British Comedy Guide

Extras - no Series 3 Page 2

well the key is to significantly change the premise. In only fools there are marriages, divorces, babies etc. It changes the dynamics.

Me thinx he has done the right thing. Bring on some new material Mr's RG & SM (sounds a bit bondagey)
Its a cop out to quit while your ahead, but hey i forgive them.
I am such a kind soul.

Didn't the character basically "make it" thereby not being an "extra" anymore.

I think there's such a thing as being too precious. Yes, The Office was an absolute classic and they ended at exactly the right point. However, Extras is a much more flawed show, and therefore they could have gone on for a couple more series, hopefully improving it along the way. And I for one will miss Stephen Merchants hapless agent, who easily outshone Andy Millman in the laughter stakes in series 2.

And I read this week that Ricky Gervaise's next show will be a drama. Big mistake. He can do comedy, but I suspect he'll be completely out of his depth doing drama.

I recently bought series 1 of Extras, having loved it when it was shown. Watching it again though, I was cringing rather than laughing. I'm not sure it can stand up to more than a couple of viewings and probably won't turn out to ba a classic. RG's acting does seem to be a bit limited too, in my view. Not sure he can deviate too far from his real persona. If they made a third series though, I'd watch it.

Isn't Gervais making his flamimals books into a TV series next?

More importantly what’s Stephen Merchant up to next?

Quote: chipolata @ March 22, 2007, 11:36 AM

And I read this week that Ricky Gervaise's next show will be a drama. Big mistake. He can do comedy, but I suspect he'll be completely out of his depth doing drama.

Why? He wasn't a trained comedy writer.

SCENE: THE BBC

RICKY GERVAIS, HEAD OF COMEDY, THE CONTROLLER OF BBC2, AN ACCOUNTANT.

HEAD OF COMEDY:
I'm sorry? Run that past me again. In the first series Andy is an extra, whose goal is getting one line of dialogue in a film. In the second series he's a bafta-award winning comedy writer, who is no longer much interested in acting? What is he in the third series, a speedboat salesman?

CONTROLLER OF BBC2:
Look, Ricky, we like you, but the audience won't fall for this shit. They already believe you just play yourself. Now it looks like you're just writing about yourself as well.

GERVAIS:
I really enjoy being in the public eye but I've run out of ideas, what should i do?

ACCOUNTANT:
Why not make 'The Men from the Pru'. You can slip in disguised versions of Brent and Gareth and people will love it. Plus we can use all the stationery we've got over from the last series of the Office.

Laughing out loud

I really enjoyed both series of Extras, but I think a third series would be incredibly hard to write. There's only so far you can go with the characters and their situation. Personally, I think they've exhausted all avenues.

I think it would be really interesting if Gervais and Merchant attempt a drama. I always admire writers who try to stretch themselves and, even if they failed miserably, I would still respect their effort.

Gervais pisses everyone off it seems. He writes a sitcom, and it is excellent. He did stand up, and it was excellent. He wrote another sitcom, it was excellent. Now he is writting a drama, and if it is excellent people will get really annoyed.

I'm a big fan, but I could understand how people get annoyed at him.

He can be a bit over kill appearing on everything as if he was the second coming.

I feel the same way about the latest reality star or t.v lifestyle "expert".

I liked his radio show on XFM a couple of years ago too. Karl Pilkington's first contributions - was he really that stupid or was it all scripted?

Share this page