Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 11:27:23 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Ricky Gervais - After Life [split topic]

Started by ramsobot, February 22, 2019, 05:39:11 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Blue Jam

If Ricky Gervais wrote an episode of Black Mirror it would be a feature-length version of Botherguts.

notjosh

Quote from: Blue Jam on March 22, 2019, 10:22:23 AM
Gervais probably doesn't play games, because if he did he'd just start imagining a better game with a better plot and better characters. If he ever wrote one it would probably be an FPS where you play as Ricky, shooting fat people and Christians.

Don't think he could beat this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ube3owo16ZM

Blue Jam

After Neil mentioned Nathan Barley and SugaRape in another thread I've been comparing the two sictoms. They have some similarities: Both series follow the life of a jaded, cynical "surrounded by idiots" type as he works for an inconsequential publication written by, for, and about idiots, where he feels he doesn't fit in because he's so much more intelligent and cultured than everyone else.

The big difference is that in Nathan Barley the "idiots" aren't really idiots and Dan Ashcroft isn't half as clever as he likes to think he is. We see this delusion of his get shattered when he goes for an interview at a "proper" publication and fails it miserably when it becomes apparent that he knows nothing about culture or any other proper grown-up stuff. We then see that the "idiots" are cleverer than he gives them credit for when he tries to convince them he turned the job down, and Jonatton Yeah?'s "Nice glass of Dutch wine?" lets him know, in the most humiliating way possible, that they all know exactly what went on.

"Clever" characters work best when they're smug and deluded and we see their pomposity get pricked, and "stupid" characters work best when they turn out to have hidden depths, or outsmart the supposedly clever characters. See also: Tommy Saxondale's occasional humiliation by Vicky the receptionist, and Mark Corrigan with his sneering at absolutely everyone.

In After Life the "stupid" characters are two-dimensional- their entire character is "stupid" and that's it. Watching the "clever" character win every time is also very boring. Ricky Gervais would never give any character of his any flaws that would make him prone to be unlikable, but also a hell of a lot more interesting.

Hat FM

Quote from: Blue Jam on March 22, 2019, 11:48:57 AM
In After Life the "stupid" characters are two-dimensional- their entire character is "stupid" and that's it. Watching the "clever" character win every time is also very boring. Ricky Gervais would never give any character of his any flaws that would make him prone to be unlikable, but also a hell of a lot more interesting.

spot on. that bit when sandy goes on about how she wants tony to be happy and wishes she would meet a man she loved as much as he did his wife. jeez. surely she would be thinking. "everyone else here is nice apart from this grumpy guy. hope he leaves soon."

Noodle Lizard

Quote from: Blue Jam on March 22, 2019, 11:48:57 AMRicky Gervais would never give any character of his any flaws that would make him prone to be unlikable, but also a hell of a lot more interesting.

Aside from David Brent, obviously, I think Andy Millman from Extras strikes the right balance some of the time, with him often being hoisted by his own petard and never living up to his own opinion of himself whilst still ostensibly being the straight-man in any given situation.  Of course this could be Merchant's influence, as that kind of duality hasn't existed at all in anything he's done on his own.

phes

I'm interested to hear Gervais talk about the assisted suicide. It's bizarre that someone who can't help themselves explaining the intentions and mechanisms behind every little bit of their work has kept completely schtum (I think) over such a controversial action.

Blue Jam

#726
Quote from: Noodle Lizard on March 22, 2019, 12:48:24 PM
Aside from David Brent, obviously, I think Andy Millman from Extras strikes the right balance some of the time, with him often being hoisted by his own petard and never living up to his own opinion of himself whilst still ostensibly being the straight-man in any given situation.  Of course this could be Merchant's influence, as that kind of duality hasn't existed at all in anything he's done on his own.

That's why I said "Gervais" rather than "Gervais and Merchant"... ;)

I'm hesitant to believe the whole "Merchant was the real brains of the operation" theory because I don't want to fall prey to confirmation bias, but the evidence does appear to be stacking up with every bit of crap solo comedy Gervais produces.

Back on the subject of the clever/stupid characters thing, in my personal experience the person who is convinced they're clever and everyone else is stupid tends to be the real stupid one (this seems to be how many fiction writers seem to experience the world too, judging by the characters they create). Either that or those people just tend to be a bit young and at the age where they think they know everything, and it's a phase they'll grow out of. I guess the older ones just never grew out of that phase, and they include Gervais.

