maggie is not the kind of character you expect to do this - you KNOW she's not a racist, she's an insecure, not terribly bright, sweet-natured person who you're rotting for from start to finish. The responses of the black people in question were pretty much spot on, too, though the young black guy did a few too many "wtf" grimaces.

"Extras" is comfort humour, like Frank Spencer, Dad's Army, As Time Goes By. Perhaps the hataz want to be challenged and the lack of *that* is this yawning chasm they're all experiencing.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 22 August 2005 09:18 (twenty years ago)

Rooting, not rotting.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 22 August 2005 09:19 (twenty years ago)

It was a bit like Polly depping for Basil Fawlty in the Germans episode.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 22 August 2005 09:20 (twenty years ago)

"Rotting for" is classic!

― Diddyismus the Blind (of Alexandria) (Dada), Monday, 22 August 2005 09:21 (twenty years ago)

Maggie seems more like Manuel than Polly

― Diddyismus the Blind (of Alexandria) (Dada), Monday, 22 August 2005 09:21 (twenty years ago)

I'm not sure whether making fun of Asperger's qualifies as comfort humour (I mean, what else could Frank Spencer have been?).

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 22 August 2005 09:24 (twenty years ago)

I don't want to be challenged. I am usually dubious when people say they want to be challenged. Life is challenging enough, a lot of the time. I would like to be challenged less, I think. I would like something to make me laugh, mind, and this programme doesn't do that - it makes me think: oh, dear, not again - that's bloody rubbish.

― the bellefox, Monday, 22 August 2005 09:28 (twenty years ago)

I'm certainly rarely "comforted" by Frank Spencer, most of the time I'm looking between my fingers, cringing with embarrassment

― Diddyismus the Blind (of Alexandria) (Dada), Monday, 22 August 2005 09:31 (twenty years ago)

And the overall verdict is?

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:49 (twenty years ago)

The last episode was certainly the best in the series.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:50 (twenty years ago)

Oh I preferred the Les Dennis one by a long way.

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:52 (twenty years ago)

(x-post)

that the last episode was fucking terrible. began brilliantly with the patrick stewart stuff (although he did, at first, come across like he was on the interviewer's couch; still, the lines more than made up for it), mined a rich seam right up to the point where maggie spoke to the editor chap; hit the skids horribly after that and ended up lacking in jokes, direction and denouement.

luckily for extras, the catherine tate show has come on. and compared to that the fucking test card is a work of comedy genius.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:53 (twenty years ago)

I saw the first episode. it was okay. didn't see any others.

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:54 (twenty years ago)

I agree - the last episode started well but unravelled badly.

x-post

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:55 (twenty years ago)

I managed to miss the whole series apart from the last episode, which was good, but not great.

― Teh HoBB (the pirate king), Thursday, 25 August 2005 20:09 (twenty years ago)

i rather enjoyed it - not the best, but it was trying for more than laughs with the brief falling out and maggie's casting off of childish things. which i enjoyed.

― Britain's Jauntiest Shepherd (Alan), Thursday, 25 August 2005 20:13 (twenty years ago)

enjoyed enjoyed enjoyed

― Britain's Jauntiest Shepherd (Alan), Thursday, 25 August 2005 20:13 (twenty years ago)

x-post

"trying"

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 25 August 2005 20:25 (twenty years ago)

Like Teh HoBB, I managed also to miss the whole series but this one. I quite liked it, enough to make me wish I'd watched it throughout. I did cringe at the "i've written a sitcom based on my old boss" oh-my-god-it's-a-meta-Office-joke, but they got past it.

Stephen Merchant's character was awful. Was Gervais' character a kind of likeable chump all the way through, or was it a last-episode redemption like what he wrote for himself in The Office?

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 25 August 2005 20:26 (twenty years ago)

Last episode clearly setting up the major plotline for the next series, i.e Millman's doomed attempt to escape the straitjacket of being a background artiste while being held back by friends and agents alike.

Agree that the Les Dennis storyline was the best one, just an extraordinary performance from him.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 25 August 2005 20:36 (twenty years ago)

it's more extreme than a meta-office joke, because it being a meta-office ref is also a seinfeld ref which was meta in itself anyway. the whole thing has been maggie and andy = jerry and elaine all along. this was obv when andy had that meal with the large bloke last week, and every time maggie finds some new way to fuck up her fledgeling relationships

― Britain's Jauntiest Shepherd (Alan), Thursday, 25 August 2005 22:43 (twenty years ago)

Missed it :-(

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 26 August 2005 10:56 (twenty years ago)

I saw the first three, and didn't feel enthused enough to make any effort to watch the last three. I appreciate I might have missed the best three because of this - if anybody can convince me I should pick up the no doubt ensuing repack on ukn0v4 then feel free.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 26 August 2005 11:04 (twenty years ago)

hello nova pal! i have watched 6 eps of Changes now. 4 more to go...

― Britain's Jauntiest Shepherd (Alan), Friday, 26 August 2005 11:05 (twenty years ago)

I am waiting for a CHANGES MARATHON once it's all finished. (See also Dark Season and Century Falls)

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 26 August 2005 11:34 (twenty years ago)

i was thinking of getting those, but the files are quite large, and i still remember enough of century falls anyway (i was a teacher at the time, home in time for kids telly!)

― Britain's Jauntiest Shepherd (Alan), Friday, 26 August 2005 13:14 (twenty years ago)

I've got a big enough hard drive and a DVD burner. Leave them on for a couple of days once they're complete to bump yer ration back up, and Robert is indeed your mother's brother.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 26 August 2005 13:27 (twenty years ago)

i have to ferry files to work on a mini ipod and dvd burn at work.

when i got the iMac, i was like "why would i want a dvd burner?"

not a big deal really, i think a massive backup firewire hd would be a better investment anyway

― Britain's Jauntiest Shepherd (Alan), Friday, 26 August 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

It wasn't the worst. But it still has too few roots in the real.

― the bellefox, Friday, 26 August 2005 16:03 (twenty years ago)

The Patrick Stewart scene was fucking hilarious.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 26 August 2005 19:51 (twenty years ago)

I loved the show up until the Samuel L. Jackson episode. The last episode was so different from the rest of the series, it was shocking. I didn't like it much, other than every scene involving Patrick Stewart. I almost got a little tear when he did the thing over the phone at the end. The whole thing with the campy guy wasn't funny or sad, it was just boring.

Unlike The Office, this show is definitely a comfort show for me. Except for the Les Dennis episode (genius).

― recovering optimist (Royal Bed Bouncer), Friday, 2 September 2005 22:09 (twenty years ago)

http://picardpervert.ytmnd.com/

― amon (eman), Saturday, 3 September 2005 21:05 (twenty years ago)

That last episode was fucking weird. The BBC comedy gay mafia strand, I mean, and the random dark turn with whatsername.

― Alba (Alba), Saturday, 3 September 2005 22:36 (twenty years ago)

She is the funniest thing about it, by the way. I just love her character. Also, I fancy her.

― Alba (Alba), Saturday, 3 September 2005 22:37 (twenty years ago)

(the conversation they have about the Kemp brothers was possibly the only thing that made me laugh out loud in the whole series)

― Alba (Alba), Saturday, 3 September 2005 22:37 (twenty years ago)

Am I the only person who spotted Ashley Jensen playing a Glaswegian cop in this week's Meet The Magoons?

(am I the only person who actually watches Meet The Magoons? Probably)

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Sunday, 4 September 2005 06:00 (twenty years ago)

She is the funniest thing about it, by the way. I just love her character. Also, I fancy her.

You must have a very tidy, compartmentalised mind to separate these out.

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Sunday, 4 September 2005 06:36 (twenty years ago)

Hmmm... I love Prunella Scales's character in Fawlty Towers but I don't fancy her.

― Alba (Alba), Sunday, 4 September 2005 09:14 (twenty years ago)

Lookist....Too much time looking at Nicole Kidman.

Girls need to worry about what exactly Alba means when he says 'I love you'.

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Sunday, 4 September 2005 09:41 (twenty years ago)

If I am laughing at you, it's not necessarily a good thing, girls.

― Alba (Alba), Sunday, 4 September 2005 09:50 (twenty years ago)

(am I the only person who actually watches Meet The Magoons? Probably)

no. but if you enjoy it, you're the only person in britain who does :)

actually: that's unfair. i've only seen one and a half episodes. bits of it are inspired, but it's trying far too hard. it needs to loosen up and stop all the self-conscious weirdness.

a guy i work with was at school with hardeep singh kohli and says he's one of the funniest men he's ever met. sanjeev's proved himself something of a comedy genius with "still game". the ingredients are all there, but it just doesn't gel. i can't believe something that feels so half-arsed is one of the flagship shows on channel 4's comedy night!

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Sunday, 4 September 2005 10:51 (twenty years ago)

I think I once heard a tape of Prunella Scales reading The Wife of Bath's Tale in ye olde.

I fancy the other one in Fawlty Towers, Polly.

But who I fancy most is Joan in Early Doors.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 5 September 2005 15:08 (twenty years ago)

yeh, I'm not too sure about Meet The Magoons for exactly those reasons. The dialogue is very good but a lot of the humour relies on slapstick "Oh my God we've got no tables and we've got a stag party of deaf homosexuals turning up" is a bit painful to watch.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 5 September 2005 16:42 (twenty years ago)

i did find myself setting the video for the Magoons when i was out on friday night (there wasn't much else on and i felt the need to feed the tivo with something). it contained the 'what would your specialist subject be?' 'general knowledge' exchange previously seen from victor big brother on that '8 out of 10 cats' thing. art imitating life?

the 'what's your favourite triangle?' was also something i can quite easily imagine an ile thread about. What's your favourite shape?

― koogs (koogs), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 07:28 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

Last sunday after Curb' was the first time I'd ever seen "Extras" and I found it to be pretty fucking hysterical. Just as good as the office so far... sort of maybe better in some weird way. I like Kate Winslet.

― Fava Bean Eater, Tuesday, 27 September 2005 16:23 (twenty years ago)

I liked it but it's really Gervais-lite - he's just not as pathetic.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 16:30 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, he's likeable. It's kind of the opposite of Gervais in that sense. He's more like a bumbling Seinfeld character or a Chandler with more realism and humor.

― Fava Bean Eater, Tuesday, 27 September 2005 16:38 (twenty years ago)

anyone know if there's a torrent of the NTSC (ie american) version up anywhere?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 16:44 (twenty years ago)

I saw it too and loved it, the prayer group scene was the highlight, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. As someone noted upthread it's Gervais' lack of power (compared to the Office) and self-awareness that makes him not as cringe-worthy. Also the little bit of humanism shown at the end of the prayer meeting scene.

― nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 16:47 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, that prayer group scene panned out so realistically, which just made it funnier and funnier. A pleasant surprise from the typical hokey shit on American sitcoms. I remember feeling this way about the Office at first, too. I also love the scene where he has this minimal walkthrough on camera and trips. Also very realistic and funny.

― Fava Bean Eater, Tuesday, 27 September 2005 17:02 (twenty years ago)

Wow, I must be on the pipe; cause though I love The Office and went in with tenable hopes and patience, I thought this Kah-Sucked.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 06:19 (twenty years ago)

i thought it was pretty damn funny. the travolta saturday night fever suit was the highlight.

― Lupton Pitman (Chris V), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 08:33 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

I finally saw an episode tonight. Eh, it was funny at times but lacked the emotional punch of the Office. Some of the humor felt a little too similar to that show also - the whole awkward racism thing played with a non-stereotypical and unfazed black guy for example. The sexual tension between the two main characters also seems too familiar. And I feel like I can see Gervais sweating as he tries not to be David Brent.

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 17 October 2005 03:18 (twenty years ago)

i saw a couple of episodes... pretty bad, i thought.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 17 October 2005 03:23 (twenty years ago)

THIS JUST IN: ricky gervais is still an unfunny fat cunt and the fact that he gets television shows which morons fawn over is proof that god does not exist

― ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!, Monday, 17 October 2005 05:49 (twenty years ago)

But Esteban, don't tell me YOU're not real! You're my tiny little god on my computer screen.

― nathalie, a bum like you (stevie nixed), Monday, 17 October 2005 06:13 (twenty years ago)

poster has in very big letters 'FROM THE CREATORS OF THE OFFICE'. bigger than any mention of the word 'extras'.

― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 09:31 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

apparently tom cruise will be in series two. that i would watch.

― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 14:21 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

I have been enjoying the repeats a lot. Both the Ross Kemp and Kate Winslet episodes had several big LOL moments. In the former, when Vinnie Jones lunges at Kemp and his admiral hat gently falls off his head, I liked that. And the conversation between Gervais' character and Maggie re 'Mitchell brothers not really brothers', very funny. I do like it when people are appearing as 'themselves', but not really themselves. This show is both big and clever.

