Derek Rewatch

[Cuellar]

My girlfriend of the time was somebody who watched it on her own terms, without being pointed to it as an example of fucking ridiculousness. She lapped it up, astonishingly, for what it so, so thinly made itself out to be. A work that ''really made you think''. I managed to actually keep my tongue semi-bitten! Herculean effort, have no doubt.

We must never forget, ever, in amongst everything that the show shat into our eyes, the scene where Derek has a wheezy old man in a headlock during a wrestling move. This is just... there, commented on by no-one. The most kindest man of the whole world.

I'm ashamed to say I broke rank and watched the first 10 mins of episode 1 last night and discovered something truly chilling about old man headlock.

Derek is watching telly and gets up to get pudding, when he comes back he's furious that someone changed the channel (kindest man in the world remember). But who changed the channel?

Yes: headlock man.

So Derek had been waiting to get his revenge. Cross Derek at your peril.

[The Lion King]

Presumably a home which also enjoyed daily misogynistic, drunken ramblings by a genuine sex pest? A 53 year old simpleton who wasn't disabled at all but just chose to behave like no human does? Too close to the bone.

When Hannah finally kicks Kev out of the home for almost burning it down by stumbling about pissed Derek gets all shitty with her too. She only lets Kev back in because he was kicking up a stink, the kind little cunt. I'm sure this happens daily in homes all over the country.

[the]

I haven't watched more than about 30 seconds of Derek, but would I be right in guessing that "the mockumentary conceit is totally superfluous and is just a device to lever-in reaction shots" is a popular opinion?

[Delete Delete Delete]

OBS dosnt provide away to steam to FC2, I use https://www.xsplit.com/ , though I did pruchase the full version. I think you can use the free version, but it puts a watermark over it. My resoning for streaming to FC2 is its a Japanese site thats unlikely to flag me for copyright. The main things for streaming is how robust is your internet connection and how powerful your graphics card is. Also Flash can cause issues and lag your computer hard, so if your look at your stream in another window to check the chat, shrink the video window so you don't see it.

Alos https://live.fc2.com/ is free to sign up too.

[madhair60]

Alright I'm not streaming it - arseache. We'll just do an episode a week, yeah? People seem to have already started, so let's say - watch the Derek Pilot before next Thursday and talk about it in the meantime. If anyone needs help getting hold of it or any other eps, PM me and, again, I will tell you where you can purchase the DVDs instead of downloading the copies I didn't upload just for this.

[thraxx]

I'm ashamed to say I broke rank and watched the first 10 mins of episode 1 last night and discovered something truly chilling about old man headlock.

Derek is watching telly and gets up to get pudding, when he comes back he's furious that someone changed the channel (kindest man in the world remember). But who changed the channel?

Yes: headlock man.

So Derek had been waiting to get his revenge. Cross Derek at your peril.

Makes you think doesnt it?

[JoeyBananaduck]

I might watch the pilot this afternoon. For the love of god, please don't let it be longer than half an hour. Wish me luck.

[Dolly Clackett]

I'm genuinely envious of anyone who will be watching for the first time. I never thought it was possible to experience abject tedium and sheer delight at the same time.

Of course the joy was all down to CaB's response, which was glorious. The mounting confusion, outrage and amusement in those threads is wonderful to read over.

[Gregory Torso]

I am going to watch this with my wife who has never heard of Ricky Gervais and see what she thinks.

[QDRPHNC]

I've never seen a full episode, but I've seen clips and can barely take the second hand embarrassment for more than - literally - seconds at a time.

On the other hand, my wife only remembers Gervais from the office and doesn't believe me that Derek is as bad as it is so...

[JoeyBananaduck]

Ok, here goes. Pilot. 24 minutes. Oh good. That's a relief. Fuck knows what doing this will do to my Netflix recommendations though.

The Netflix timer only goes downwards rather than up so for reference I'll be going by that because I can't be arsed doing the maths.

23:35 No theme music but I'm assuming that might change after the pilot. So far, so dull. The usual crap, lazy jokes about senile people and elderly care homes. Gervais gurning like a tosser. Nothing too unexpected. Oh, and he wants to marry someone but won't. Whatever.

21:37 I wonder if these excruciating pieces-to-camera are maintained for the whole series? Some really on the nose 'heart of gold/more people should be like him', so that's that box checked. Douglas the bastard has been introduced - to be fair I did once work at a place that had a caretaker who he reminds me of. Oh and the famous Derke sad piano has made its debut.

