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Extras
Starts on Thursday.
Looks fucking ace.
Do you think it will do as well as The Office or not? It looks like the same kind of comedic delivery like.
Looks fucking ace.
Do you think it will do as well as The Office or not? It looks like the same kind of comedic delivery like.
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plus there's the way in which we are made to feel the celebs must be ok as they are taking the piss out of themselves. all seems a bit like understated back slapping.
the above two points i've definitely read in comments elsewhere, but i would add gervais insisted on it being on bbc2, so it would be less mainstream - that's pretty funny in itself. fuck the show, the stories about it are better.
well actually i haven't seen it other than the small clips, so if i find it funny i suppose that's the main thing.
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I bet it'll be good and then everyone will moan about it being too similar to the Office.
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Trouble is, if Extras fails it'll just make him more smug about The Office.
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he's probably scared about it failing not commercially but in the world of critical acclaim and cult status. the hugeness of the office means it will be successful on the one but not the other level - is that what you mean - he is smug about the office because the very fact that he is trapped in its legacy demonstrates its quality.
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He can't lose now. If it's a hit, he'll bask in its glory. If it's not, he's got the ready-made excuse. I hope it proves that his one character has runs its course and forces him to do something new.
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As for the effect the success of The Office will have... well, I read another interview where he said that if The Office was his new show, then it would fail, because it was a real slow-burn hit. He's almost bound to come in for the "disappointing follow-up" treatment, really. But he does seem to have created something very different here - it's inevitably stamped with the same character in the execution, but the concept could hardly be more different. I'm more than prepared to give this time as for me Gervais is probably the greatest TV writer / director of the last few years.
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I liked Ben Stiller though....I liked all the references to his films at the end. Made me chuckle.
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must say i laughed out loud at ben stiller berrating the kid 'you think genocide is funny!!??'
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"how are you gonna help him? are you gonna put Dodgeball on? okay he'll laugh for one hour 32 minutes"
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but why the disabled and racist-not-racist jokes again?
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the starsky and hutch bit at the end was the best.
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My dad has one big shoe. It's only a little bit bigger though.
It was good though. Not breaking away from the Office much. Yet.
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Stiller: And who am I?
Gervais: Either Starsky or Hutch. I can't remember which.
Stiller: Was that supposed to be funny?
Gervais: You tell me. You were in it.
Genius!
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The bit where Stiller lost it with the dead wife guy could have been powerful if there was any kind of build up, or if the people around him were talking and then suddenly went quiet. Larry David could have pulled that one off, I think.
Otherwise, just more disabled and racist gags and far too many moments where the humour consisted of "oh, Gervais has said something inappropriate!" (or, occasionally, "someone else has said something inappropriate!" The bit where he was talking to the producer about Japanese film was pure cliche, with nothing to lift it above any "lying to impress someone" scene from a mediocre sitcom. The big shoe scene was so sub-Seinfeld it hurt.
The problem isn't just that Ricky Gervais can only play one character, it's that he can only write one character. Give David Brent a job as a "supporting artiste" and you've got Andy Millman. Give him a successful movie career and he would use every line Stiller used here. Everyone else tok it in turns to play the straight (wo)man, setting Gervais up to say something else inappropriate.
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I remember listening to one disabled comedian on R4 saying his (Gervais) approach was positive because it demonstrated the way in which disabled people are usually seen/referred to(the way he speaks to the office worker in a wheelchair). And therefore his humour plays a satiric role. I must admit I was taken with this argument at first. But it shouldn't be true just because 'disabled people' (a homogenous group? right!) accept the humour. Or really, is he just saying what others are thinking (hence the laughter he gets live for talking about the 'mentals'). This is what really struck me when watching extras. It seemed to be - 'look i'm not prejudiced but i am really pissed off at having to be wary of what labels i use'(the yellow skin joke). so is he just doing the whole 'i hate being pc' thing. 'i'm a poor white able bodied person who has to think before i speak'. boo fuckin hoo.
One other addition to this rant. People seem to be saying he at least has the office behind him. well i can see that being turned on as well. the humour is so similar that they can be thrown in the same heap.
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The yellow skin joke came out of nowhere. One minute they're talking about discriminating against disabled people, then suddenly Gervais is off listing skin colours. If he is trying to make a point about political correctness (which is a pretty shallow and unoriginal point to make, really, but I guess he's got the right to make it if that's how he feels), then he should at least make sure his character is in the right as far as the argument goes. I'd be willing to accept that saying "yellow" and confusing Chinese and Japanese people is more ignorant than actively offensive. But any right-thinking person who made those mistakes would apologise profusely and probably bow out of the conversation. Gervais goes all defensive and says more offensive things, which blurs any sane point he's trying to make. And then his idiot protege comes out with a racist playground chant which just makes things worse. Any attempt at a point is lost under a barrage of Gervais's trademark "let's say something offensive" schtick. And by this point in the show, after the dead wife scene, the sick sister excuses, the Top Man vouchers, the Janapese movie conversation... it was one-note all the way. At least in The Office we had a couple of normal characters and a few different sources of humour (Gareth being a twat, Tim and Dawn playing practical jokes) rather than this incessant "look at me I'm being offensive!" bollocks.
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More in-depth thoughts tomorrow when I've seen it again...
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I'll watch the second on and for that gervais should be thankful....
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"Vouchers...yeh, thats right...£15 worth...its like money that is....that you can spend in TopShop"
But it seemed to me that a lot of the Office style stuff was moved from Gervais to the supporting cast to "make it look fresh". It wasnt subtley done in my book.