Isn't there a thread for The Thick Of It (huge laughs on the one I saw last night, can't remember if it was BBC4 repeat or HomeChoice VOD tho)? I couldn't find it.

― Sororah T Massacre (blueski), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 13:58 (twenty years ago)

the discussion is on the iannucci (sp) thread, it maybe shd have its own. which was it last night? the 'nomfub' ep? i rate that probably the best thing i've ever seen.

― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 14:13 (twenty years ago)

One thing that is urgent and key - why have they changed the order? I missed the one that I missed before. It is too soon for me to watch the ones I've seen again. And it's past my bedtime.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 14:18 (twenty years ago)

yeah i tht i cd see the winslet one tonight, but maybe not. i think in the states the winslet cam first. hunch.

― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 14:20 (twenty years ago)

I'm watching the repeats of this (waiting for the first runs of American Dad)... my god it's even worse than I remember. Every episiode:

POORLY WRITTEN FEMALE LEAD: Nigger
Gervais: Tch, cuh, huh, oh no you just did something racist. Comic potential will abound. You know, like in Curb Your Enthusiasm.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 22 December 2005 23:34 (twenty years ago)

apparently tom cruise will be in series two. that i would watch.

Oh my god. I thought it couldn't get any worse.

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Thursday, 22 December 2005 23:50 (twenty years ago)

Ricky's got a podcast (3 episodes so far) that's funnier than Extras.

― don weiner (don weiner), Friday, 23 December 2005 02:44 (twenty years ago)

I think maybe tonight's I haven't seen.

Brilliantly written female lead.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 23 December 2005 11:08 (twenty years ago)

I hate Rickey Gervais.

― Pete W (peterw), Friday, 23 December 2005 11:17 (twenty years ago)

I saw the last five minutes of last night's and chuckled a couple of times.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 23 December 2005 11:28 (twenty years ago)

i missed the one i missed last time again as my dad was watching 'live darts' on sky, probably. will try and make an effort for tonights though as it's a repeat of the patrick stewart episode.

― koogs (koogs), Friday, 23 December 2005 11:38 (twenty years ago)

I don't think I've seen that one.

Darts!

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 23 December 2005 11:48 (twenty years ago)

I've only seen the Kate Winslet one but it just seemed like David Brent all over again, awkwardly digging himself into holes by being non-PC OH NOES. It wasn't shit, but it's the same old same old.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Friday, 23 December 2005 12:40 (twenty years ago)

If it ain't broke?

― Sororah T Massacre (blueski), Friday, 23 December 2005 14:00 (twenty years ago)

I thought Gervaise was quite good on Jonathan Ross last night, but maybe it was just the reflected glow of the Pogues and Katie Melua.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 23 December 2005 14:04 (twenty years ago)

eight months pass...

uh-oh

― a rapper singing about hos and bitches and money (Enrique), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 10:44 (nineteen years ago)

what? hes never seen 'footballers' wives'??

― sunny successor (katharine), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 10:48 (nineteen years ago)

trying to imagine gervais making 'the wire'...

― a rapper singing about hos and bitches and money (Enrique), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 10:52 (nineteen years ago)

I think this could work. The Office and Extras both have successful dramatic elements. However, it would probably be better if Gervais didn't star in it.

― chap who would dare to start Raaatpackin (chap), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 15:37 (nineteen years ago)

timely reminder: new series is on BBC2 now. haven't laughed so far, mind.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 14 September 2006 19:09 (nineteen years ago)

i think Cheggers is a bit too into this. Les Dennis as himself was more convincing but this feels like Chegwin appearing as someone else completely different.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 14 September 2006 19:17 (nineteen years ago)

It's a bit pish, innit? Still, Ornaldo Bloomps, innit.

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 14 September 2006 19:17 (nineteen years ago)

hang on, no, i think the cheggers stuff is superb.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 14 September 2006 19:20 (nineteen years ago)

Keith Chegwin bits- actually lol-some, despite being Gervais' bogstandard "One character says something racist, other character reacts" stuff
Ornaldo Bloomps bits- not funny at all
Dinnerladies parody- similarly lol-less

5/10, must try harder.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 14 September 2006 19:30 (nineteen years ago)

People think Ashley Jensen is ugly and plain and rubbish because, erm, why exactly? - not funny.

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 14 September 2006 19:33 (nineteen years ago)

yeah it really doesn't work to keep belittling her.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 14 September 2006 19:55 (nineteen years ago)

i think 5/10 is a bit low. i'd give it a 6. rather tragically, i found bits of "when the whistle blows" quite amusing :)

but it's like accentmonkey said on the peep show/M&W thread: it's kinda hard to identify with millman's angst over - o noes - his sitcom being rewritten. series one worked because it was easy enough for almost anyone to identify with and care about this poor bastard just desperate for a break; however, i certainly don't give a toss about the character's artistic vision being compromised. last time we saw him, he was a schmo who'd got lucky ... now we're meant to side with him against the evil machinations of BBC producers?

don't get me wrong: i'd side with almost anyone against the BBC, with little provocation. and this was, in the main, funny and watchable. but still. ricky G seems to be heading up his own arse; if he carries on like this he'll be able to see mark frith's feet.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 14 September 2006 20:57 (nineteen years ago)

Incredibly lazy and formulaic* and largely unfunny. The Cheggers bits had their moments, but it was a bit of an asset-stripped equivalent of the Les Dennis episode with added bits of racism and homophobia.

Likewise, Orlando Bloom's "I'm sexy me" was largely a rehash of the Ross Kemp "I'm hard me". And there needs to be much more interaction between Maggie and whatever Gervais's character is called.

*The first series was pretty formulaic as well but at least had the good grace to be funny.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 14 September 2006 21:09 (nineteen years ago)

Although I did sit there for about a minute wondering whether or not to laugh at the Lenny Henry bit and then I sat there and cringed horribly instead. Which of course was the desired effect.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 14 September 2006 21:11 (nineteen years ago)

i'd forgotten about the lenny henry bit! come on, that was funny. ish.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 14 September 2006 21:13 (nineteen years ago)

Interesting to switch within an hour or so from 'Extras' to (ITV2! and) 'Entourage'. Like switching from (Kingsley) Amis to Pynchon.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 14 September 2006 22:04 (nineteen years ago)

the problem is this Extras wasn't really any funnier than L Henry's old stand-up.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 14 September 2006 22:06 (nineteen years ago)

I thought it was good, I had four or five proper laughs which is quite high for a TV show.

― chap who would dare to start Raaatpackin (chap), Thursday, 14 September 2006 23:02 (nineteen years ago)

pleasant enough.

― pscott (elwisty), Friday, 15 September 2006 00:54 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.idontlikeyouinthatway.com/2006/09/harry-potter-is-horny.html

― milo z (mlp), Friday, 15 September 2006 01:04 (nineteen years ago)

i'd forgotten about the lenny henry bit! come on, that was funny. ish.

It was funny up until they cut to the picture of Lenny Henry. WE KNOW WHO YOU MEAN!!!!! I thought the whole thing was too formulaic. I also hope they weren't directly taking the piss out of Dinnerladies, which I have always loved. But then, sometimes I genuinely am in the mood for a comedy that doesn't make me feel like everyone in the world is a total wanker.

I didn't like the Keith Chegwin stuff either. It was lazy writing, and it's not particularly clever to make Keith Chegwin your monkey just because he'll say anything to get on telly. Not that I give a shit about Keith Chegwin, but given that all he really wants in the world is a chance to be on telly, if you give him that chance, no matter what you make him say, he still wins.

I like Shaun Williamson in it, though. And you would think that the same rule applies to him. I don't know why the bits with him in don't bother me so much.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 15 September 2006 05:52 (nineteen years ago)

I thought it was excellent, really enjoyable - 9.5 out of 10.

Two stories! Both funny, both sad!

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 15 September 2006 06:16 (nineteen years ago)

this has just started down under. 1st series. surprised it got to 2nd. but i like it. at least every 2nd episode is excruciatingly funny. like it waaaay more than thye office. any other aussie comments?

― alderman frank rossi (bulbs), Friday, 15 September 2006 07:16 (nineteen years ago)

The Lenny Henry bit was funny. I don't like the Maggie character and never have.

― Oh No It's Dadaismus! (Dada), Friday, 15 September 2006 09:00 (nineteen years ago)

... plus, until last night, I had no idea what Orlando Bloom looked like or even who he was really... other than that guy that gets called Orlando Bloomps on ILX

― Oh No It's Dadaismus! (Dada), Friday, 15 September 2006 09:01 (nineteen years ago)

Get one spell-check.

It's "Ornaldo".

― g00blar (gooblar), Friday, 15 September 2006 09:18 (nineteen years ago)

Hold on, this is homophobic fucking rubbish, isn't it?

― Venga (Venga), Friday, 15 September 2006 10:54 (nineteen years ago)

Homophobic?

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 15 September 2006 11:23 (nineteen years ago)

The portrayal of gay characters in this show always seem to be over-exaggerated camp stereotypes who are wholly unsympathetic. The Scottish guy in the first series being a case in point.

― Venga (Venga), Friday, 15 September 2006 11:50 (nineteen years ago)

This is purely so that Merchant's character can make the faux pas. Plus it's not exactly outrageous to depict camp characters in a comedy set in the entertainment/acting industry. In any case the producer guy was also gay but not at all camp like the guy he was standing next to (not sure if they were implying that the two were actually a couple or not).

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 15 September 2006 11:58 (nineteen years ago)

... and who can forget the gay pantomime genie in the Les Dennis episode - "I'm used to squeezing into tight spaces, ooooooooooohhh".
Tut tut.

― Oh No It's Dadaismus! (Dada), Friday, 15 September 2006 12:00 (nineteen years ago)

Hmmmm...I'm not convinced.

― Venga (Venga), Friday, 15 September 2006 12:01 (nineteen years ago)

i only saw the last three minutes of this. it looked very 'poignant'.

― EARLY-90S MAN (Enrique), Friday, 15 September 2006 12:03 (nineteen years ago)

It looked very "cheapo remake of Sullivan's Travels."

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 15 September 2006 12:12 (nineteen years ago)

not sure if they were implying that the two were actually a couple or not

they are, aren't they? i thought that was a huge part of the last ep of the first series. but maybe my mind is playing tricks.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 15 September 2006 13:10 (nineteen years ago)

They aren't

― Oh No It's Dadaismus! (Dada), Friday, 15 September 2006 13:11 (nineteen years ago)

which two are we talking about now?

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 15 September 2006 13:54 (nineteen years ago)

mitchell and webb

― EARLY-90S MAN (Enrique), Friday, 15 September 2006 13:55 (nineteen years ago)

The very camp co-writer and the not-camp producer

― Oh No It's Dadaismus! (Dada), Friday, 15 September 2006 13:55 (nineteen years ago)

Ha ha xpost!

― Oh No It's Dadaismus! (Dada), Friday, 15 September 2006 13:55 (nineteen years ago)

A year goes by - and it's more abysmal than ever.

― the pinefox (the pinefox), Friday, 15 September 2006 17:20 (nineteen years ago)

Is no one watching this anymore?

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Thursday, 21 September 2006 21:31 (nineteen years ago)

Watched it. Laughed at it/with it (the thing with the bum mainly) but it's definitely got to the point now where the celebrity guests are just in the way and of no real value comedically or plotwise. Why did it have to be Bowie? And what was the point of his scenes ultimately? Gervais's character does idiotic stuff but the overall sense of 'everybody around me is stupid' can wear tin. There is loads wrong with the show but still finding it interesting and enjoyable enough.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 21 September 2006 21:37 (nineteen years ago)

i taped it and just watched it there: thought it was funny as fuck, to be honest. where it worked was in that it didn't particularly try to be true-to-life: it just exaggerated the whole shitty celebrity thing, and did it very well.

"barry" is superb. the guttering thing in particular; that and the "women without drinks" scene.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 21 September 2006 22:09 (nineteen years ago)

and why did they hire bowie? well ... why do dogs lick their balls?

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 21 September 2006 22:10 (nineteen years ago)

my old friend and quaffing partner chr1s tryh0rn takes a reasoned approach; have to say i'm more a pinfoxist ultra on this one.

― EARLY-90S MAN (Enrique), Friday, 22 September 2006 09:58 (nineteen years ago)

and why did they hire bowie? well ... why do dogs lick their balls?

http://www.thedragnet.org/stuff/diamonddogscover.jpg

― Am I Re-elected Yet? (Dada), Friday, 22 September 2006 10:02 (nineteen years ago)

I laughed much more at this one than last week's. Andy as national figure of fun is much better than Andy as frustrated artist (although they're one and the same really). The Bowie song was kind of unexpected and I enjoyed the geeks in the pub.