19:25 So far I'm just finding this extremely dull. Derke watches YouTube. Derke cuts toenails. Derke is a stereotype. Derke doesn't want woman in hat to be his girlfriend. Derke wants other woman to be his girlfriend. Derke wants a toffee.

17:28 Sometime in my 20s I became really shit at remembering character names, so get used to me not knowing them. Still haven't picked up on what the lady who is the object of Derek's affections is called. But yeah, here comes her telegraphed poignant backstory. Oh yeah, I forgot. Derke has rhubarb all over his arse. And now there's a new resident. The two things aren't related by the way, in case it seems like that's what I'm implying. It's not a case of every time Derke gets rhubarb on his arse a new pensioner is spawned, although that would be a vastly better concept for a show than this is proving to be so far.

15:41 "I've never seen Derke feel sorry for himself". Well that's clearly bollocks because not 5 minutes ago he was being petulant about toffees. Oh and she considers herself above the social outcasts she works with despite being one herself. So in other words, I don't care about her. Bald bloke - Douglas - seems like a prick, so I don't care about him. Moustache autograph hunter bloke seems like a bore and I've been given no reason to care about him. Derke I don't care about because he's a one-note paper thin caricature. So almost 10 minutes in and I'm wondering why I'm watching this. If it was on TV now I'd be avoiding it because I hate Ricky Gervais. If I didn't know who Ricky Gervais was and had tuned in on the off-chance that this new comedy (comedy-drama?) might be good, I would have turned it off out of boredom by now. But I'm writing this shit out for the 3 people on here who'll read it, so I'll press on.

13:28 Derke throws himself into a pond in an extremely poorly executed and physically unlikely pratfall. And now here are his pixellated bollocks. I suppose these are the 'gags' I'd been looking for. Pixellated nudity. Chortle. Fuck's sake.

Right it's faded to black so I'm assuming that's the ad-break.

[Dead Soon]

It's actually making me nostalgic for 2013/14 for fuck's sake, the communal spirit was very strong when it came to minute by minute piss-ripping of Ricky's almost impossibly dreadful attempt to reconcile his previous good character with the public by turning on its head a character that was mocking mental disabilities into a character that was ''TOO KIND FOR HIS OWN GOOD''

Keep watching :-)

[Steven]

Can people add context to the Derke rewatch by watching an actual documentary following 'special people'? I remember watching this documentary The Strangest Village In Britain, about Botton village in Yorkshire where they experiment with communal living well over a decade ago and enjoying it and relating some of the funny stories that happened in it to a friend as she has children with special needs. I haven't seen it since, mind. But I'm sure some of the situations were funnier than anything in Derke. And no fucking piano music, either. There's also an actual Derek in it.

[JoeyBananaduck]

On to part 2...

11:40 So Woman Character who's name I still haven't picked up on wants to date man who just turned up 10 minutes ago for no particular reason. Don't ask if he's gay, Derke. Don't do what? Ask if he's gay. Oh okay. Sidle sidle. Excuse me, are you gay? Solid gold stuff. "I said all the good ones are gay" - what, like the bloke who just put his seemingly able-bodied mother in a care home? Ok.

10:35 Aaaand after more Derke-using the sad piano is back. Woman Character says she has a temper. Now they're in the pub. Now girls are mocking Derke. Aaaaand now Woman Character hits one of them. Hey, it's like in that scene where she said she had a temper! The one before this one! Do you remember? Ricky Gervais remembers.

7:06 A solid 3 and a half minutes of Douglas lacking empathy, Derke having a heart of gold, oh and Man Barely A Character seemingly reciprocates Woman Character's feelings for him. Feelings that are based on....fuck knows. Their sparkling chemistry, wonderful conversations and steamy sexual tension, I guess. Who cares.

6:55 Derke mentioned he likes one of the residents, Joan earlier. Joan is kind to Derke. Joan isn't feeling well. Joan's going to be dead about 2 scenes from now isn't she?

5:40 It's Wednesday. A bus load of oldies, Douglas and Derke are off to buy lottery tickets. Derke wants to talk. Douglas does not as he is driving. Smashing.

