'Extras' on iPlayer

[Tombola]

I've started rewatching 'Extras' - which now feels like a masterpiece relative to the mind-boggling shite that followed - because in my infinite sadness I follow a number of 'reacts' channels on YouTube. I find it vaguely interesting to see how others respond to things I'm overly-familiar with, and when I'm feeling lazy it's an easier way to spend time than getting to grips with 'The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade'.

This meant finding 'Extras' online, and happily it was on iPlayer. However, you can't just watch an episode. Similar to that nauseatingly self-indulgent special edition DVD of 'The Office' they released, whereby there was no option to watch an episode without suffering through at least 5 minutes of Gervais and Merchant talking about a recent sitcom in preposterously elevated terms, you cannot watch an episode of 'Extras' on iPlayer without suffering through at least 5 minutes of Gervais and Merchant talking about a recent (at the time of recording) sitcom in preposterously elevated terms.

Not just them either - also the likes of Matt Perry and other amazing Hollywood stars waxing lyrical about a mediocre comedy that happened to feature David Brent and some A-listers. It's absurd, and it's seemingly now the default way to watch it. They even interrupt the end credits with celebrities talking over Cat Stevens. Why???

A lot has been said about the bullshit of Gervais over the years on this forum, and I'm not adding anything new to the discussion here. It just really wound me up, to be reminded 15 years after 'Extras' aired, and any years after 'Life's Too Short', 'Derek', and 'After Life', that this ridiculous veneration of ego-driven sludge is still out there, rampant.

Get Matt Perry and Hugh Jackman talking about the genius of 'Sunnyside Farm', and maybe some balance will be restored.

[Tombola]

Please move to Comedy Chat!

[Blue Jam]

It's also on Netflix.

[Norton Canes]

Nah seems appropriate having on the plague forum

[Dusty Substance]

I rewatched them all during Summer and they were awful. Even more atrocious than I remembered. Yes, it's still funnier than Life's Too Short, but so is the GoPro footage of the New Zealand mosque shooting.

[famethrowa]

I remember enjoying the shows a lot when they were on, but just unwatchable these days, because Ricky's (only) technique of storytelling is laid bare; to heap indignity on the main character throughout and give us a few seconds of victory in the final moments. You can also heap indignity on side characters too if you want us to like them. A world where all your adversaries are smarter, quicker and wittier than you, but you take it, because you know you'll get a half a minute of sunshine in a few episodes time. I probably should have worked it out during The Office but I got swept up in it.

[frajer]

I remember enjoying the shows a lot when they were on, but just unwatchable these days, because Ricky's (only) technique of storytelling is laid bare; to heap indignity on the main character throughout and give us a few seconds of victory in the final moments. You can also heap indignity on side characters too if you want us to like them. A world where all your adversaries are smarter, quicker and wittier than you, but you take it, because you know you'll get a half a minute of sunshine in a few episodes time. I probably should have worked it out during The Office but I got swept up in it.

Yeah and don't forget you have to make the main character's adversaries cartoonishly villainous, one-note pieces of shit until they are inevitably trounced.

I know it's nothing new to state but Afterlife is the distillation of all this. I can see why he's proudest of it because it's everything he has been working towards and refining for years.

Main character? A world-weary cynic who can do whatever he wants and inexplicably gets the respect and admiration of everyone he meets. He'd have the birds too, if he wanted, but he doesn't, cos he's deep and you're shallow.
Supporting characters? Strictly two-dimensional and only there to reflect the inner radiance of the protagonist, which burns like a thousand suns. Make sure to get some decent comedic actors in to elevate the thinnest of dialogue.
Villains? Evil thick cunts who'd be told to "reign it in" if they gave that level of performance in a panto.
Subtlety, nuance or complexity? Get fucked Jake, this is Gervaistown.

[shagatha crustie]

I remember it getting as many plaudits as The Office when it came out, but - unlike the Office - it has aged extremely badly. Like 'Ricky Gervais Meets,' it was just an extended way of Gervais saying 'I am famous now.' And Garry Shandling was right to interrogate the motivation behind the 'awkkwaaaard!' comedy style. Why are we supposed to sympathise with a bloke who sees an obviously disabled woman and says to a stranger next to him 'she's either pissed or mental?'

[ajsmith2]

What if Keith Harris was a bigot? Wild! Oh he won't do it; call Keith Chegwin.