The bit with the tramp was painfully predictable though.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 22 September 2006 10:02 (nineteen years ago)

Its odd how the Merchant and Williamson double act is almost the bit I want to see more. There is totally a trad Blackadderesque sitcom now fighting to get out (where the character map almost perfectly):

ie Hubris and stupidity rule to roost.

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 22 September 2006 10:10 (nineteen years ago)

The Bowie song's the best song he's done since .

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 22 September 2006 10:35 (nineteen years ago)

*fill in last decent Bowie song of your choice*

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 22 September 2006 10:36 (nineteen years ago)

gervais really thinks he's it. i suppose i don't know that much of larry david outside of 'curb' itself, but if he was as puffed up as gervais *in the show* it'd be a disaster.

plus most of the comedy is ye olde racist/sexist/homophobic shit given a spin by... force of will.

― EARLY-90S MAN (Enrique), Friday, 22 September 2006 10:40 (nineteen years ago)

Will Young? Will Self? Will Powers?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 22 September 2006 10:41 (nineteen years ago)

Will Scarlett? Will Hay? Will Downing?

― Am I Re-elected Yet? (Dada), Friday, 22 September 2006 10:44 (nineteen years ago)

you to will yourself to think it's okay.

― EARLY-90S MAN (Enrique), Friday, 22 September 2006 10:44 (nineteen years ago)

Willie Eckerslike.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 22 September 2006 10:46 (nineteen years ago)

I thought the Bowie cameo was disappointing last night. I was hoping that he'd be taken the piss out of a bit more i.e Laughing Gnome, Glass Spider, Tin Machine especially with Millman complaining about having to produce lowest common denominator crap.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Friday, 22 September 2006 13:09 (nineteen years ago)

Laughing Gnome is his masterpiece!

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 22 September 2006 13:13 (nineteen years ago)

Ah yes, but Bowie is famously sensitive to it being reminded of it. Remember in the early 90's when NME tried to rig his audience jukebox for his 'farewell' tour, not a happy camper then.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Friday, 22 September 2006 13:26 (nineteen years ago)

I'd charge him a lot more than £60 to sit next to me in the VIP lounge!

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 22 September 2006 13:38 (nineteen years ago)

From what I here, he's got a bit of a temper on him

― Am I Re-elected Yet? (Dada), Friday, 22 September 2006 13:40 (nineteen years ago)

Who, Bowie or Gervais?

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Friday, 22 September 2006 13:52 (nineteen years ago)

Barry Out Of EastEnders.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 22 September 2006 13:58 (nineteen years ago)

Bowie Out of Bromley

― Am I Re-elected Yet? (Dada), Friday, 22 September 2006 13:59 (nineteen years ago)

Tarby Out Of Toxteth

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 22 September 2006 14:17 (nineteen years ago)

Apparently you do need a formal letter of introduction to meet David Bowie, according to some DJ I used to know who was introduced to him when Bowie curated a South Bank festival.

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Friday, 22 September 2006 14:27 (nineteen years ago)

Countersigned by stalwart Andy Newmark and Willie Weeks.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 22 September 2006 14:46 (nineteen years ago)

I thought last night's was hilarious - Merchant bringing Andy the review of "Wind in the Willows"?! Come on!!

― Tiki Theater Xymposium (Bent Over at the Arclight), Friday, 22 September 2006 20:26 (nineteen years ago)

Apparently you do need a formal letter of introduction to meet David Bowie, according to some DJ I used to know who was introduced to him when Bowie curated a South Bank festival.

This is a joke, right? My brother met him a couple of years ago at a television studio in Australia and said he could not have been nicer.

I absolutely hated the programme on Thursday, but then I almost bust a gut laughing at Mitchell and Webb, which almost everyone else seems to hate, so perhaps I've gone over to the other side, where people like broad comedy. Perhaps my next stop should be The Green Green Grass. Shudder.

If there was no BBC America, they would not have bothered making a second series of Extras. There just isn't a second series in it.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Saturday, 23 September 2006 07:37 (nineteen years ago)

Last week I liked both Extras and Mitchell and Webb a lot. This week I thought they were both crap, but I actually detested Extras. Thought it was a really awful attempt as Larry Davidness, esp the stuff with the homeless man. Barry was it's only slightly redeeming feature.

― David V (grammy), Saturday, 23 September 2006 08:13 (nineteen years ago)

If there was no BBC America, they would not have bothered making a second series of Extras. There just isn't a second series in it.

BBC America has nothing to do with it. The show is coproduced and co-financed by HBO and run on HBO in the states. BBC America lost a high-profile acquisitions bidding war for the series.

― Tiki Theater Xymposium (Bent Over at the Arclight), Saturday, 23 September 2006 09:23 (nineteen years ago)

Fine, if there wasn't HBO then. I blame them. Those Americans.

Like everyone else, I like Shaun Williamson and Steven Merchant's stuff too. They should open a detective agency.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Saturday, 23 September 2006 10:11 (nineteen years ago)

Extras is entirely justified by the Bowie sequence alone, as far as I'm concerned. It perfectly captures -- and rides to the horrible hilt -- every Bowie fan's deepest fear: that they'd finally meet their idol only to strike him as pathetically inadequate.

― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 23 September 2006 10:49 (nineteen years ago)

(Clip here, for anyone who hasn't seen it.)

― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 23 September 2006 10:50 (nineteen years ago)

'Midgets' and kids with Downs Syndrome this week. They're really pushing the boundaries...

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 28 September 2006 19:46 (nineteen years ago)

Tonight's was the worst thing Gervais has ever been involved in. And I've SEEN that clip of him on Razzmatazz. Even When The Whistle Blows actually seemed better.

(I still laughed a couple of times tho)

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 28 September 2006 19:54 (nineteen years ago)

Even When The Whistle Blows actually seemed better.

tonight's was the weakest "extras" yet, yes. not terrible - far from it - but ... below par. and yes, if i'm brutally honest then the bit at which i laughed the most was the tea-spitting/"oh, i've finished it" bit in "when the whistle blows".

the idea behind the build-up of the "millman is a bastard" thing was funnier than the execution.

mitchell and webb, on the other hand, was glorious. fish and cushion!

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 28 September 2006 20:27 (nineteen years ago)

Agree on the tea. A poor episode including staggeringly embarrasing turns by Richard & Judy and a few other celebs trying desperately to garner an element of kudos. Radcliffe was bad, much of the writing was bad and the whole thing went too far in the wrong direction.

Liked the first two, though.

― Ally C (Ally C), Thursday, 28 September 2006 21:32 (nineteen years ago)

Pretty poor, but Dame Diana Rigg was priceless, 'May I have my johnny back?'

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 28 September 2006 21:38 (nineteen years ago)

god i didn't actually recognise her

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 28 September 2006 21:39 (nineteen years ago)

Consistently excellent series, undeniably a work of genius.

When The Whistle Blows reminds me of the Enderby novels by Anthony Burgess, where critics wanted to be told whether the poetry was supposed to be good or not.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 29 September 2006 06:14 (nineteen years ago)

Consistently excellent series, undeniably a work of genius.

lol?

― EARLY-90S MAN (Enrique), Friday, 29 September 2006 07:29 (nineteen years ago)

No, I mean it.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 29 September 2006 07:46 (nineteen years ago)

At least things like Bottle Boys were honest about their prejudice.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 29 September 2006 07:49 (nineteen years ago)

xpost

still don't believe you.

― EARLY-90S MAN (Enrique), Friday, 29 September 2006 07:50 (nineteen years ago)

I'm hoping When The Whistle Blows will eventually take over and, in ep 5, noted TV bully "Alan Malmo" (played by Paul Squire) will appear to draw the firm's Xmas raffle, leading to reality-sitcom-straddlin' embarrassment.

In ep 6, we all turn up.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Friday, 29 September 2006 07:56 (nineteen years ago)

I think the show needs a Harold Lloyd style commentary:
"UH-OHHH, what this? A dwarf? Looks like Ricky's really gonna put his foot in it with this li'l fella" etc.

shame on you Diana Rigg

― bham (bham), Friday, 29 September 2006 08:11 (nineteen years ago)

for some reason this was on in the room, w. sound down. i just had to SEE the dwarf to know what was going on.

― EARLY-90S MAN (Enrique), Friday, 29 September 2006 08:20 (nineteen years ago)

unfunny

― cappacappa (cappacappa), Friday, 29 September 2006 08:25 (nineteen years ago)

xpost

well, it makes me laugh more than anything else

OK, the midget/mongoloid could have been combined in one person, but perhaps that'll be in series 3

Adrian Mole was good though.

I think I might be undermining my own argument a bit here.

But I definitely do like it a lot. It is the highlight of the week, tellywise.

I am trying to give the impression that I have non-telly highlights, but I can't think of any at the moment.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 29 September 2006 08:52 (nineteen years ago)

the midget/mongoloid could have been combined in one person

Eh? He has done those jokes a million bloody times in everything he has done, they are getting no funnier and seem to impart nothing other than an outlet to allow the audience to laugh at dwarves/the disabled. Very boring, extrememly unfunny, and I suspect, unpardonably dodgy.

― Venga (Venga), Friday, 29 September 2006 09:07 (nineteen years ago)

To be honest my biggest laugh came from Merchant's agent asking Warwick "would I fit in your house?"

There wasn't much else beyond that tho.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 29 September 2006 09:27 (nineteen years ago)

I liked Merchant getting Harry Potter and Billie Piper confused. Generally quite a poor episode, though.

― chap who would dare to contain two ingredients. Tea and bags. (chap), Friday, 29 September 2006 11:30 (nineteen years ago)

i cuaght some of this, at last. it looks rubbish.

― teh_kit (g-kit), Friday, 29 September 2006 11:33 (nineteen years ago)

merchant and barry are stealing the show at the mo, gervais is becoming irrelevant in his own show...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Friday, 29 September 2006 11:42 (nineteen years ago)

one thing i liked was his insistence that his agent also get Maggie a part in same film so he'd have someone to talk to. it wasn't dwelled upon but suggested his thing for her has started to kick in - not that this is a good direction to go in AT ALL mind you.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 29 September 2006 11:45 (nineteen years ago)

The Maggie character is so badly drawn. In some scenes, she appears entirely lucid and together and in others she comes across as (literally) unbelievably socially inept to allow G&M to crowbar in their Joke.

Extras just doesn't hang together and completely lacks even the tangential sense of plausibility or consistency that made The Office work.

― Venga (Venga), Friday, 29 September 2006 11:51 (nineteen years ago)

it was particularly stupid that she told Warwick's fiance what Andy had said. scatterbrained is one thing but this wasn't just a case of no tact.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 29 September 2006 11:53 (nineteen years ago)

i reserved judgement on ep2 (which i still think this entire thread was way too quick to jump on) but with the 3rd ep my faith is rocked. same old schtick needs to move on. midget is seinfeld again.

still larfed tho, which is what matters. more at "would i fit in yr house" than the passable tea joke in WTWB. everyone assumes that we're meant to agree that WTWB is through-and-through awful. but i don't think we are.

radcliffe was fine.

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Friday, 29 September 2006 12:22 (nineteen years ago)

well Millman presumably believes in WTWB as a good sitcom faithful to the genre as his only objections were to having to wear the wig and glasses iirc. Gervais seems to have chosen to reflect his own belief that trad sitcoms can still offer something in this way rather than actually make WTWB for real (because this way he gets to hang out with people like Bowie?).

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 29 September 2006 12:29 (nineteen years ago)

Perhaps it helps that I haven't seen more than a few episodes of Seinfeld and no episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 29 September 2006 12:44 (nineteen years ago)

gervais is up himself.

― Enr1que (Enrique), Friday, 29 September 2006 12:48 (nineteen years ago)

Is Ricky Gervais further up his own arse or Larry

― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Friday, 29 September 2006 12:51 (nineteen years ago)

David's?

― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Friday, 29 September 2006 12:51 (nineteen years ago)

this has nothing on Curb.

― teh_kit (g-kit), Friday, 29 September 2006 12:51 (nineteen years ago)

otm

― Enr1que (Enrique), Friday, 29 September 2006 12:53 (nineteen years ago)

The last episode waas great. It seems to mostly tick long as a story rathe than comedy, there can be ten minutes without a laugh, but then you'll get something pant wettingly funny, like where he kicks Warwick, or Merchant & Barry reading the newspapers,or his Gervais' last little yward glance before teh credits roll.

