What, having a solo career?
Life's Too Short Page 46
Quote: Godot Taxis @ December 23 2011, 1:37 PM GMTExtras was based on a very strong, classic idea: Horatio wanting to be Hamlet. It doesn't get any better. Amazingly they threw it away by the second series where Andy Millman becomes a sitcom writer...
In that case, perhaps you're giving them too much credit for Series 1, and it just happened to work out in that format?
Quote: Aaron @ December 23 2011, 1:49 AM GMTThat - and every other story - is based on just one tweet that Gervais posted. There's been no confirmation as yet. One would have expected the BBC to have jumped on getting another series from G&M if it were actually true.
That was my reading of it too.
Of course the thing is that Gervais probably thinks that if he announces it then it will become fact - after all why would the BBC want to argue with him? 
I found the whole series very patronising and insulting to the viewer's intelligence. The 'conflict of interest' joke could be seen coming a mile off and it seemed like G and M thought that it wouldn't occur to us that the legislation only applied to the client of the lawyer in question, Warwick's ex wife and not Warwick. Either that or it was assumed that seeing the train wreck coming would be hilarious in itself, it wasn't. It was annoying and painfully unfunny.
I didn't think it was that brilliant, but I did enjoy watching a British Sitcom that tried to make me laugh & often succeeded.
I'm finding them harder & harder to find these days.
Quote: TBone @ December 26 2011, 9:41 PM GMTI found the whole series very patronising and insulting to the viewer's intelligence. The 'conflict of interest' joke could be seen coming a mile off and it seemed like G and M thought that it wouldn't occur to us that the legislation only applied to the client of the lawyer in question, Warwick's ex wife and not Warwick. Either that or it was assumed that seeing the train wreck coming would be hilarious in itself, it wasn't. It was annoying and painfully unfunny.
Yes, I must say this annoyed me. It was so incredibly obvious, and not funny at all.
I'm a huge RG & SM fan, but as a whole, I wasn't impressed with this series. However, I think it could be good. They need to take themselves out of the equation, focus less on slapstick stuff and perhaps drop the celebrities (Only Neeson was funny in my opinion).
The Office was fantastic, Extras was hilarious but I hate to say it, despite watching several episodes I've not taken it off of series-record and won't be watching it again.
I'm sure Gervais and Merchant have more ideas/masterpieces in them, but I'm afraid (for me) this isn't one of them.
I read the first ten or fifteen scenes of the The Office, Episode 1 again the other day when I was having a shit.
It's clever, economical, true and very funny. It bears nor comparison to Life's Too Short whatsoever.
To be honest though, I wonder if it would have got past the PC gestapo today, there are lots of references to mental illness in it.
Gervais seems to get away with a lot of stuff that is politically incorrect - as a lot of British comedians do. The trick is to mock those attitudes rather than expounding them. I find that Gervais does veer in to bad taste sometimes, however (and not funny bad taste, just plain bad taste), in his quest to be funny. He should stick to awkward situations where characters behave in a politically incorrect manner. That is where his heartland is.
Incidentally, would you mind having a read of me treatment for "Spiralling Out of Control" and letting me know what you think. It's in "Critique".
I wanted to love this show so much.
Shame it's so one note and repetitive. It also suffers from being repetitive.
Shame! Shame on you all! Life's Too Short was the only British sitcom that physically made me laugh in all of 2011.
The Liam Neeson comedy lessons, Johnny Depp kicking the waste bin and pointing at it and the whole 'I'm not a rapist...I'm a racist', were comedy gold.
I don't really care what people think of Gervais personally, after all, there were bods on here crying over the death of Michael Jackson (and he f**ked kids!).
Yeah, the show was a bit lazy and formulaic, but then again so is every single sitcom written by the same person. Oh look, Miranda's fallen over again, hilarious.
So stop moaning that LTS wasn't the be all and end all of the comedy universe, just be thankful that a sitcom was shown that actually had jokes in it.
I completely agree with you, Carpark, but remind you that not quite everyone here has been slating it. It tried to make us properly laugh, whether many did or not, it wasn't just another slightly amusing comdram we've been inundated with of late. I thought it was G&M's most honest and sitcommy sitcom, and surely should be applauded for the effort at least, especially at a time when so many 'sitcoms' are anything but 'honest & sitcommy'.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ January 1 2012, 4:01 PM GMTI completely agree with you, Carpark, but remind you that not quite everyone here has been slating it. It tried to make us properly laugh, whether many did or not, it wasn't just another slightly amusing comdram we've been inundated with of late. I thought it was G&M's most honest and sitcommy sitcom, and surely should be applauded for the effort at least, especially at a time when so many 'sitcoms' are anything but 'honest & sitcommy'.
Too true. Unfortunately, the style has been aped so many times, that it's no longer a fresh concept. However, what Gervais is very good at is creating a central character that we simultaneously loathe and identify / sympathise with.
It didn't help that Warren (sic) played the part as an homage to David Brent and some of the set ups - such as the wedding reception - were predictably...um predictable.
Plus a couple of episodes didn't really have a plot, shit just happened. (Cat Dealy mopping up vomit is still funny though).
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ January 1 2012, 4:01 PM GMTI completely agree with you, Carpark, but remind you that not quite everyone here has been slating it. It tried to make us properly laugh, whether many did or not, it wasn't just another slightly amusing comdram we've been inundated with of late. I thought it was G&M's most honest and sitcommy sitcom, and surely should be applauded for the effort at least, especially at a time when so many 'sitcoms' are anything but 'honest & sitcommy'.
What 'effort' should they be applauded for? The writing was terribly lazy.
It's got a second series hasn't it? Or is that old news and I should get with the times Grandad?