That was a very odd ending.
Derek - Series 1 Page 8
Not sure what to make of this. Not really funny and there seemed to be no 'plot' to speak of. Even the most banal-seeming episodes of The Office had some form of beginning, middle and end. I suppose the end sequence was meant to signify that the party made the old people feel young again and so they dreamt of when they were. Not funny enough to be a comedy and not interesting or engaging enough to be a drama. And Kev? WTF? An implausible and inappropriate character that has been crow-barred in for cheap 'laughs'
Kev (David Earl) is like a horrible, monstrous amalgamation of David Brent, Finchy and Jay's dad from the Inbetweeners who also played Lee's colleague down in the warehouse in The Office....which is like how he play Jay's dad anyway. Ok - now I've looked it up - Taffy was his name in The Office and the actor is called David Schaal.
Karl and Kerry Godliman are clearly the shining stars in this and the only redeeming features that keep you watching.
Girl: I'm a shoplifiting chav that has nothing to live for.
Old woman: I like your nails.
Girl: I now have the respect I always wanted and will live my life to the full.
Shockingly bad. Gervais ought to have sent this episode to the Sitcomission and asked for some feedback.
The Derek going off and pulling pranks on members of the public section is as tasteless and poor as a documentary on genocide with a laughter track.
And why is KP's being bald so funny?
Has baldness for funnier recently?
Bald is funny, Derek isn't. This is an ego trip for Gervais, who thinks he is pushing the envelope, but isn't. This show is just wrong, no matter how he justifies it with the argument that the character is a gentle innocent. His performance is far too broad and feels somehow inappropriate in this day and age. I would have had more respect for him if he had cast someone with genuine learning difficulties instead of taking the lead himself.
Didn't really get the ending what was it suppose to be always it was a good episode
Damn, forgot to watch it again.
Wow. That was some atrocious, ham handed sentimentality there. Really, really bad. Gervais has always has a gift for marrying the funny with the poignant but he's clearly phoning this in.
The chav turned to angel was so forced it was ridiculous. And the ending, with the incredibly hamhanded images of each elderly person thinking about their youth was unbelievably bad.
Quote: zooo @ February 6 2013, 10:35 PM GMTWas a strange ending, not sure whether I liked it or not.
As for the rest - it's weird, I can see that he's over egging the 'touching' scenes, but they still work (for me). I even had a mild case of wet eye.
You've utterly lost me now Zooo. They were just beyond cliche filler; I mean are you seriously referring to the bit where the chavette said#
"I've never been told I was 10 out of 10 before."
Or the bit where Derek had a really big piece of cake?
I'm forced to guess you mean the scene where Dougie shit his pants and everyone ran away.
And at what point did the chavette even have a Damasene conversion?
Quote: sootyj @ February 7 2013, 9:56 AM GMTthe bit where the chavette said#
"I've never been told I was 10 out of 10 before."
That was almost as bad as "I've never been in a nice place before"
It was hideuously and creakily manipulative, but sometimes bad art can still get to you.
Quote: shaggy292 @ February 7 2013, 10:24 AM GMTThat was almost as bad as "I've never been in a nice place before"
That chat up really doesn't work does it?
Quote: chipolata @ February 7 2013, 10:32 AM GMTIt was hideuously and creakily manipulative, but sometimes bad art can still get to you.
Yup like masturbating to a painting of a sad clown.
I think at this point we have to ask just how important was Steve Merchant to the brilliance of The Office and Extras? Derek feels like a crude imitation of a Gervais show, done by someone with far less wit, pathos and genuine human emotion. I wonder if Merchant is really the truly tactful artist of the pair and this is the end result when you leave Gervais to his own devices when it comes to writing.
It seems like he is just shoehorning in buckets of mawkish sentimentality and sad piano music because all he really wants to do is play a gurning half-retarded man and he knows he could never get away with that if he made it a straight comedy.
Attack the show all you want, but don't start having a go at people who don't hate it enough for your liking. 
Quote: chipolata @ February 7 2013, 10:32 AM GMTIt was hideuously and creakily manipulative, but sometimes bad art can still get to you.
Yup.