― mei (mei), Saturday, 30 September 2006 07:36 (nineteen years ago)

this is some meta bullshit.

― the classic sounds of the seventh of january 1998 (Enrique), Thursday, 5 October 2006 19:05 (nineteen years ago)

FUCK, i forgot to tape this. and mitchell & webb. i know extras is repeated at some point ... M&W, anyone?

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 5 October 2006 19:14 (nineteen years ago)

Tuesdays on BBC3

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 5 October 2006 19:21 (nineteen years ago)

ok, that bit was quite good.

― the classic sounds of the seventh of january 1998 (Enrique), Thursday, 5 October 2006 19:25 (nineteen years ago)

What, her that used to be on Brookside pissed on stage, yeah, I laughed at that. All the "Ronnie Corbett takes drugs supplied by Moira Stuart", er, no. Shite.

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 5 October 2006 19:31 (nineteen years ago)

mrs fiendish (who is in sheffield) says it rocked. but i am drunk (in glasgow) and listening to the chameleons as loud as my crappy speakers will go, so i don't care. i will tape it. yay.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 5 October 2006 22:56 (nineteen years ago)

Excellent again. So much better than the first series. Ronnie Corbett v. funny indeed. No disabled jokes though.

Don't worry, those of you who missed it, it's here in full:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/programmes/?id=extras

Gervaise was being interviewed by Huw Edwards afterwards, on BBC News, but I only caught the end of it, unfortunately.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 6 October 2006 06:18 (nineteen years ago)

I didn't like this one, and it didn't make me laugh at all.

The scene in the posh frock shop felt wrong, because I don't think Maggie would have insisted on Andy buying her a £2,500 dress even to prove a point to the snotty shop assistant. Admittedly I've only seen one other from this new series, so am I missing something about how th dynamics of Maggie and Andy's friendship have changed since he has become 'successful'? Back in the days when they were both penniless extras, there was genuine warmth and humour between them, which seems to be missing now.

Even the Ronnie Corbett bit didn't make me laugh. Maybe I thought it was too believable to be funny.

― C J (C J), Friday, 6 October 2006 06:43 (nineteen years ago)

I did like the scene with the security guards banning them from the Baftas.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Friday, 6 October 2006 06:53 (nineteen years ago)

I think the dress shop bit was a touch of the old Laurel and Hardys.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 6 October 2006 06:58 (nineteen years ago)

It's getting poorer and poorer, and it's quite unbelievable.

The Millman character is either totally stupid or deluded, though he doesn't come across as such, he's the ordinary guy we're supposed to be able to identify with. Yet every week he tells Maggie some deeply personal or embarrassing fact which she either misunderstands or twists to put him in the worst light. You'd think after the first time he's been dropped in it he'd be a little more circumspect, but no, he keeps making the same mistakes. Maybe it's Gervais trying to be Beckettian but I suspect it's more likely a lack of ideas.

As for the agent character, why is he with him, when he's a total klutz, has no faith in his work, undermines him at every opportunity and is clearly rotten in his job?

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Friday, 6 October 2006 07:47 (nineteen years ago)

The agent character (who really should be played by someone older, surely? SM is about 20 years too young to be someone's agent?) is there to supply the genuine laughs, as far as I can see. The crude, obvious, 'unrealistic' slapstick stuff that Ricky Gervais seemingly wants to appear superior too.

This whole series aeems to be about RG's ego - & having his cake & eating it.

― bham (bham), Friday, 6 October 2006 08:03 (nineteen years ago)

I'm surprised PJ Miller likes this so much. It's just so absurd and excruciating but not actually that funny. I'm actually disappointed in the likes of Corbett and Briers that they lower themselves to this. Moira Stewart was awesome however.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 6 October 2006 08:12 (nineteen years ago)

xpost perhaps the agent character is just a subtle meta-gag, a comedy character with dodgy hair and big glasses in a series where he's railing against comedy shows where the laughs come from characters with dodgy hair and big glasses.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Friday, 6 October 2006 08:20 (nineteen years ago)

The Roger Mellie influence really came through in this episode, I thought

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Friday, 6 October 2006 08:24 (nineteen years ago)

HBO must really consider this money well spent, eh? Jokes about Moira Stewart?!

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 6 October 2006 08:25 (nineteen years ago)

I think I like it so much because I "get" some things about it that other people don't.

1) It's fictional. It is not about Gervaise.
2) In real life, no one interferes with Gervaise's work. The BBC even made an advert about the fact ("This is what we do."). His work does get respect, or at least it did, before he became "too popular". The Millman situation is alien to him.
3) There is no obligation for comedy to deal exclusively with the probable or likey or believable.
4) It satirises a lot of the crap I encounter at work (see also Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive) so perhaps I derive more pleasure from it because of that. But I think I would like it anyway.
5) Things happen "every week" in every comedy.
6) I have not seen many of the things it appears to be "based on", so that must help.

Incidentally, I have an irrational hatred of "Curb Your Enthusiasm", or "Curb" as one of my more detestable workmates calls it.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 6 October 2006 08:55 (nineteen years ago)

what is it based on?

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 6 October 2006 09:01 (nineteen years ago)

xpost If something happens once then I'll buy that premise, but if the same embarassing scenrio happens to a character in every episode then a. it stretches the bounds of credulity and if you can't believe in the situation then any comedy arising from that won't work and b. the law of diminishing returns sets in very quickly.

BTW no one's mentioned Chris Martin, or are we just trying to forget it ever happened?

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Friday, 6 October 2006 09:03 (nineteen years ago)

and 1) It's fictional. It is not about Gervaise

it may as well be, i mean he's still the central character. i just don't see why this matters to you.

all sitcoms are fictional, and most are crap with it?

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 6 October 2006 09:06 (nineteen years ago)

x-post 1 - Based on "Curb", apparently.

x-post 2 - It doesn't matter to me, it matters to everyone else - he is up his own arse, etc.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 6 October 2006 09:07 (nineteen years ago)

I suppose the 'believability' issue is silly but too powerful. I think CYE has the same problem where instead of just laughing I end up just exasperated doing the 'but that just wouldn't happen' thing. I wonder when this started/what started it?

Gervais and Merchant will always make me laugh I think. I laugh at shows like this a couple of times. But end up resenting at the end. The Simpsons was like that for a while before I finally stopped laughing altogether.

But many of the things they are doing in that process I really dislike. As has been said before there's too much shoehorning in of celebrities and trying to confound our expectations with them. I thought this show was smart initially (last series) because it was fresh but now it's just so dumb and obvious where they go with things and how they do them.

And it's a problem because he does appear to be able to do what he likes. Very few can handle that well.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 6 October 2006 09:11 (nineteen years ago)

So...

Incidentally, I have an irrational hatred of "Curb Your Enthusiasm"

6) I have not seen many of the things it appears to be "based on", so that must help.

Based on "Curb",

hmmm

(soz, i'm being an arse. but i love CYE and don't like it when people call it, especially if they've never seen it)

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 6 October 2006 09:11 (nineteen years ago)

'entourage' is another comparison point. they have jessica alba, we have moira stewart.

― the classic sounds of the seventh of january 1998 (Enrique), Friday, 6 October 2006 09:24 (nineteen years ago)

"We" "win"?

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Friday, 6 October 2006 09:48 (nineteen years ago)

(It's Stuart, btw)

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Friday, 6 October 2006 09:50 (nineteen years ago)

Gervais is kind of like the sufferer of some Greek mythological punishment, he wants in his heart of hearts to write some sitcom vertite HBO ish whilst pouring scorn upon traditional English farce sitcoms, but the more he tries for the former, the more he ends up with the latter.

― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Friday, 6 October 2006 09:51 (nineteen years ago)

we win. they also have a more convincing and funnier agent-character.

― the classic sounds of the seventh of january 1998 (Enrique), Friday, 6 October 2006 09:52 (nineteen years ago)

"Hug it out, bitch" vs "Could I fit in your house?"

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:05 (nineteen years ago)

the rival actor guy is like the Chris Finch i suppose - will Millman manage to pwn him in the final episode somehow?

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:07 (nineteen years ago)

'hug it out bitch' every time!

― the classic sounds of the seventh of january 1998 (Enrique), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:08 (nineteen years ago)

Funnily enough, I found myself walking along Millman Street last night and it occurred to me that this is precisely where I saw Gervais jogging about three years ago (a lap of Gt Ormond St Hosp, I s'pose). Y'see, he draws from everyday life.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:10 (nineteen years ago)

the rival actor guy is like the Chris Finch i suppose - will Millman manage to pwn him in the final episode somehow?

You seem to be somehow suggesting that Gervais has a history of ignoring two years worth of characterisation for the sole purpose of giving his character some shallow victory so we have the Hollywood ending. What a ridiculous idea.

― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:12 (nineteen years ago)

I wasn't slagging off CYE, that's why I called my hatred irrational. It might be really good for all I know.

I have seen Entourage though, and I really hate that.

I wish I hadn't tried to work out why I like Extras. The reasons I gave are quite flimsy. I may have to withdraw them and start from scratch.

Warning: Gervaise said to Huw Edwards that he'd like to do a serious drama, "like The Sopranos".

I also hate The Sopranos.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:33 (nineteen years ago)

that's absurd.

― the classic sounds of the seventh of january 1998 (Enrique), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:36 (nineteen years ago)

And now I can add The Wire to my list of hated programmes.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:38 (nineteen years ago)

why 'and now'? do you just hate hbo in general?

― the classic sounds of the seventh of january 1998 (Enrique), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:39 (nineteen years ago)

CYE isn't half as much of a luvviefest as Extras, thankfully.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:40 (nineteen years ago)

The Sopranos, yawn. PJOTM. I hate these fucking "quality" US shows that we're all supposed to fall to our knees and worship

― TS: Mick Ralphs v. Ariel Bender (Dada), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:40 (nineteen years ago)

but they're good.

― the classic sounds of the seventh of january 1998 (Enrique), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:41 (nineteen years ago)

Sopranos was awesome but now off the boil. Still haven't seen The Wire.

PJ what do you think of Arrested Development (if you've seen it)?

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:41 (nineteen years ago)

'sopranos' isn't what it was these last two seasons but it's still better than any uk tv drama or films, from the same time period.

― the classic sounds of the seventh of january 1998 (Enrique), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:42 (nineteen years ago)

(I think I know why PJM is building up an HBO hatred; I used to do his job and I got off on the wrong foot with Entourage too).

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:43 (nineteen years ago)

(xxxpost) Why do they all have to last for 50 series and 300 years? Balls to that, it's a just a stupid TV drama

― TS: Mick Ralphs v. Ariel Bender (Dada), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:43 (nineteen years ago)

PJ what do you think of Arrested Development (if you've seen it)?

I'd tell you what I think of it but you could probably guess

― TS: Mick Ralphs v. Ariel Bender (Dada), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:45 (nineteen years ago)

(xxxpost) Why do they all have to last for 50 series and 300 years? Balls to that, it's a just a stupid TV drama
-- TS: Mick Ralphs v. Ariel Bender (dadaismu...), October 6th, 2006.

they keep going as long as they make money, that's the 'why'. but why's that always a problem? sometimes it is, as with 'the x files', but 'the west wing' could have gone on forever.

'curb' series not long enough, if anything.

― the classic sounds of the seventh of january 1998 (Enrique), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:46 (nineteen years ago)

"1) It's fictional. It is not about Gervaise." - the whole thing, to me, seems to be set up to put across RG's views abt contemporary comedy, fame, the entertainment industry etc - points he has made many times in interviews.
He plays the protagonist & his is the single halfway sympathetic, unexaggerated character.

"2) In real life, no one interferes with Gervaise's work..." - an example of RG having his cake & eating it, as I mentioned above (see also getting laughs out of gays, disabled people, but presenting it as confronting people's prejudices)

"3) There is no obligation for comedy to deal exclusively with the probable or likey or believable." - of course not, but Extras says there is, by its pisstaking of trad sitcoms etc.

― bham (bham), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:47 (nineteen years ago)

Never saw the "West Wing", I'd rather watch paint dry (xpost)

― TS: Mick Ralphs v. Ariel Bender (Dada), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:47 (nineteen years ago)

hi dere lex

― the classic sounds of the seventh of january 1998 (Enrique), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:50 (nineteen years ago)

Watch it! Or rather, don't watch it! I don't like stolid, "well-made", impeccably liberal US TV dramas which last for centuries, what can I tell ya?

