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March 28, 2024, 08:02:53 PM

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Ricky Gervais's After Life series 3 [split topic]

Started by Cursus, July 23, 2020, 09:33:21 PM

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poodlefaker

Quote from: TommyTurnips on January 17, 2022, 01:04:16 PMI'm trying to work out if I would be annoyed about something like that so long after it happened, but then also there's the fact that this didn't even happen to Gervais, it was a friend of his that got offered the rice pudding. He's still annoyed on someone else's behalf that this friend of his got offered a breast milk rice pudding about 20 years ago.

Fascinating man.

More likely all made up anyway. He probably read about it somewhere.

Cuellar

After Life benches and Captain Tom benches fighting up and down the country.

checkoutgirl

Quote from: TommyTurnips on January 17, 2022, 01:04:16 PMI'm trying to work out if I would be annoyed about something like that so long after it happened, but then also there's the fact that this didn't even happen to Gervais, it was a friend of his that got offered the rice pudding. He's still annoyed on someone else's behalf that this friend of his got offered a breast milk rice pudding about 20 years ago.

Fascinating man.

I don't think he's annoyed necessarily, just devoid of other ideas.

Bad Ambassador


TheQueensboroBridge

Now he's managed to end the taboo about discussing grief I hope his next show will finally end the stigma of people, especially men, talking about their mental health. If anyone can do it Ricky can.

TommyTurnips

Next show will be about a kind dwarf working in a care home who won't stop talking about his dead wife.

Ricky will play the dwarf, he will achieve this by kneeling down with shoes on his knees.

Ferris

Quote from: TommyTurnips on January 17, 2022, 09:04:19 PMNext show will be about a kind dwarf working in a care home who won't stop talking about his dead wife.

Big comedy setpiece - he sits in a pie and/or falls in a pond.

JamesTC



chip

He's used Wigan as a comedy punchline to two shitey jokes in this series now. Another lazy 'funny' go-to

Was listening to a TV review podcast earlier and Gervais was a guest on there (with Tony Way) talking to his friend/sycophant Boyd Hilton about this latest series.

The interview goes on for about half an hour, but I'd urge you to listen to it as it's really something.

Hilton has his tongue firmly up Gervais' arse throughout, telling him how hilarious/moving the show is and how every aspect of the show is fantastic, and the Rickster explains his creative process, in particular the filming of the iconic scene where he blows raspberries onto Tony Way's character's belly.

Also reveals that one of his favourite lines is when the character of Ratty (of Ratty and The Nonce) says "What have you come as? Santa's little cunt?"

Spotify link here.  Interview starts at 29m30s.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Qh08X1rrmUzxINGTDgi1y?si=ef83b9c8f913479a

DJ Bob Hoskins

On the topic of cringeworthy interviews, here's a nice clip I saw earlier of the Rickster changing the subject when called out on the hypocrisy inherent in his comedy sticking it to the 1%:

ITV News | Ricky Gervais reacts to Downing Street's party scandal as he talks Afterlife final series


Ballad of Ballard Berkley

"I try and not lecture people."

That's all he does, all the time. Fair play to Nina Nannar for attempting to confront his hypocrisy, especially in  the middle of an otherwise cosy puff piece, but Gervais is incapable of owning up to his contradictions. That would require too much intellectual effort. He can never be wrong about anything.

This is a man who once co-created a character, David Brent, who was a blatant manifestation of his own insecurities, foibles and failings. But that was a very long time ago, when he was still somewhat capable of honest self-analysis.

Mind you, even at the time, he bristled whenever interviewers asked him if Brent was a semi-autobiographical creation. The very idea annoyed him. He should've been proud of the fact that he'd looked inwards to write and perform a three-dimensional character. Because that's what great artists do, isn't it Ricky? The sort of great artist you see yourself as?

He's such a strange man.

DJ Bob Hoskins

Quote from: Ricky Gervais"I try and not lecture people."


Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Also, it's 'to' not 'and'. But even that sounds clumsy. A more eloquent way of phrasing his disingenuous point would be: "I don't try to lecture people."

Hire a script-editor, Ricky.



The Mollusk

I don't try to lecture people, it just falls out of me involuntarily since I have literally no other way of communicating my thoughts.

#826
Quote from: Phoenix Lazarus on January 16, 2022, 08:25:54 PMThe only other person I've heard it from is Ronan Keating in Life is a Rollercoaster - so enough said!

Actually, I remember in the 70s a singer called Barry Biggs did a reggae-type song called 'Life is a Three-Ring Circus,' which is basically the same sentiment.  In that analogy, Gervais is like PT Barnum, unashamedly attracting viewers with freakshows - as is anyone who interviews Gervais for that matter.

Captain Z

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on January 18, 2022, 02:30:25 AMAlso, it's 'to' not 'and'. But even that sounds clumsy. A more eloquent way of phrasing his disingenuous point would be: "I don't try to lecture people."

Hire a script-editor, Ricky.