[Dusty Substance]

And Garry Shandling was right to interrogate the motivation behind the 'awkkwaaaard!' comedy style.

Still probably the best thing Ricky Gervais has ever been involved in.

[scarecrow]

The worst bit in Extras is when the carer from out of Afterbirth brings a black fellow back to her flat and becomes worried he'll misinterpret the Golliwog doll she proudly keeps on display, despite the script telling us she's not racist. You're supposed to sympathise with her and laugh at the awkwardness of the situation, rather than interrogate whether she - and Gervais' audience - might be racist in ways they don't realise. I've no idea how he gets away with it.

[Noodle Lizard]

The worst bit in Extras is when the carer from out of Afterbirth brings a black fellow back to her flat and becomes worried he'll misinterpret the Golliwog doll she proudly keeps on display, despite the script telling us she's not racist. You're supposed to sympathise with her and laugh at the awkwardness of the situation, rather than interrogate whether she - and Gervais' audience - might be racist in ways they don't realise. I've no idea how he gets away with it.

To play devil's advocate, isn't the idea that Gervais's character has made her paranoid by joking about how she's subconsciously racist earlier on in the episode? But yeah, I don't know how common having a golliwog was in the early 2000s, especially if you apparently know the connotations.

Why are we supposed to sympathise with a bloke who sees an obviously disabled woman and says to a stranger next to him 'she's either pissed or mental?'

To play devil's advocate again, I don't think we're ever really supposed to sympathise with Millman in that episode - and several others, especially in the second series. He's very much the butt of the joke in that one. But I also think it's fairly relatable to a lot of people to say the wrong thing whilst trying desperately to impress someone - that old joke about asking an overweight woman "when's it due?" etc.

I think both those things are fine in and of themselves and don't necessarily say much about the mind behind them, but I remember the Golliwog bit was very poorly-staged.

[Noodle Lizard]

I haven't revisited Extras for a few years, but I remember it not holding up too well overall, despite having some great individual moments or setpieces. My recollection may well be coloured by my current opinion of Gervais, but it seems quite clear from the tone and style of writing that Merchant was responsible for a lot of the better bits (there is no way Merchant wasn't mostly responsible for the Patrick Stewart or Daniel Radcliffe scenes, for instance).

The second series may as well have been a different show entirely. It felt a lot more Gervaisy overall (going by Derek, After Life etc.)
I'd imagine Merchant was responsible for more or less everything his character (and Barry off Eastenders) were up to, and a few of the celebrity bits (Orlando Bloom, Ian McKellan's "acting" speech) feel distinctly Merchant, but all the Millman/Maggie stuff and piss-warm commentary on "fame" is pure Gervais. I can't speak for them or their writing relationship at this time, of course, but it felt like this was Gervais really pushing his "Bad Boy Of Media" image for the first time. Some of it is really fucking dreadful in hindsight as well - the David Bowie bit, the gay play plot, and if Robert Lindsay is the only saving grace of your finale then there's probably something wrong there too.

[Better Midlands]

But yeah, I don't know how common having a golliwog was in the early 2000s, especially if you apparently know the connotations.

2001 was when it was taken off the jar.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/aug/23/marketingandpr.raceintheuk

As long ago as 1983 the then Greater London council stopped buying the firm's jam and marmalade, claiming the golly was racist. The character was removed from television adverts in 1988 following protests from anti-racism campaigners.

#cancelled ran a lot slower back then.

[Billy]

I had a real life moment like that back in 2010 when I visited a friend's house and saw one proudly sitting on her shelf, she was born in the early 1980s so in her late twenties at the time.

Later that summer I saw the dolls being sold as prizes in a tiny Devon seaside amusement arcade, making me think some kind of post-ironic revival was taking place.

[scarecrow]

Later that summer I saw the dolls being sold as prizes in a tiny Devon seaside amusement arcade, making me think some kind of post-ironic revival was taking place.

Yeah, newly produced dolls are creeping into the town centres and car boot sales. When Laurence Fox is in charge, they will be mandatory; a golli on every shelf. This divided nation will start to heal.

To play devil's advocate, isn't the idea that Gervais's character has made her paranoid by joking about how she's subconsciously racist earlier on in the episode? But yeah, I don't know how common having a golliwog was in the early 2000s, especially if you apparently know the connotations.

Six minutes into this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LljWm8umGIE "He knows she's not racist."