― TS: Mick Ralphs v. Ariel Bender (Dada), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:52 (nineteen years ago)

i'm tired of the length of US dramas too. i cannot summon the energy/attention for something like Deadwood, no matter how brilliant Charlie Brooker keeps telling me it is.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:54 (nineteen years ago)

That's it, summoning the energy/attention and COMMITMENT is beyond me I'm afraid

― TS: Mick Ralphs v. Ariel Bender (Dada), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:54 (nineteen years ago)

One interesting thing in this episode: Millman's snarky homophobic dig at Wilde after Fry's quotation. this from the same man who stood aghast as his agent put foot in mouth when talking to his colleagues on the sitcom in the first episode.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 6 October 2006 10:56 (nineteen years ago)

i watched extras for the first time last night and thought it was funny. a lot funnier than many things i've seen lately.

i even laughed at chris martin and thought he was hilarious

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 6 October 2006 11:10 (nineteen years ago)

I haven't seen it, Konal.

I hate HBO stuff because they are a pain in the arse to work on, but more importantly because they are revered by my superiors.

For instance, I have never worked on Lost or Desperate Housewives and I quite like those and I don't suppose they are any better than the others.

Also I find it difficult to concentrate for more than half an hour, always assuming thast I have more than half an hour without interruptions.

I have not seen or read many Gervaise interviews, so I suppose that must help too. When I have seen him, I find him annoying, in much the way people seem to find this programme annoying.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 6 October 2006 11:13 (nineteen years ago)

I can only commit to one epic American drama show a year, and that has been Lost for the last two (previously 24).

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 6 October 2006 11:15 (nineteen years ago)

Another thing from the Huw Edwards interview: Gervaise is appearing in a Ben Stiller film.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 6 October 2006 11:17 (nineteen years ago)

The plus side of RG taking himself so seriously these days is that you hear less of his most annoying laugh ever in interviews.

2nd series of Extras not as good as the first, which wasn't as good as the last series of The Office, which wasn't as good as the 1st series of The Office... I see a pattern emerging.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 6 October 2006 11:19 (nineteen years ago)

1st series of The Office < Gervais turns on The 11 O Clock Show (ah, wait)

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 6 October 2006 11:21 (nineteen years ago)

There are still a good few laughs per episode, but I've come to terms with the fact that this is easily the worst series Gervais has done. I really liked series one - despite excruciating moments, it had a warmth and humanity at its core which was largely missing from The Office and seems to be missing from Extras now. The embarrasment schtick just seems snidey, cynical and lazy now.

Still, the Corbett bits were funny.

― chap who would dare to contain two ingredients. Tea and bags. (chap), Friday, 6 October 2006 11:42 (nineteen years ago)

this is easily the worst series Gervais has done

Worse than both The 11 O'Clock Show and Meet Ricky Gervais?

― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Friday, 6 October 2006 11:50 (nineteen years ago)

we thought chris martin was pretty good.

again i laughed. more so than last week.

i still reckon ppl are taking it to heart too much. this is much more trad sitcom-y than they've done before, and i still don't think we're meant to either identify with AM's "struggle" or think his sitcom is as dreadful as he does. he's just a bit of a sad case.

and why rail against the un-reality of it? ok, i find lady's constant over-the-top gaffes a bit wearing, but set against the bafta "telling off" (which i REALLY laughed at) it seems every bit as realistic. i.e. HARDLY AT ALL.

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Friday, 6 October 2006 11:57 (nineteen years ago)

One interesting thing in this episode: Millman's snarky homophobic dig at Wilde after Fry's quotation.

On a late night celebrity poker thing on Channel 4, gervais (apparently) whispered "At least I'm not gay" under his breath to Fry when Fry had been taking the piss out of him. This may have been a little reference to that incident, but still, Gervais does seem to have a severe problem with Teh Gayze.

― Venga (Venga), Friday, 6 October 2006 12:10 (nineteen years ago)

i posted 'meta bullshit' during the chris martin bit, but it was definitely the show's high point.

― the classic sounds of the seventh of january 1998 (Enrique), Friday, 6 October 2006 12:14 (nineteen years ago)

PJM, thanks for the link: am watching it now.

the chris martin thing is pretty fucking woeful so far. he's no david bowie, is he?

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 6 October 2006 12:19 (nineteen years ago)

Gervais does seem to have a severe problem with Teh Gayze

I don't actually believe this, he's just fascinated by homosexuality and it's comedic scope and will bugger us senseless with said fascination.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 6 October 2006 12:19 (nineteen years ago)

he's no david bowie, is he?

talk about damning with faint praise (you are talking about acting ability here right?)

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 6 October 2006 12:20 (nineteen years ago)

heheheheh. sorry. i thought that would look funnier written down than it did.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 6 October 2006 12:25 (nineteen years ago)

well, it is funny! i just didn't scan the sarcasm properly. apols.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 6 October 2006 12:30 (nineteen years ago)

"the woman who gave birth to herself" and "the south bank show dick and dom special" made me titter. so far, nothing else seems to have happened. the bit with the shop and the dress was balls.

hahahah HAHAHAH, hah, the richard briers/doll bit is fucking funny, though.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 6 October 2006 12:33 (nineteen years ago)

but yes: as has already been pointed out, WHY does millman stay with his agent? i mean, it's not like the blackadder or father ted paradigm, for instance, where the characters are effectively trapped together; there is no reason at all why millman would put up with this chump.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 6 October 2006 12:38 (nineteen years ago)

They like each other.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 6 October 2006 12:40 (nineteen years ago)

he's loyal to sm because sm was still his agent when he was nobody.

― the classic sounds of the seventh of january 1998 (Enrique), Friday, 6 October 2006 12:41 (nineteen years ago)

His agent did get him a prime time sitcom with 6M viewers!

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 6 October 2006 12:44 (nineteen years ago)

was the agent massively instrumental in that? i can't remember how that episode worked (and although i have it on DVD, i can't be arsed going to find out ... i've wasted too much time today as it is!)

surely celebs switch agents all the time?

mind you, i can't understand why he hangs about with maggie either, so ... best just to suspend that disbelief, yo.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 6 October 2006 12:46 (nineteen years ago)

I still think the tea spluttering "Ooh, I've finished" bit in "When the Whistle Blows" is the best joke in the entire series so far

― Mike Giggler (Dada), Friday, 6 October 2006 12:47 (nineteen years ago)

yes, without doubt!

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 6 October 2006 12:52 (nineteen years ago)

he was a virgin until he was 28! so girls probably don't come by often

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 6 October 2006 12:59 (nineteen years ago)

was the agent massively instrumental in that?

I can't remember either, but I'm fairly sure every agent ever takes the credit for everything a client achieves. Which is fair enough, given that they get the blame for every slack period.

Did Joey from Friends (and Joey from Joey to a lesser extent) not have a shite agent, a talent for saying the wrong thing, and occasional guest celebrities playing themselves?

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 6 October 2006 13:03 (nineteen years ago)

+ also early Joey begging for a single line in any show
+ eventually finding success but not critical validation in a popular TV show

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 6 October 2006 13:04 (nineteen years ago)

I rather wish Gervais had just written a series of When The Whistle Blows and have done with it.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 6 October 2006 13:04 (nineteen years ago)

Apropos of nothing, d'you remember that "Now Hans that do dishes can be soft as Gervais, with wild green hairy-lipped squid" joke?

― Mike Giggler (Dada), Friday, 6 October 2006 13:07 (nineteen years ago)

Aye, right up there with "It's a knick knack Patty Wack, give the frog a loan, his old man's a Rolling Stone" :)

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 6 October 2006 13:08 (nineteen years ago)

and "I left my harp in Sampan disco"

― C J (C J), Friday, 6 October 2006 13:11 (nineteen years ago)

"Player's Navy Cut. It's the tobacco that counts."

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 6 October 2006 13:31 (nineteen years ago)

it seems really unlikely that the Brookside/Holby City girl would actually sleep with someone like Millman's character anyway (who is pretty boring himself) but this is obv. small potatoes in the Extras realism stakes.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 6 October 2006 13:31 (nineteen years ago)

ha ha 'Millman's character'. my brane cannot cope with teh meta.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 6 October 2006 13:33 (nineteen years ago)

"Moira Stewart" jokes could be changed to "Martha Stewart" with careful dubbing, right?

Oh and whoever said about "Curb" - "It's not making me laugh, just making me say "That wouldn;t happen" " Yr my pal. At least, the onlyother person I know whos seen it and thinks so too...

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 6 October 2006 13:40 (nineteen years ago)

it's maybe 25% 'roffle', 75% 'oh ffs that just wouldn't happen' for me - for Extras. slightly more even ratio for CYE.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 6 October 2006 13:42 (nineteen years ago)

with buster keaton i'm like "no wai, that would never happen".

― the classic sounds of the seventh of january 1998 (Enrique), Friday, 6 October 2006 13:48 (nineteen years ago)

As for the agent character, why is he with him, when he's a total klutz, has no faith in his work, undermines him at every opportunity and is clearly rotten in his job?

Hi dere!

Most talent are extremely loyal to their agents - and it's only at the top of the ladder where poaching is a big issue that this might not be the case. Indeed, you'd be surprised by the extent to which the client clings to the agent - it's a surprisingly intimate relationship and the client is always worried the agent's head will be turned by younger, sexier, more exciting clients who'll take all the attention, as well as all the work.

I'm 32, and there are at least 3 agents in my company younger than I am - JOEY TREBBIANI'S AGENT IS NOT THE ARCHETYPE, I promise.

It is likely that an actor's agent would have been the person to tout round said actor's writing, so it's probably that Merchant's character got him the WTWB gig and certain that he negotiated it (this is a v po-faced answer I know but, honestly, what so you think us lot DO for our 10%?). Unless, of course, there is a plot point in a previous episode that I never saw.

Hope this helps!

― === temporary username === (Mark C), Friday, 6 October 2006 13:49 (nineteen years ago)

with buster keaton i'm like "no wai, that would never happen".

exaggeration is fine but where to draw the line? why not just have Millman headbutting the Queen like in that Mr Bean episode? Or have Maggie reveal she's an alien? perhaps Gervais will wake up at the end and it will all have been some crazy dream. cue Merchant in the shower...

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 6 October 2006 13:57 (nineteen years ago)

I'd go as far as to suggest that deviating from sense of what is probable (as opposed to merely possible) in this sort of show is actually laziness. Like it's too difficult to try and make humour out of what is probable so have to go down the easier route to try and secure laughs.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 6 October 2006 14:00 (nineteen years ago)

at the end of the day, 'extras' is more watchable than the vast, vast bulk of bbc programming. there's bound to be some interest in seeing which celebrities will do what to get on to a show they perceive as hot. but its badness is a mixture of loads of things -- you could get away with the implausibility IF the humour was less hateful towards minorities. or vice-versa. or IF we weren't supposed to root for millman and the woman as a romantic couple.

― the classic sounds of the seventh of january 1998 (Enrique), Friday, 6 October 2006 14:01 (nineteen years ago)

e.g. Andy's little conversation with the homeless guy re the £20 note was funny but stayed on the side of likelihood. Whereas the behaviour of the people around him strays, every week, into improbable stupidity. I guess I'm just a reality rockist. (xpost)

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 6 October 2006 14:02 (nineteen years ago)

last night the woman telling the attractive actress that millman found her boring. implausible and unfunny but -- it would be funny if in character? but it was just spinning an awkward moment out of thin air. maybe it's funny if you know who the attractive woman is IRL?

― the classic sounds of the seventh of january 1998 (Enrique), Friday, 6 October 2006 14:05 (nineteen years ago)

meanwhile, this is Loaded readers idea of what's funniest via mag's comedy awards ceremony:

Best Stand-Up: Jimmy Carr
Funniest TV programme: The Friday Night Project
Funniest Double Act: Alan Carr and Justin Lee Collins (Friday Night Project)
Funniest Film: Severance
Funniest Man: Russell Brand
Funniest Woman: Ashley Jenson
Funniest TV Personality: Charlotte Church
Funniest Reality TV Person: Paul Danan
Funniest DVD: The Green Wing Series 1

tough times, people

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Friday, 6 October 2006 15:46 (nineteen years ago)

Shit, that's the wrongest thing ever.

― chap who would dare to contain two ingredients. Tea and bags. (chap), Friday, 6 October 2006 15:52 (nineteen years ago)

Most talent are extremely loyal to their agents

Sad but true.

PJ Miller68, what is it that you do, that you get to look at telly programmes all the time and grow to loathe them? And why am I not doing it? I could possibly do with caring less about the telly I do care about.

I am the only one who does not know everything about everyone.

I don't like this series of Extras. It's just not funny. Number one rule of a comedy is surely to be funny, no?

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 6 October 2006 18:16 (nineteen years ago)

I subtitle them, Monkey. It is right at the bottom of the media "ladder". Michael J does the same thing, but higher up the "ladder". Another reason to hate them is that we have to watch the extras, which is usually people blowing their own trumpet.

