I love Ricky Gervais. I think he’s one of the funniest people in the world at the moment, and I am super psyched that he is hosting the Golden Globes. Even the ads have me chuckling every time I see them. I usually despise everything about the Hollywood masturbatory display that they called awards shows, but I think I’ll be tuning in this time.
The only bad thing that I can say about Ricky Gervais is that he has a short attention span. I’ve been a fan of so many of his projects: The Office, The Ricky Gervais Show Podcast, and Extras. In each case, they were relatively short lived, but always funny. This post is dedicated in particular to Gervais’s hysterical behind-the-scenes look at the entertainment industry: Extras.
The show itself, which aired on HBO (and BBC 2 in the UK) from 2005 to 2007, was a brilliant concept. Instead of looking at the movie business through the eyes of a star, Gervais cast himself as an extra — a struggling actor just trying to make it. Sure, the show evolved from there, but the original concept was great. Add to that a very special guest star in each episode for the extras to interact with, and you have a very funny show.
The guest stars were really a huge part of the enjoyment of the show for me. Each celebrity who appeared as themselves clearly had great senses of humor and were able to poke fun at themselves. Some of my favorite moments include Patrick Stewart making a pitch for the worst movie in the history of time, Kate Winslet teaching some of the extras how to talk dirty, and Ben Stiller acting like a complete douche bag.
The celebrity guests weren’t the only exceptional part of the show, though. The whole thing was branded with Gervais’s unique, clever, and awkward sense of humor. The main characters, including Ricky’s Andy Millman, Ashley Jensen (who can currently be seen on Accidentally on Purpose) as Maggie, and Stephen Merchant as Andy’s agent were all great in their own way. The relationship between Andy and Maggie, even as it evolved through the series, was a real high point.
Another noteworthy thing was the way that the show changed and evolved over it’s short run of 12 episodes (plus one Christmas special/series finale). We, the audience, got to watch as Andy went from out-of-luck movie extra to sell-out sitcom star. It’s rare that a comedy show would employ such an impressive story arc that actually carried some emotional impact.
All in all, Extras was a great show and I’m sorry that its run was so short. I know in the meantime, however, I will be looking forward to the Golden Globes and to Gervais’s next project.
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Jan 06, 2010 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
For some reason I just couldn’t get into this show when it aired. I did, however, watch the finale, and have seen it many times since it initially aired. If they run the series again in reruns I plan to check it out.
Ricky Gervais is a brilliant comedian – I think the wall I’ve hit with his shows is that he writes himself for everyone. Meaning, he writes his brand of comedy for every character on the show, as opposed to making his brand of humor the theme, but making each character unique. When I tried an episode of The British Office I almost gagged on how thick it was – that, I think, is where the US Office succeeds for viewers like me. Michael Scott is the only Michael Scott on the show, which is manageable.
“he has a short attention span”
I’m pretty sure you know this already, but it’s British TV that doesn’t like to (& can’t afford to, especially in the case of the publicly funded & massively spread out BBC) push out hundreds of episodes of a single show.
It makes for shorter runs, but usually better quality (or more choice of better quality shows & shorter running crap shows)
It’s a valid point, but in this case Extras was coproduced by HBO.
At the end of the day, I just want more! :-)
I love it! I watched it when it aired and just got the series for Christmas this year. It truly is a gem. Like Arrested Development I’ll take a short number of great episodes over bloated seasons with too much filler.