Lionel Hutz gets out his pen:

"I don't try, and lecture people"

rue the polywhirl

Got to be honest, am enjoying current series. Good comfort viewing. Comfort in satisfying formulaic rubbishness I guess but not quite to the point of hate-viewing  Up to episode 4 atm. Best bet for a Diane Morgan fix because Mandy manages to be somehow even worse. Tim Key also very good in his little spot.

chip

I will admit that by the end their expletive-filled rampage through the fete, but not the finale fete I think(? I genuinely can't recall), I did crack a smile at the antics of fan favourites Ratty and The Nonce.

wrec

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on January 18, 2022, 01:10:14 AMMind you, even at the time, he bristled whenever interviewers asked him if Brent was a semi-autobiographical creation. The very idea annoyed him. He should've been proud of the fact that he'd looked inwards to write and perform a three-dimensional character.

I remember Steve Coogan being irritated that people thought he was oblivious to his occasional similarities to Partridge. And there's a lot less distance between Gervais and Brent.

Bronzy


MrsWarboysLover

The key difference with Brent and Gervais is that Brent was desperate for people to like him, whereas Gervais's opinion of himself is so high I think he just assumes they do.

Quote from: chip on January 18, 2022, 07:24:23 PMI will admit that by the end their expletive-filled rampage through the fete, but not the finale fete I think(? I genuinely can't recall), I did crack a smile at the antics of fan favourites Ratty and The Nonce.

Everything gervais does now is just a worse version of his old material. Ratty and the nonce is just like Oggy and Jimmy the Perv mixed with a bit of finchy. But those characters all seemed pretty realistic.

I will admit as much as gervais annoys me, I do think he, as Limmy would put it, "Has the funnybone" and is capable of being amusing. It's just harder to ignore the narcissism and bullying the more you get to know his work.

Cold Meat Platter

I've not watched this and have no intention to but from what I've read and seen it seems like an emotional training aid for psychopaths.

Ferris

Quote from: Cold Meat Platter on January 19, 2022, 01:08:37 AMI've not watched this and have no intention to but from what I've read and seen it seems like an emotional training aid for psychopaths.

Don't give him ideas!


chip

I think most people's perception of Gervais and his comedy was cemented back in the early 00s, and hasn't been able to evolve into anything else since. The Chubby Funster has his tropes, such as the laugh, doing that thing where he starts sentences but doesn't finish them ("that's.... "), or just using words like 'mental' or whatever. Like that laugh may be grating, but hearing it instantly takes me back to a simpler comedy landscape, which he was undoubtedly one of the fat little lords of.

So it's ultimately even more insane that this latest effort (not to mention Derek before it) doesn't even feature any of those, and they still lap it up. They're not mainlining any pure Gervais. The One Trick Pony isn't even doing his Trick!

phosphoresce

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on January 18, 2022, 01:10:14 AMMind you, even at the time, he bristled whenever interviewers asked him if Brent was a semi-autobiographical creation. The very idea annoyed him. He should've been proud of the fact that he'd looked inwards to write and perform a three-dimensional character. Because that's what great artists do, isn't it Ricky? The sort of great artist you see yourself as?
He's such a strange man

Yes, compare Steve Coogan with Alan. In interviews Coogan often says the character is indeed a reflection and artistic exaggeration of some of his most embarrassing traits. Whereas with Brent, Gervais is playing this "loser" he looks down on and sees as an object of pity (especially in the horrible Brent film).
 
As others have said, the After Life character being a human interest writer is so weird. Instead of the show finding humour and humanity in people that might be dismissed as oddballs, it's a chance for Gervais/Tony to sneer. It's a strange attitude for a writer to have to his own characters.

BritishHobo

I just accidentally caught a clip from Derek (the one where Pilkington shouts at a woman for wanting her dead mum's possessions), and at the end the camera pans to Gervais clenching and unclenching his jaw. It blew me away all over again, maybe even moreso given the distance from it now. How on EARTH did he get away with that performance?

checkoutgirl

Quote from: Spongo McChongo on January 19, 2022, 07:15:31 AMDepressing boring shite.

I watched the whole thing in one go the other night and that's my opinion too. It's not consistently terrible, just very average and boring with the odd "I hope it was his cock you cunt" sprinkled here and there to snap you out of your stupor at how bad it is. Dull sets and costume. Average dialogue. Not that many jokes and threadbare characters. The odd bit of paper thin philosophy and by god is it repetitive. Still on the laptop with the dead wife after three series!! Come on Rick. Like Karl describing an awards ceremony "Just the same thing over and over".

He used the same shot set ups over and over again. The same establishing shots. The same handful of sets/locations. He did seem to try and address a couple of issues, one being the static camera work, there seemed to be some boom work going on with the camera sweeping up and to the side. Another was the one dimensional support characters, Ricky amped that up a bit to 1.5 sided characters. An improvement but not much of one.

In the XFM days Gervais had a three word catchprase that would bookend a segment and signal he had heard enough rubbish for the moment, "Play a record". He's retooled that slightly for this series when he has heard enough from the kooky residents of Tambury and wants to leave, "Take a picture".

I thought is was a bit much that he went to the lengths of disappearing off the face of the earth just to avoid having to visit that cancer kid every day. That was a bit of a poor show Rickster.

Painfully average 3.5/10 for me Clive.