I may exaggerate the hate a bit.

Ashley Jensen is going to Hollywood. I have not read the entire articel. I think it is in Radio Times.

I know I´m not the best person to opine on this, but I would never strive to write something "probable" if I was hoping to entertain. People can do probable things all day.

I am thinking of hiring Markelby.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Saturday, 7 October 2006 20:07 (nineteen years ago)

there was a series of CYE- possible the one with the Producers where we were getting tired with the implausibility of the social interaction, but that was based on loving the first few series which were just superb. it grated. and extras ii is verging on that, but with only 1 series the contrasting effect isn't quite so heightened as it was there.

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Saturday, 7 October 2006 20:12 (nineteen years ago)

I saw part of the repeat, from Chris Martin's bit onwards.

Some of it is funny. and then it wanders off into "wouldn't it be funny if we.." territory.

"What did you think when he split with you because you were boring" is not something that's ever been said anywhere in the world, without malicious intent. So, wrong.

The dolly/Briers bit, naturally a reference to Caroline Ahern's drunken yell of years gone by, was not especially funny, but oddly strayed into a "that could happen" area for once.

The Corbett bits worked, because he is good. Moira Stewart too.

The speech and the "28yrold virgin" and all that was very wrong. Not offensive, just wrong.

Hey! I've seen half an episode. Me expert now!

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 9 October 2006 08:20 (nineteen years ago)

So it's Ian McKellen this week. Hmm.

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 06:59 (nineteen years ago)

Excellent, been a while since some gay jokes.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 08:12 (nineteen years ago)

Even my enthusiasm is flagging at that prospect.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 08:57 (nineteen years ago)

Has to be said again, Merchant and Williamson double-act is the real star.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 09:00 (nineteen years ago)

Re: Barry - is he the bloke who was on that Craig Charles programme when Belle and Sebastian were on?

I am aware that not everyone will be able to answer this question. I apologise to those for whom it is offensive.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 09:11 (nineteen years ago)

Tonight, Andy Millman accepts a role in a serious play with Sir Ian McKellan, buit his agent doesn't tell him the play is about gay lovers!

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 12 October 2006 14:29 (nineteen years ago)

Andy (oblivious to some gay standing behind him): I hate faggots. I hope they all burn in hell the godless scum (realises that some gays are standing behind him)... is what I would say if I was a different person.

Barry off Eastenders: I'm fat!

Cheryl Hines: Why would you do that Larry?

― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 12 October 2006 14:40 (nineteen years ago)

Look, it's the "Not knowing your girlfriend's name" scene from Seinfeld, except 10 fucking years after they did it.

― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 12 October 2006 19:08 (nineteen years ago)

that was shit

― acrobat (elwisty), Thursday, 12 October 2006 19:31 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, very far from 'good' indeed. It's getting worse.

― scotstvo (scotstvo), Thursday, 12 October 2006 19:37 (nineteen years ago)

worst yet though i have enjoyed a few

― secondhandnews (secondhandnews), Thursday, 12 October 2006 19:43 (nineteen years ago)

yes, although the dinner party thing near the end was ok.

― sos (yaye), Thursday, 12 October 2006 19:49 (nineteen years ago)

Merchant's really stealing the show I think. In the loosest sense of the word.

― scotstvo (scotstvo), Thursday, 12 October 2006 19:51 (nineteen years ago)

I roffled at Millman trying to chat up a woman and Gerard Kelly's scene stealing queen otherwise a bit meh.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 12 October 2006 20:01 (nineteen years ago)

The ending rung less true than any other part of the series, and that's saying something.

He know's it's a gay themed play, yet is worried about appearing gay in front of his old school friends, most of whom he hasn't seen in 20 years. So much so, that he doesn't mind appearing homophobic in front of his gay work colleagues or sabotaging his career in full view of the public and his peers.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 12 October 2006 20:15 (nineteen years ago)

And Millman himself is becoming less likeable.

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Thursday, 12 October 2006 20:31 (nineteen years ago)

Absolutely, he was borderline likeable throughout the first series. Also Maggie is now a complete buffoon rather than just being a bit dizzy.

I liked Germaine Greer and McKellen's acting speech.

― chap who would dare to contain two ingredients. Tea and bags. (chap), Thursday, 12 October 2006 22:10 (nineteen years ago)

The bit with the water bottle did make me laugh though.

― C J (C J), Friday, 13 October 2006 06:12 (nineteen years ago)

i only half-watched but what i saw was, once again, fucking pitiful.

― benrique (Enrique), Friday, 13 October 2006 07:30 (nineteen years ago)

not sure i understand the hate on here. i watched this last night and lolz a plenty. Merchant trying to flush the toilet in the middle of his date. using the whisk in a bag to help it down - "thats just mashing it up"

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 13 October 2006 07:34 (nineteen years ago)

McKellen was great with his tips on pretending. reminded me of Pickard from the previous series.

liked the translation from 'worshipping you from afar' etc to 'watching you without you knowing...'

― Koogy Yonderboy (koogs), Friday, 13 October 2006 07:45 (nineteen years ago)

i also thought there was a lot more Brent to last nights episode

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 13 October 2006 07:56 (nineteen years ago)

Regardless of how shamelessly this plumbs the depths of Millman's/Gervais' prejudices/fixations, how ill-conceived it is, how clumsy the plots are, there are still enough funny bits to keep me watching. McKellen was terrific, I thought.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Friday, 13 October 2006 08:16 (nineteen years ago)

Last night's show was the worst yet, not even "When the Whistle Blows" was funny! And that's usually my favourite bit. Maggie is just an annoying cretin now. Does Millman actually write "When the Whistle Blows"? Why is he embarrassed by it then? Ian McKellen can't do "funny". Why is Ricky Gervais so obsessed with teh gayness? Questions! Questions! Well, to be precise... Questions! Statements!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 13 October 2006 08:18 (nineteen years ago)

Bad, bad, bad. It all just seems so obvious & easy, so devoid of real invention. Corbett snorting coke. Potter whirling a rubber johnny around. Millman doing an embarassing gay thing in front of McKellen and old macho mates. etc.

― David V (grammy), Friday, 13 October 2006 08:21 (nineteen years ago)

i heard the bit when someone said "poofters, 12 o'clock". maybe i'm stuck in liberalsville but do people say that kind of thing in uncertain company?

― benrique (Enrique), Friday, 13 October 2006 08:24 (nineteen years ago)

I now fully understand all the objections that have been voiced here over the weeks. I thought that was total crap, except for McKellen's acting masterclass, which was thoroughly enjoyable.

I wonder whether last night's really was a lot worse than the previous ones or whether I have just been blind.

I even thought Mitchell and Butler was better, although still not good enough to watch more than five minutes.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 13 October 2006 08:26 (nineteen years ago)

... that "Hole in the Ring" thing in Lambert & Butler was hilarious tho, sorry, wrong thread

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 13 October 2006 08:29 (nineteen years ago)

One day, he'll forget his trousers!

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 13 October 2006 08:34 (nineteen years ago)

the mckellan acting bit had me in absolute fits best sleb spot of the series, and merchant's face when he was watching school friend chat up the girl, but that's about it.

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Friday, 13 October 2006 08:37 (nineteen years ago)

Is this whole series/programme actually about :

moving from one situation (i.e. member of general public, takes part in 'extra' work, perceived glamour and mixing with star people),

into another (i.e. now 'member of celebrity population, mixing with star people as equal, and actually failing as they are out-of-their-depth)...?

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 13 October 2006 08:39 (nineteen years ago)

I've just found this morning that the most annoying thing about 'Extras' is discussing it with other people in real life.

"The reason you don't find it funny is because you dont't get it. I get it. I can see what he's doing. It's a parody. That's what you don't understand."

Yes, thanks for that. (Should this be on the annoying co-workers thread?)

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Friday, 13 October 2006 09:31 (nineteen years ago)

Like Lixi, I can't see "co-workers" without thinking "cow-workers".

I saw Merchant yesterday in Soho, grimacing in the rain with a copy of The Independent in a plastic bag. Perhaps it had a bad review of Extras in it. They should finish the series with that scene.

This first-hand observation may come as something of a relevation to some of you, but...he's really very tall.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Friday, 13 October 2006 09:52 (nineteen years ago)

I think his character and Maggie should definitely get together: he's an insensitive idiot and she's an insensitive halfwit

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 13 October 2006 10:08 (nineteen years ago)

teh funny: mckellen explaining acting. agent's being impressed with chat up, and maggie repeating "pretty lady" when git had just finished up by saying "what are you a prostitute?"

i.e. what mike said up there.

the maximum embarrasment punchline (resorting to his catchphrase) reminded me of the well known story about Kenneth Williams when he was pushing his serious acting, and as the run progressed and the play was tanking, he resorted to chatting to the audience - "oh, hello" style.

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Friday, 13 October 2006 10:48 (nineteen years ago)

I would have been impressed if the writers had arranged it so Andy had actually had penetrative anal sex with one of the gay characters just to avoid the social embarrassment of them finding out he'd made anti-homosexual comments to his straight friends.

― mei (mei), Friday, 13 October 2006 11:36 (nineteen years ago)

Extras

9:00pm - 9:30pm

BBC2

VIDEO Plus+: 6285
Subtitles, audio description, widescreen

Writers/Directors - Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant

6/6

Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) is on the way up. He's Jonathan Ross's new best friend - lots of sunbathing and water fights at the presenter's country home - and there's the chance of a part in a film with a huge Hollywood star. Andy is also ready to fire his useless agent Darren Lamb (Stephen Merchant), who he catches in an embarrassing predicament. But first, Andy has to undergo the ordeal of visiting a seriously ill child in hospital at the behest of a pushy and unpleasant mother. Cue a brilliant, toe-curling scene involving guest star Robert Lindsay as a monstrously annoying show-off version of himself: "One of Britain's best-loved actors, and I can sing, I can dance and I've won awards on Broadway." Hide behind your fingers as Lindsay, an unwanted hospital visitor, launches into a songand- dance routine before railing at the young patient and his mum for not remembering Citizen Smith: "The most popular comedy of the 1970s." It's the last episode, possibly ever, of Extras, and it's a humdinger, perfectly rounded off with an appearance from possibly the biggest surprise guest of them all...

RT reviewer - Alison Graham

Andy Millman - Ricky Gervais

Maggie Jacobs - Ashley Jensen

Andy's agent - Stephen Merchant

Shaun Williamson - Himself

Robert Lindsay - Himself

Jonathan Ross - Himself

Mother of Joe - Regina Freedman

Joe - Corey J Smith

Maggie's date - Paul Albertson

Date's mum - Jennie Goossens

Date's Dad - David McKail

Parents' friend - Penny Ryder

Make-up woman - Sarah Preston

BBC researcher - Lawry Lewin

Nurse - Cathy Murphy

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 19 October 2006 10:53 (nineteen years ago)

We talk a lot of shit about music writers on ILX, but if there's one thing we can all agree on it's that none of them, even on their worse day, are a tenth as bad as Alison Graham.

― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 19 October 2006 10:57 (nineteen years ago)

Maggie has a date, I see.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 19 October 2006 11:07 (nineteen years ago)

I predict it will go without a hitch.

― ;_; (blueski), Thursday, 19 October 2006 11:11 (nineteen years ago)

looking forward to this, as seemingly the only person on ilx who has been enjoying it so far.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Thursday, 19 October 2006 11:23 (nineteen years ago)

Biggest surprise guest of them all = Gervais, playing himself as aforementioned Hollywood star? (I've always though Extras was set in a slightly worrying near-future).

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 19 October 2006 11:34 (nineteen years ago)

I have been enjoying it, except last week's.

There was something in the freebie papers last night about him dressed up as Bowie, or Bowie dressed up as him.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 19 October 2006 11:48 (nineteen years ago)

I thought last week's was better than the Baftas one.

― ;_; (blueski), Thursday, 19 October 2006 12:07 (nineteen years ago)

I've been rewatching series one on DVD. It really is so much better.

― chap who would dare to contain two ingredients. Tea and bags. (chap), Thursday, 19 October 2006 12:15 (nineteen years ago)

who is the hollywood megastar?

i will probably "tune in", just in case it's someone interesting.

― benrique (Enrique), Thursday, 19 October 2006 17:47 (nineteen years ago)

It's supposed to be Robert De Niro.

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 19 October 2006 18:16 (nineteen years ago)

bloody hell bob.

― benrique (Enrique), Thursday, 19 October 2006 18:33 (nineteen years ago)

Though this may be a "please watch my programme even though it's completely shite now, because there might be someone really famous in it briefly and he's so famous it'll atone for the fact it's totally shite" kind of "rumour".