5:34 Joan's died! Gasp. "Joan's won £10 on a scratchcard. Unbelievably lucky." But she's not unbelievably lucky, Derke! She's dead. Fuck's sake, may as well start the piano music now. Oh and I just picked up Woman Character is in fact called Ann or Hannah or some semblance of the two.

3:44 Okay, it's Hannah. Says so on her badge. Derke restates Joan was his favourite just in case that hadn't been made clear enough. He goes to say goodbye and now Ricky Gervais is unconvincingly trying to cry.

2:52 After a good 20 seconds or so that I found completely incomprehensible, Derke points out that he in fact, 'kind'! Who knew?

2:41 Derke rubs a corpse's cold dead hand against his scalp.

1:29 Boo hoo. Sob. Pffffft. Mary holds Derke's hand and is sorry Joan died. Ok. One of her only two lines in the whole thing.

0:58 Douglas fixed Joan's painting. Wow, he ain't so bad after all, eh folks? Just a bit short tempered. Anyone would be eh? He's got a lot on his plate, yeah? Derke is now going out with Mary, apparently. The guy in the bottom left if you freeze frame it at this timestamp looks like the corpse of Bob Holness.

0:19 Derke wants to go along on Hannah's date with Tom, I think he's called because he would be. He's a laugh. Oh and funerals are sad.

Aaaand role credits.

Verdict: Morose, maudlin, mawkish mong mockery. See you next week.

[JoeyBananaduck]

"Marvellously observed and brilliantly realised" - The Times

"We've seen his brains, his vitriol and even his bottom - but with Derek, his newest masterful creation, Gervais shows us his heart" - The Telegraph

"Poignant, thought-provoking and hilarious - Derek proves what few ever knew and even fewer suspected - that if you strip away the layers, Ricky Gervais really is the tenderest of clowns" - The Guardian

"You'll cry tears of laughter - of course, with Gervais' involvement, that's a given - but Derek will have you crying tears of sadness too. Don't watch it on the bus with headphones on or your fellow passengers will think you've gone bloody mental yourself!" - The Sun



I fully believe this is what Gervais expected to wake up to the day after the pilot aired.

[SavageHedgehog]

Derek Rewatch would be a cool name

[Jockice]

Derek Rewatch would be a cool name

I keep reading it as Derek Redwatch. As if he's being hunted by neo-Nazis.

[BritishHobo]

I can't believe I'm actually considering rewatching Derek. I mean, fuck's sake.

[Dead Soon]

I'm reading the thread from when the 2nd series was on and I'm chortling at the comments of bewilderment, including my own, whilst actually remembering little about what *happened* to make it such event TV. On this basis, for fuck's sake, I might need a refresher. I just might.

[JoeyBananaduck]

Someone else better soon or I'll start moping about being the only poster who's life has ground to such a screeching desolate halt that I bothered to sit through it. Accompanied by sad piano music, natch.

[Lemming]

I'll try to watch it tonight but sitting here just staring at the wall seems like it might be less distressing.

EDIT: I'm in. 5 fucking seconds in and already had to pause for laughter due to the first 5 fucking seconds where the sad piano, unnecessarily loud, leads into a shot of Ricky trying to figure out exactly how much of his classic "mongface" he can inject into the performance without it being offensive. Glorious.

[Lemming]

Shit, I started with S1E1, just realised a few minutes in we're meant to be watching the pilot. Switching over now. In the meantime, enjoy these two great comments on a YouTube upload of the pilot:

[Lemming]

1:18
"He's got a heart of gold. Shame more people aren't like that, really."

[Immediate cut back to Ricky thrusting his jaw out, lurching forward]

2:10
Derek OST - Dougie's Theme (Sad Piano)

3:38
"My favouritest YouTube fing is hamster on a piano."
["Hamster on a Piano" music plays, Ricky maintains gormless expression while nodding along and pointing at the screen]

This show is absolutely not just an excuse to make fun of people with learning difficulties.

5:06
"I just love him. Everybody loves him. I think he's hilarious!"
Everything Hannah has said so far has either been bigging up Ricky Derek or discussing how overworked she is.

9:40
Properly fucking creepy "heartwarming" segment between Derke and Old Woman.