Thomas

My partner had never seen Derek before, but I had spoken of it much, so last night I was excited to spool back through all those memorable moments (remember the zoo? remember the navy?) to the very first episode. Within seven minutes she was thoroughly repulsed by the insulting script, and whatever Gervais was going for with his performance, and we decided to give After Life a go instead.

(A reminder on Derek: within those first seven minutes, we get a character telling the audience directly that Derek is kind and funny, and that there should be more people like him. In keeping with the show's remit of 'being kind' and 'presenting dignified elderly characters', we get an old woman with dementia forgetting her own name and granddaughter for comic effect. We get Derek sitting on some pudding. And, finally, we get Derek watching the 'hamster on a piano' YouTube video in full, and doing strange movements with his mouth. Karl had a couple of good lines). 

Anyway, back to After Derek. Boring first ep, innit? As my partner noted, every conveniently staged passer-by interaction was a clunky opportunity for some witty attack on those fresh Gervaisian topics. Full minutes spent on fat stuff.

I wanted to mention something that I know happens later in the series, and so I asked my partner if she wouldn't mind hearing a spoiler. 'What?' she asked. 'Does the wife come back to life? Robot grief wife?'

Won't bother with the rest. I'm sure that, like all Gervais' critics, I simply 'don't get it'. But if you do want my impaired recommendation for a truly blackly comic, quirky, and sensitively written comedy-drama featuring a gloomy, suicidal man, try Flowers, starring, scripted, and directed by the apparently immensely talented Will Sharpe.

On an unrelated note, I also enjoyed Fighting with My Family in the cinema last week.

Crabwalk

Thomas, you've got to watch episode two, where he starts smoking heroin. You owe yourself that for suffering through that first episode.

phes

It's no use watching a Ricky Gervais show with anyone who isn't a bit fascinated by the discordance between what comes out of his mouth and what comes out of his editing room. I've tried it a few times and each time they just said variations on 'this is terrible, I don't want to watch any more'.

It's a multi media experience

Thomas

Quote from: Crabwalk on March 22, 2019, 05:19:54 PM
Thomas, you've got to watch episode two, where he starts smoking heroin. You owe yourself that for suffering through that first episode.

Well, when you put it like that, Crabsy. I might treat myself over the weekend.

Visually, the show has a very washed-out look, doesn't it? Perhaps it's a deliberate decision, intending to manifest that hollow, depressive mood, but it does evoke something like Doctors at times.

Crabwalk

The interior scenes are very drab, but that's a trope of Gervais's to reflect his belief that the everyday, normal lives of most people are awful and dull compared to his own lifestyle.

VaginaSimpson

Quote from: phes on March 21, 2019, 08:59:47 PM
I guess the idea is that AfterLife is a meditation on mental health and grief, and Tony is a self absorbed cunt because that's what grief can do to you. Unfortunately his backstory is that of a bit of a cunt, his cunt-spree behavior - as pointed out up thread - has strong echoes of Gervais everyday MO, his revelation is tacked on and amounts to him realising what he can get from other people and his redemption is the equivalent of a wife-beater taking five minutes out from pummelling her face in to pop out for some petrol station daffodils.

Oh you mean the fake Louis CK school of self awareness? Sure. Well i'm in the middle of episode 6 which is starting to feel like A Christmas Carol. It's all a bit strange. Yes the revelation does feel tacked on especially after Gervais spent the entire series patronising and bulldozing everyone to death with his opinions.

I get it. He doesn't believe in God and wants to tell everyone why. He knows exactly how everyone will argue against him and he has counterarguments prepared. Well done. He's never wrong. I hate this expression but he needs to get a life. He lives in an extremely narrow universe and clearly does not spend time with people who are different to him (and who he considers equals). What a terrible way to be. I am bored to death of his beliefs.

If Gervais is genuinely having a real life "God I've been a cunt" epiphany and he's exploring it through this character then I'll be impressed. I want to see if this is what will happen in Series 2.

Hopefully his characters will get to be actual human beings in the next series and not one dimensional people who feed him lines.

Poor Cat. She only exists as a vehicle for Gervais' self righteousness. As soon as I see her I think "Okay go and feed him a line about crystals or ask him why he doesn't believe in God".

I know all of his characters are essentially him but this is too much.

Noodle Lizard

Just had a look on the Wikipedia to see if rumors of a second season were true and noticed that someone's changed the "Reception" part to omit any mention of negative reviews.  Might be time to give it the CaB Wiki treatment (fragments of Derek's are still visible, last I checked).