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 19 October 2006 18:35 (nineteen years ago)

(like when Johnny Depp was in The Fast Show)

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 19 October 2006 18:45 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, it's gonna be Bobby. YOU SOLD OUT ROBERT.

― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:03 (nineteen years ago)

this is quite meta. was the interview "really" w. gervais?

― benrique (Enrique), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:04 (nineteen years ago)

oh look! a disabled person!

this might be awkward!

― benrique (Enrique), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:05 (nineteen years ago)

Here comes a celebrity to send up his public persona!

― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:06 (nineteen years ago)

Maggie has a date, I see.
-- PJ Miller (pjmiller6...), October 19th, 2006.

I predict it will go without a hitch.
-- ;_; (n...), October 19th, 2006.

QFT

― benrique (Enrique), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:08 (nineteen years ago)

When the fuck did this turn into Carla Lane?

― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:08 (nineteen years ago)

Nobody has said this yet, and the SPECIAL GUEST hasn't turned up, so I say Larry David...

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:21 (nineteen years ago)

The special guest will be Larry David and the episode will conclude with a ten minute single camera shot of Ricky Gervais rimming him.

― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:24 (nineteen years ago)

that would be good. if larry and... ari gold turned up.

― benrique (Enrique), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:24 (nineteen years ago)

or plot twist: pushy mum will have dragged deniro to hospital.

― benrique (Enrique), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:25 (nineteen years ago)

or not!

― benrique (Enrique), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:25 (nineteen years ago)

DON'T I FEEL STUPID.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:31 (nineteen years ago)

http://aftermathshop.com/oscommerce/images/analcunt_justgets.jpg

― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:31 (nineteen years ago)

he did some comedy in a film with Seanny Penn
he never, never, never try that again

― benrique (Enrique), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:32 (nineteen years ago)

Throughout the 30 seconds De Niro's face was on screen I kept thinking "They shoulda just got Adam Buxton in instead".

― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:36 (nineteen years ago)

I did laugh a bit at the wanking bit.

― C J (C J), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:58 (nineteen years ago)

He was not talking Italian. Siobhan Fahey lied to us.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Thursday, 19 October 2006 20:03 (nineteen years ago)

Wow, that pushy mother was really unpleasant. I mean, maybe you would be like that if your child was terminally ill, but I think I would have just told her to fuck off.

I really hope they don't make another series.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 20 October 2006 05:51 (nineteen years ago)

that was pretty bad.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 20 October 2006 07:49 (nineteen years ago)

I saw the last thirty seconds (hey,I was poorly, lying down fell asleep during the best of Dragon's Den.)

It seemed almost human that bit.

"I'll text you where we are" right, that's going to be the next "embarrasing" scenario. Oh it's only a minute to go. And, "would you like to meet him?" etc.

The most embarrasing bit was on the JRoss show..

RG: "I don't want the show to be sold on who the guest stars are"
JR: "So who haven't we seen yet?"
RG: "OOH! OOH! You won't believe...."

This was not an ironic interchange.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 20 October 2006 08:06 (nineteen years ago)

so weak. first time i've actually felt some resentment for watching it.

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Friday, 20 October 2006 08:14 (nineteen years ago)

I thought it was truly excellent, the most satisfying half-hour of television for a long time. Last week's must have been some kind of blip. None of it struck me as particularly predictable last night.

Gervaise is doing a film with De Niro in what passes for real life, so it wasn't much of a surprise really. Merchant was very good with him, I thought.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 20 October 2006 09:03 (nineteen years ago)

I was sure we were going to be 'treated' to Gervaise walking in on De Niro masturbating with that pen.

― Teh littlest HoBBo (the pirate king), Friday, 20 October 2006 09:25 (nineteen years ago)

Very similar content and delivery:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/leadballoon/

At least the first five mins of ep 1, haven't seen any more.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 20 October 2006 10:42 (nineteen years ago)

It was a bit toe-curling when Millman shows what a warm human character he is after all, by choosing to go to the hospital rather to than his meeting with De Niro.

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Friday, 20 October 2006 11:17 (nineteen years ago)

Also, I've seen that bit with the old age pensioners discussing sex somewhere before - though I'm wracking my brains to think where.

That bit went far on too long.

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Friday, 20 October 2006 11:19 (nineteen years ago)

It was a bit toe-curling when Millman shows what a warm human character he is after all, by choosing to go to the hospital rather to than his meeting with De Niro.

Though it was a blessed relief that the series didn't end with him and Maggie getting it on.

― Venga (Venga), Friday, 20 October 2006 11:28 (nineteen years ago)

i thought it was dreadful, really by the numbers comedy moments the whole thing seemed rushed and weak.

why was he so awkward about seeing the lad in hospital, it just seemed like a set up to try and produce cringing comedy. it didn't work, it just baffled me too much.

the wanking scene was wasted, and tired.

the old ladies talking about sex. so fucking tried and tested, jesus i thought i was watching a sketch show from the 80's

Robert lindsay seemed to try too hard.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 20 October 2006 11:30 (nineteen years ago)

Robert lindsay seemed to try too hard.

Played himself perfectly then.

― ONIMO's lips can't feel! (GerryNemo), Friday, 20 October 2006 11:32 (nineteen years ago)

Though it was a blessed relief that the series didn't end with him and Maggie getting it on

yes, and reminds me of the Serenity Now episode of Seinfeld where George says to Elaine near the end "You know, all these years, I've always wanted to see the two of you [jerry] get back together." as if vocalising what the viewers should be thinking. And Elaine just replies harshly "Well, that's because you're an idiot", and thats that.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 20 October 2006 11:34 (nineteen years ago)

The bit that did interest me though was the video montage sequence of Millman and Jonathan Ross playing together. I don't know if it was intentional, but the lighting and style was very reminiscent of the homoerotic undertones of Brideshead Revisited from the early 80s.

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Friday, 20 October 2006 11:38 (nineteen years ago)

actually that bit did make me laugh yes.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 20 October 2006 11:40 (nineteen years ago)

I really thought everyone was going to say it was brilliant this week.

Oldies talking about sex = Waiting For God.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 20 October 2006 12:33 (nineteen years ago)

"was very reminiscent of the homoerotic undertones of Brideshead Revisited from the early 80s."

sod that it was reminiscent (including shorts) of the PLAY he was in the previous week

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Friday, 20 October 2006 12:54 (nineteen years ago)

i.e. surely deliberately

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Friday, 20 October 2006 12:55 (nineteen years ago)

I really thought everyone was going to say it was brilliant this week.

Are you having a laugh?

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Friday, 20 October 2006 13:00 (nineteen years ago)

I thought it was rather good last night, certainly one of the best of the series.

― chap who would dare to welcome our new stingray masters (chap), Friday, 20 October 2006 13:00 (nineteen years ago)

I have heard people doing "Are you having a laugh?" in real life.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 20 October 2006 13:51 (nineteen years ago)

I fear that i am often tempted to say it myself. I think that catchphrase is Gervais & Merchant's only real achievement in this series of "Extras"

― Diddumsismus (Dada), Friday, 20 October 2006 14:32 (nineteen years ago)

OTM

is pjm pranking us with this whole thread or what?

― benrique (Enrique), Friday, 20 October 2006 17:15 (nineteen years ago)

Millman and Ross bits really weak and pointless. Millman returned to likeable this time - it's like a blank slate every week. Maggie just boring but quite sweet with the kid. Darren and Barry good as ever tho. Would say De Niro was slumming it but career generally post-Casino says o rly. Of course he loved the fucking pen. Whole series has really just been a way for Gervais to develop and consolidate showbiz contacts and peer approval, with just a batch of minor roffles the bonus.

― ;_; (blueski), Saturday, 21 October 2006 10:01 (nineteen years ago)

"this is quite meta. was the interview "really" w. gervais?

-- benrique (miltonpinsk...), October 19th, 2006."

I saw Ricky Gervias on the Ross show the week this series started and the camera angles, film style etc. was identical but I don't _think_ he asked him the same questions. Not sure though.

The Robert Lindsay thing is interesting. The celeb cameos are uually exaggerations of themselves, so working backwards Lindsay really must be a bit like that.

― mei (mei), Saturday, 21 October 2006 11:54 (nineteen years ago)

did anyone catch the last bit where Lindsay goes up to the ward receptionist and tries to give her or tje kid a load of My Family DVD's and they have an exchange along the lines of
rl. everyone loves my family
wr. i don't i prefer the edgy stuff on bbc2
rl. everyones a critic aren't they
it was pretty much the final line so i mean is gervais trying to say something here? was this the punchline of the series? series 2 of extras being tv comedy as designed by alison graham?

― pscott (elwisty), Saturday, 21 October 2006 12:10 (nineteen years ago)

i thought it was a pretty obvious joke really simply referring to Office and Extras being better than anything else, i believe you may be reading too much into it. (as is common on ilx - see N.Barley thread)

― Ste (Fuzzy), Monday, 23 October 2006 07:38 (nineteen years ago)

I'm not pranking you up, no.

Watching the last epsiode I thought it woukld be good if there was a live commentary going on on this thread and it turns out there was, but sadly I cannot view and post at the same time.

What puzzles me is why the McKellan "gay jokes" episode dismayed me so much, whereas the rest of it tickled me. I mean, I don't think there was much difference really.

I don't think the celebs are based on themselves really, because Robery Lindsay was more or less the same as Ornaldo Bloomps, Ben Stiller, etc.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 23 October 2006 10:21 (nineteen years ago)

stiller was very stiller. i don't know anything about robert lindsay off-screen, and i think with him it was a case of trying too hard as per someone upthread.

― benrique (Enrique), Monday, 23 October 2006 10:24 (nineteen years ago)

robert lindsay as comfortable as mainstream sitcom dude vs millman as allegedly above-all-that awkward sitcommer maybe. what success could do to millman. whereas stiller was at that point way out of millman's fame league (he's probably as big a box-office draw as de niro, if not bigger).

― benrique (Enrique), Monday, 23 October 2006 10:28 (nineteen years ago)

I liked it when the My Family DVDs made an appearance, because we "do" them, or some of them.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 23 October 2006 10:32 (nineteen years ago)

you really think Gervais considers himself "edgy"? and does anyone in real life describe their taste in comedy as "edgy"?

― pscott (elwisty), Monday, 23 October 2006 10:58 (nineteen years ago)

Haha you try dealing with comedy producers and commissioners. That fucking word.

― === temporary username === (Mark C), Monday, 23 October 2006 11:11 (nineteen years ago)

they use it... that explains it all really doesn't... i'm pretty sure nurses on the whole don't thou

― pscott (elwisty), Monday, 23 October 2006 11:14 (nineteen years ago)

I thought it was all about avoiding "edgy" thesedays, or so it seems. (ref: "The IT crowd" and so on..)

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 23 October 2006 11:17 (nineteen years ago)

two months pass...

So season two started on HBO for the U.S. last night - revive.

People think Ashley Jensen is ugly and plain and rubbish because, erm, why exactly? - not funny.

OTM. Ashley Jensen is HOT STUFF.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 01:11 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

yeah she's cute.

so far good (only seen the first episode). people seem to be putting so much cultural baggage on this show in the above thread.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 5 February 2007 05:45 (nineteen years ago)

are you havin a laugh? lol

― chaki (chaki), Monday, 5 February 2007 06:06 (nineteen years ago)

Four words: F1v3 St4r E4st3r Egg.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Monday, 5 February 2007 08:17 (nineteen years ago)

She is good on Ugly Betty.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 5 February 2007 09:28 (nineteen years ago)

She wears the same kind of clothes in both shows, and even talks with the same accent can you believe it?

― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 5 February 2007 10:11 (nineteen years ago)

Maybe they say to her, "Just be yourself, Ashley".

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 5 February 2007 10:38 (nineteen years ago)

are they going to do series three?

would be sort of funny, but maybe an admission that you can't really 'damage the legacy' of something that was always abject bollocks.

in retrospect that 'brave' decision to end 'the office' is just an admission he didn't know where to go with it next. once again the UK practice of relying on tiny writing teams looks downright perverse.

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 5 February 2007 10:42 (nineteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

i cant get merchant whisking his poop out of my head

― sunny successor, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 15:06 (eighteen years ago)

Jensen is different in Tristram Shandy: A Cock And Bull Story

― blueski, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 15:41 (eighteen years ago)

Wait - so who was the BIG GUEST STAR in the season finale?

― David R., Tuesday, 27 February 2007 16:07 (eighteen years ago)

Arthur Askey.