10:50
The reward for making it 11 minutes in is a shot of Ricky's pixellated knob as he bolts through the building

Part 2 so the timestamps have reset:
0:48
"Don't tell him I want to know if he's gay!"
[Derek goes over to man]
"She wants to know if you're gay"

Comedy genius which is further enhanced with the excruciating "gay movies" series of jokes

2:31
Why does one of the pub-goers have his face pixellated out? Is it to heighten the (nonexistent) feeling that we're watching a real documentary, or did they just go to some random pub, start filming, and go up to people afterwards and say "do you mind if we show your face in our TV pilot about an offensive caricature of a disabled person who runs around a nursing home with his cock out"? The thought of them doing the latter is the first laugh of the episode to me either way.

3:05
"Why is there a tramp in the bar?" "Check out the poo-coloured jacket!"
The Barbie cartoon I watch with my niece has more convincing depictions of bullying than this, and it's intended to be watched and related to by prepubescent girls.

3:30
Our hero Hannah punches one of the Irredeemably Evil Pub Patrons and then lies to Derek about it #kindnessismagic. Throughout this, Eminem is dubbed in unbearably loudly for no reason as far as I can tell?

5:35
"I feel a bit tired today, dear."
DEATH FLAG

6:13
I don't think Karl's having to act much here when he aggressively gestures for Ricky Derke to shut the fuck up on the bus.

7:03
Rest In Fucking Pieces Old Lady

Derke excitedly jogging down the corridor towards the now-deceased woman's room, waving the scratchcard, and the subsequent close-up of him crying was the second proper laugh of the episode for me.

9:23
KINDNESS IS MAGIC

The fucking molestation of the corpse, balancing the hand against his head, is a fantastic scene, punctuated by the door jerkily closing to reveal the picture of Old Lady.

11:33
DEREK KNEW HANNAH HEADBUTTED THE LADY IN THE PUB THE WHOLE TIME

First half was fucking unbearable and I wondered if rewatching it might be a mistake, but the second half was laugh-a-minute when it got going and when Dead Old Lady subplot was introduced. Didn't feel like 24 minutes, feels like I've been watching for hours.

"You'll cry tears of laughter - of course, with Gervais' involvement, that's a given - but Derek will have you crying tears of sadness too. Don't watch it on the bus with headphones on or your fellow passengers will think you've gone bloody mental yourself!" - The Sun

If we still had karma I'd give an entire day's worth for this.

[Danger Man]

Watched the pilot.

Karl is pretty good.

The rest.....I can't think of a more cynical audience-hating piece of shit. If 'Springtime For Hitler' actually happened in real life it would be the closest to this.

[Gregory Torso]

Derek Rewatch would be a cool name

So would Derek Pilot.

[Bhazor]

Shit, I started with S1E1, just realised a few minutes in we're meant to be watching the pilot. Switching over now.

Damn it. Did the same. The legitmate dvd copy I paid money for didn't include the pilot. I'll have to watch it over the weekend.

[shiftwork2]

I will be enjoying these for the first time.

[Gregory Torso]

I have now completed the first half of the pilot. Here are my thoughts:

Ricky Gervais as played by Harry Enfield taking the piss out of Ricky Gervais playing a disabled.
Karl Pilkington enters with weird like dog ears on the side of his head. It's his funny hair.

Sad crutches in a stairwell w/ piano music.

Is everyone supposed to be mental?

"He's a good boy, a nice boy, he's hilarious, he's got a heart of gold, he sat on some food, he fell in a pond, he's so kind and funny, where will i ever meet a man like at work for example, i'm so lonely, he's kind to worms"

Genuinely have NO idea which bits I was supposed to find funny (intentionally).

Enjoying Gervais's div-faces intercut with characters insisting how GOOD and SWEET and FUNNY he is.

[the]

Social commentary is magic


     

[Gregory Torso]

I know this is meant to be a hate-watch but I couldn't even work out where I was supposed to laugh.
No jokes.
Gay people like the wizard of Oz.
Was that the joke?

Sad Satie piano pattering around Karl's flapping wig ears and Ricky's greasy spoon cut.

What about OLD PEOPLE eh?

Ricky says Douglas twelve times on a short bus.

Tuff girls laugh at his "poo-coloured jacket", what a nasty thing to say! Very upsetting and disagreeable!
He couldn't come up with anything more realistic for the "chavs" to say than poo?

Honestly, I skipped the fucking thing on towards the end, past Ricky crying, praying at a bed, crying, praying at a bed, at a funeral, his glassy little eyes looking around trying to emote.