Twit 2

Ha, just read the Derek wiki and it's full of negative reviews, excellent!

phes

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on March 23, 2019, 07:39:48 AM
Just had a look on the Wikipedia to see if rumors of a second season were true and noticed that someone's changed the "Reception" part to omit any mention of negative reviews.  Might be time to give it the CaB Wiki treatment (fragments of Derek's are still visible, last I checked).

Ricky stated on Twitter that he will be writing a second season. Also, for fans of so bad it's good he's also stated that he favors the second season over the first because it requires less setting up

Crabwalk

We may get our new robot grief dog yet.

Ha, 'Rocket Man' started playing in the room next door as I wrote that! Pretty sure I'm going to laugh out loud every time I hear that song from now on.

thraxx

Quote from: Crabwalk on March 23, 2019, 09:56:41 AM
We may get our new robot grief dog yet.

Ha, 'Rocket Man' started playing in the room next door as I wrote that! Pretty sure I'm going to laugh out loud every time I hear that song from now on.

Can't believe you live next door to Elton John.

Noodle Lizard

Quote from: Twit 2 on March 23, 2019, 08:43:09 AM
Ha, just read the Derek wiki and it's full of negative reviews, excellent!

There are lots of little leftovers from when CaB had a go on it, especially in the overview ("the viewer is told Derek is kind etc.") and possibly in the plot summaries - though to be honest, I can't actually tell if that was us or not since the episodes are genuinely so bizarre.  For instance:

QuoteDerek talks about Hannah and Tom's sex life in front of everyone at the home and keeps a written record of it.

QuoteDerek goes on a date with a girl from a dating website. They bond over their mutual love of burping.

QuoteA vicar visits the home, but his close-mindedness proves no match for the simple wisdom of Derek.

Jockice

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on March 23, 2019, 10:05:19 AM
There are lots of little leftovers from when CaB had a go on it, especially in the overview ("the viewer is told Derek is kind etc.") and possibly in the plot summaries - though to be honest, I can't actually tell if that was us or not since the episodes are genuinely so bizarre.  For instance:

the second one's true. But who can tell with the others?

St_Eddie

I've only just finished watching this, so I'm currently catching up with the thread, hence the lateness of this reply...

Quote from: Cuellar on March 11, 2019, 09:50:36 AM
The woman in the graveyard - no sense that she exists beyond that bench. She just sits there, waiting for Tony.

Spot on.  She's like an NPC in an adventure game.

BritishHobo

Quote from: phes on March 23, 2019, 09:54:22 AM
Ricky stated on Twitter that he will be writing a second season. Also, for fans of so bad it's good he's also stated that he favors the second season over the first because it requires less setting up

He's also said that it'll be about Tony using his 'superpower' for good - so lots more Tony being a cunt to exactly the same fateasy targets as he did in series 1.

phes

It's going to be an action series about him busting an underground dog-fighting club or some other animal cruelty based ring, I reckon.

Spoon of Ploff

Quote from: BritishHobo on March 23, 2019, 11:47:37 AM
He's also said that it'll be about Tony using his 'superpower' for good...

so instead of calling kids c*nts, he'll be calling the c*nts who call kids c*nts  c*nts?


why am i asterisking this?

BritishHobo


Bennett Brauer

Quote from: Cuellar on March 11, 2019, 09:50:36 AM
The woman in the graveyard - no sense that she exists beyond that bench. She just sits there, waiting for Tony.

Quote from: St_Eddie on March 23, 2019, 11:44:10 AM
Spot on.  She's like an NPC in an adventure game.

He pushes her off it in the blooper reel.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Bennett Brauer on March 23, 2019, 12:47:04 PM
He pushes her off it in the blooper reel.

Gervais abusing his status to bully people?!  Well, I never!

Bennett Brauer

Quote from: St_Eddie on March 24, 2019, 04:52:56 AM
Gervais abusing his status to bully people?!  Well, I never!

I was joking.

He tips the whole bench over and rolls her into an open grave.

phes


Ornlu

If you want to see people in real time gushing over this shit, it features on the last 10m or so of the most recent Gogglebox. Cue all the requisite "aww!"s and "LOL WHAT DID HE SAY, 'TUBBY GINGER CUNT'??"s. Even a "He's got quite a keen insight into people, has Gervais, hasn't he?" Absolutely mind-blowing.