― Dr.C, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 16:10 (eighteen years ago)

ARE YOU HAVING THE LAFF

― David R., Tuesday, 27 February 2007 16:14 (eighteen years ago)

lol

― chaki, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:59 (eighteen years ago)

ten months pass...

so: christmas special, then?

i thought it was quite, quite wonderful. actually quite touchingly so. obviously i wonder how much of that was genuine gervais bile and how much was character -- but then i've been wondering that since he first cropped up on the 11 o'clock show (and i fucking hated him). either way: although there are many, many flaws in big celebs doing the woe-is-me-the-celeb schtick, if you are gonna do it then surely that's the way.

also: the carphone warehouse stuff with dean gaffney was a fucking joy.

― grimly fiendish, Friday, 28 December 2007 01:41 (eighteen years ago)

Really excellent. If it's on alluc already I'll be watching it again before bed.

― melton mowbray, Friday, 28 December 2007 03:21 (eighteen years ago)

Brilliant.

― Autumn Almanac, Friday, 28 December 2007 11:31 (eighteen years ago)

Does Noodle like this?

― Frogman Henry, Friday, 28 December 2007 11:50 (eighteen years ago)

Just went to watch this on bbc iplayer (which I've used successfuly before only a few weeks ago) and got this message:

Sorry, this programme is only available to play in the UK

when I am in the UK.

The help info tells me this:

I'm in the United Kingdom but told that I'm not?

Sometimes even though you're in Britain it's possible you may see a message saying you're not. This could be because your computer is on a foreign-based network, or is routed overseas (sometimes the case with work connections if your employer is not UK-based). Some programs, such as web accelerators, can cause your IP address to appear as if it is outside the UK.

If BBC iPlayer doesn't recognise your IP address at all, then you won't be able to stream or download programmes.....

― Bob Six, Friday, 28 December 2007 12:13 (eighteen years ago)

i've yet to explore the (apparently now mac-friendly via flash) iPlayer. i'm imagining there'll be torrents of this bad boy everywhere.

― grimly fiendish, Friday, 28 December 2007 12:14 (eighteen years ago)

Noodle is not sure.

I'm certainly not the wide-eyed fanboy I was at the top of the thread, to the extent that I haven't even seen the Xmas special yet. I've been thinking about why I dislike it since this thread got revived, and there's a few reasons, most of them not really germane to the show itself. I like some of the comedy well enough, but I guess I wanted the show to gnaw the hand that feeds it rather than give it a playful nip. It's no Larry Sanders, partly because you don't ever feel that Gervais or his onscreen persona hates himself like Garry Shandling seems to. What quitney says up there about tiny writing teams in the UK is very true too. And I'm kinda bored of sitcoms, especially British ones. I don't know why exactly but I think comedy is being sacrificed for a kind of cosiness, straining for audience recognition or approval before actual laughs.

On the plus side they still do great dialogue and I find Gervais/Merchant's comedy fecklessness genuinely funny on occasion. I dunno, it's like I don't want to think about this stuff much at the moment because it's become too problematic or overdetermined. I'm just taking the roffles where I find them and trying to avoid grand unifying theories. I think peeps like G/M would do well to do similar, and I think the Beeb or whoever should employ teams more often on stuff that isn't My Family.

― Noodle Vague, Friday, 28 December 2007 12:19 (eighteen years ago)

I like some of the comedy well enough, but I guess I wanted the show to gnaw the hand that feeds it rather than give it a playful nip. It's no Larry Sanders, partly because you don't ever feel that Gervais or his onscreen persona hates himself like Garry Shandling seems to.

i think you might be pleasantly surprised by the special, on both counts.

― grimly fiendish, Friday, 28 December 2007 12:22 (eighteen years ago)

I kinda gathered that. I might give this iplayer thing a spin but my online video attention span is usually about 3 minutes tops.

― Noodle Vague, Friday, 28 December 2007 12:26 (eighteen years ago)

Well I enjoyed 95% of it. Could have done without the sound track - for example accompanying Maggie moping in her miserable job.

Overall it has an incredibly depressive edge, despite the 'happy ending'. It could do with being more playful (for example the George Michael scene - celeb sending up their own images) and not focussing in on the character of Andy so much.

― Bob Six, Friday, 28 December 2007 16:14 (eighteen years ago)

*spoliler alert*

it was better than expected yes, but it wasn't perfect. the denouement with gervais sat in the BB house ranting about rubbish celebs etc was frustratingly pompous. like every soapbox pub bore who craps on about paris hilton and jade goody etc. we get it ricky, you're a better person because you've never pandered to the tabloids, here have a gold star. he forgets that to josie public it's not the be-all end-all, it's just a mild distraction. he generally ruins the show by trying hard to be seen as the everyman [character says something racist/homphobic/weird --> cut to gervais rolling his eyes]. and his attempt to hit the mood of a nation, to speak for the moral majority, falls to shit when you recall the nasty mean-spirited shite he came out with on the 11 o clock show ('character' or no). if he'd shown some humility and ended the show with a quiet inner victory rather than a hollywood 'ricky tells it how it is and saves the 21st century!' it would have been much less cloying.

but despite that it was very good yes - the merchant, gaffney & barry scenes were an absolute delight. apparently this was shown on HBO in the US a week or so ago (a torrent was uploaded to thebox.bz) and that had some changes to make it more relevent to american viewers. i was trying to spot where these changes may have been - the bit in the shop looking at dolls with the owner saying he'd invested in a bunch of (x factor losers) 'same difference' dolls was a definite, but what else? there seemed to be some shoddy editing around the carphone warehouse scene which makes me think maybe the filmed those clips again without gaffney and with his american equivalent. </nerd>

if anyone fancies going through both eps and noting the differences then hey you have too much time on your hands but i'd love to know

― s.rose, Friday, 28 December 2007 16:26 (eighteen years ago)

was gonna watch this but you've put me off again

― blueski, Friday, 28 December 2007 16:36 (eighteen years ago)

we get it ricky, you're a better person because you've never pandered to the tabloids, here have a gold star

eh?

he generally ruins the show by trying hard to be seen as the everyman [character says something racist/homphobic/weird --> cut to gervais rolling his eyes]

what?

i couldn't agree less. i think the whole point of the BB speech is that millman (gervais? who knows) is saying that whatever desperate measures celebs take, tabloid pandering or no, it's all ultimately meaningless and pish. i certainly didn't detect any smugness there; quite the opposite, in fact. more a slightly desperate realisation that, ultimately, they're all equally desperate for fame.

and millman as everyman? after the excruciating interview scene; calling the entire audience for the sitcom morons; getting extras fired; tooling about the ivy etc? gervais himself might be guilty of this, to an extent -- i mean, i found most of that podcast shit tediously unfunny -- but i certainly don't think he's written the character of AM as an everyman (and certainly not in this episode).

― grimly fiendish, Friday, 28 December 2007 17:24 (eighteen years ago)

SPOIL, ETC.: Official bit that won me: cutting from Andy's redemptive apology to Maggie to Darren's "I've been waiting to hear that"

― nabisco, Friday, 28 December 2007 17:25 (eighteen years ago)

If BBC iPlayer doesn't recognise your IP address at all, then you won't be able to stream or download programmes.....

That's encouraging for licence fee payers. The BBC has lost the plot.

― Autumn Almanac, Saturday, 29 December 2007 01:36 (eighteen years ago)

"BBC led me to illegal downloading" shocker.

I had a look on the iplayer message boards - it seems that if you turn your router off and generate another IP address, you can sometimes get it to work. But until the BBC makes it work better, who's going to move from torrenting?

― Bob Six, Saturday, 29 December 2007 09:59 (eighteen years ago)

out of curiosity, i just had a look at the iPlayer for the first time. meh. the quality's rotten, for a start! really don't think it's going to change my viewing habits one iota.

still, hey, it works on my mac. which is nice of you, BBC. (doffs cap, exits room backwards; sparks small scandal, requiring BBC to show footage of him entering room and putting cap back on again)

― grimly fiendish, Saturday, 29 December 2007 12:00 (eighteen years ago)

I don't wanna be all on the BBC's dick or anything but isn't it good that they're trying to do this and isn't it unlikely that it will be perfect for all users from day 1?

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 29 December 2007 12:21 (eighteen years ago)

ok - but they've spent a fortune on it. Also it's not really day one - they released the beta back in the summer, and it was shockingly poor considering the time and resources put into what is essentially a tweaked off the shelf commercial solution that Channel 4 were already using.

I guess they put all the money and time into digital rights negotiations rather than the 'customer interface'.

― Bob Six, Saturday, 29 December 2007 12:31 (eighteen years ago)

isn't it unlikely that it will be perfect for all users from day 1

hmm: forgive me for being a little pissy, but the original "get to fuck, mac user" thing still rankles slightly.

and, fundamentally, the quality seemed borderline unwatchable there :(

― grimly fiendish, Saturday, 29 December 2007 12:48 (eighteen years ago)

Dude, Youtube has fucked my eyes forever.

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 29 December 2007 12:52 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

I've been watching the Extras series back-to-back lately and though it has some of the funniest individual scenes I can remember in a recent sitcom it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. In a way Gervais reminds me of Woody Allen. Both are tremendously funny with individual jokes, and verbal humor especially, but their greater personality and outlook on life is very distasteful. Gervais is like Allen in that once he found fame and success he took to making a character that was far more autobiographical than what he was doing earlier - and that character was very narcissistic and misanthropic. Like in Allen's late 70s streak of films everybody in Extras is either a sucker or unsympathetic - except for the autobiographical protagonist who, despite his (albeit superficial) flaws, is the only person in the world who is smart enough to see through all the bull. He is the wise prophet no one is smart enough to listen to until it is too late.

And there's such a cynical and smug attitude that lies behind the work. What does Gervais think of the people who helped his career take off (The BBC Comedy department)? They're a bunch of know-nothing buffoons. Every celebrity needs to laugh at himself and get deflated, but has anybody seen the seriousness with which Gervais takes himself and his shows? I get the idea that Gervais doesn't so much hate celebrity culture because he isn't a fan of idolatry so much as he thinks that people who compete with him for public attention aren't nearly as deserving as he. Do we even need to discuss the hatred Gervais projects on the people who watch crappy sitcoms and the average folks who work on films sets? It's one thing to loathe the worst pop culture (which we all hate, at least in theory) but it's another to hate the people who consume it. It's all very nasty but, like Allen, he tries to temper the arrogance and hate with false humility and light self-deprecation ("Oh, well, I, too, have some flaws - however superficial and overrated they may be! Bit of a perfectionist and an overthinker, I'm afraid.").

― Cunga, Friday, 1 May 2009 00:27 (sixteen years ago)

I never was able to watch Extras apart from a few episodes, mainly because I don't find Gervais to be capable of playing an very interesting everyman. He's much better at playing the despicable buffoon.

― Your heartbeat soun like sasquatch feet (polyphonic), Friday, 1 May 2009 00:50 (sixteen years ago)

I thought the final special did give a little more heat on Gervais' character getting addicted to celebrity and such and sort of redeeming himself by the end. Also I didn't find the character sympathetic throughout the series either, I think the show was designed that way - he did get embarrassing comeuppances all the time (Bowie!).

I do see your point somewhat though, I was a little confused where they were going with it since the first season seemed more autobiographical, but clearly When the Whistle Blows is nothing like The Office, so where's this bitter smugness coming from? The doing embarassing/useless guest roles seemed far more apt (ever see his random appearance in Alias?) to his own career, but in any case maybe it shouldn't be looked at too literally.

It's one thing to loathe the worst pop culture (which we all hate, at least in theory) but it's another to hate the people who consume it.

True, but there's definitely at least some mutual blame going around there. There's been lots of base crap shoved down our throats that's been totally unsuccessful and ignored, and only specific crap actually gets accepted by the masses, there's definitely some zeitgeist or mass selectivity always going on.

― Nhex, Friday, 1 May 2009 02:31 (sixteen years ago)

one year passes...

Over a year later but Cunga OTM!

Gervais doesn't seem to have many friends in Brit comedy. The Pegg/Serafinowicz axis absolutely despise him.

― Venga, Thursday, 27 May 2010 00:09 (fifteen years ago)

wasn't aware of that, are there any interviews with serafinowicz, pegg or popper that back this up?

― NI, Thursday, 27 May 2010 13:19 (fifteen years ago)

A number of performers stradle the two axes, surely. Er... Martin Freeman's been in some Pegg stuff hasn't he?

― rhythm fixated member (chap), Thursday, 27 May 2010 13:23 (fifteen years ago)

the invention of lying really seals the deal on gervais = smug dick and the worst part is it's not even funny

― A B C, Thursday, 27 May 2010 16:11 (fifteen years ago)

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