Derek - Final Special Page 2

Quote: sootyj @ 19th November 2014, 7:14 PM GMT

I looked up the responses from disability charities, a few were positive most were deliberately bland. And if helping people and raising money are your 2 main aims then being studiously neutral is often the route to go down (as opposed to the pilot which really got laid into, because it was so damned offensive).

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Good point; bland is best when seeking to please all of the people all of the time. There seemed an awful lot of Susan Boyle mockery at one time by various comedians, but she suffers from Asperger Syndrome which is a condition which requires compassion, not cruelty. I guess Moss in the IT Crowd was an aspie too, but that was a good role model IMO.

Back to Derek, it's defo the right time to end it.

The weird thing was in series one they took all the comedy from Derek and turned him into a saint and dumped it on Kev.

It made it such a weird unbalanced show. Kinda like the Passion of the Christ with a comedy masturbating monkey.

Such a shame that hardly anyone on here likes it, I really do think it has been one of the best TV series over the last few years and I will be sad to see it go!

I like it!

And you have to admire him for trying something different, right from The Office forward.

I thought that was a rather good final episode to the series, such a shame he's not doing a third series. It feels like it could carry on longer. I thought the ending was naff though, it felt like there was more to come but the credits just rolled.

Overall though, Derek has been one of my favourite shows of the last few years and I commend Gervais for trying out something different.

So, what did everyone think? The highlights for me were Kev's dysfunctional family and Father of the Bride's speech. Derek's relationship was sweet too.

The low points were the crushing sentimentality and length: I think Gervais could have sliced 20 minutes off it at least. A fitting end to the series though.

Just managed to find time to watch the final episode and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Nothing more to say really, apart from there being no more.

Good riddance!

Very much enjoyed it. I'm sad it won't be coming back.

Is it possible to similtaneously love a comedy and loathe it? I waxed and waned between the two when I watched Derek. I could never quite decide either if I believed in Derek as a genuine character or if he's just taking the piss. It was at times just such gutter comedy, and sometimes there would be a spark of brilliance. And definitely preferred it with Karl in.

Quote: Geffers @ 12th January 2015, 1:58 PM GMT

Is it possible to similtaneously love a comedy and loathe it? I waxed and waned between the two when I watched Derek. I could never quite decide either if I believed in Derek as a genuine character or if he's just taking the piss. It was at times just such gutter comedy, and sometimes there would be a spark of brilliance. And definitely preferred it with Karl in.

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No, I think that you make an entirely reasonable point - Derek seems to divide opinion hugely. If you scroll up to the beginning of this thread then you'll find that people either really like it or believe that Gervais is taking the mickey out of a section of society who don't really have the right of reply and I speak as somebody who has direct experience of disability because my BIL is very similar to Derek. In many ways I'm glad that it has ended as it could have become very wearing after a third series. As for re-watching episodes - well, as yet I haven't, but recall the seaside trip in series one being particularly amusing.

I suppose that's the point of some comedies - they explore different avenues. As for Gervais himself being a rather strange individual, well yeah and some of the comments which have emerged from his lips over the past decade or so have been very unfortunate indeed. Some of the comedy devices used in Extras used to make me cringe inwardly.