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March 28, 2024, 03:19:01 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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dead-ced-dead

Quote from: MrsWarboysLover on January 21, 2022, 01:07:50 PMThen again, he's incredibly lazy. I find it hard to believe it wasn't Smerch doing all the typing in the Office days.

Merchant clearly wrote a lot of the structural stuff. The will they won't they between Tim and Dawn, the merger, Brent being made redundant. I can't prove that 100%, but watching their work apart, Merchant's stuff is very structural (sometimes too much) and Gervais' work is very loose and sprawling.

I'm not trying to dismiss Gervais' work on The Office, but I wouldn't be surprised if many of the best gags were Gervais' but the structural plotting was Merch's.

paruses

Quote from: idunnosomename on January 21, 2022, 02:48:59 PMhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-60057551.amp

Please someone scrawl "i hope it was his cock you cunt" on them

Am I missing something? Almost 100% sure benches came in when I was growing up in the 70s. I remember there was an instructional programme presented by Michael Aspel on how to use them.

The sickening thing about this is it's a good thing to be happening (even though they'll just get used as places for teenage girls to get fingered) but this travesty of a programme will be lauded for it.

Actually, this would be a good example to go in the tax write-off thread.

chip

Quote from: dead-ced-dead on January 21, 2022, 02:59:51 PMI'm not trying to dismiss Gervais' work on The Office, but I wouldn't be surprised if many of the best gags were Gervais' but the structural plotting was Merch's.

Interesting and very valid theory, but what were the big gag setpieces in After Life? I ground through both previous series recently before this third one and I still can't bring anything to mind except Hope It Was His C*ck You C*nt.

Not disagreeing with your point either, to me it's just part of the big Gervaisian decline in every element of creating a comedy show.

chveik

congratulations to ricky gervais for inventing the bench

sevendaughters

one point against Merchant's genius in tandem with Gervais is that Life's Too Short was abysmal. Had he given up trying to stop Gervais' worst impulses?

bgmnts

Yeah must have. Gervais was just like lol let's make a show about a funny dwarf and Merchant probably had to pay off a house or something.

The Liam Neeson bit is one of the funniest things they've done though, oddly.

JamesTC

Quote from: chveik on January 21, 2022, 04:04:05 PMcongratulations to ricky gervais for inventing the bench

IN A WORLD WHERE EVERYONE CAN ONLY STAND UP...

...THIS GUY CAN SIT DOWN


THE INVENTION OF THE BENCH

dead-ced-dead

Quote from: sevendaughters on January 21, 2022, 05:22:21 PMone point against Merchant's genius in tandem with Gervais is that Life's Too Short was abysmal. Had he given up trying to stop Gervais' worst impulses?

It could be two things:

1. Merchant was fed up and let Gervais steam roll him.

2. I'm attributing too much to Merchant early on and his recent quality work (Outlaws, Fighting With My Family - I know they have their detractors but I think both are broadly well reviewed) shows more of a late blooming talent, like George Harrison's later Beatles songwriting).

sevendaughters

I'm on the fence. I sort of feel like Merchant had a sulk to his agent that he needed some credible work now and got the grindr killer job. Bit cynical?

QDRPHNC

For all the people making snide comments about Ricky inventing the bench, these benches are for talking and sharing, he's not saying he's invented the bench. It's like when you buy one of those notebooks with "My Dream Journal" on the cover, it's specifically for dreams.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: sevendaughters on January 21, 2022, 05:42:29 PMI'm on the fence. I sort of feel like Merchant had a sulk to his agent that he needed some credible work now and got the grindr killer job. Bit cynical?

He was already doing very well in his career, so I don't think that unexpected move into drama was a cynical gambit. He probably just wanted to try something different. And he succeeded.

Ferris

Hot take: Merchant may not be much cop either, and the office was built around small moments where a (largely unknown) Ricky gervais just played Ricky gervais. Credit where it's due - a great character and perfect for the Office which is still a great bit of work. It's revisionist to say one contributed more than the other.

Their problem is you can't keep transplanting that successful character to other sitcoms and expect the same result, though they tried with diminishing marginal returns (Extras, LTS, etc).

Once Merch left, gervais tried his hand at developing new characters (or reheating half-concepts) and parping out Derek, before trying to do Brent again with that film, then this latest bilge where he doesn't really play a character at all.

dead-ced-dead

He also did quite a solid dramatic performance in Login, which also scratches off a superhero movie off the list.

Ferris

Quote from: QDRPHNC on January 21, 2022, 05:45:28 PMFor all the people making snide comments about Ricky inventing the bench, these benches are for talking and sharing, he's not saying he's invented the bench. It's like when you buy one of those notebooks with "My Dream Journal" on the cover, it's specifically for dreams.

Rick is merely facilitating dreams, and the PR plug for his latest dreck is an unintended consequence.

paruses

Quote from: QDRPHNC on January 21, 2022, 05:45:28 PMFor all the people making snide comments about Ricky inventing the bench, these benches are for talking and sharing, he's not saying he's invented the bench. It's like when you buy one of those notebooks with "My Dream Journal" on the cover, it's specifically for dreams.

Yea that's why I said it's a good thing. I hope they are really successful. The problem is Gervais will think that he invented the bench. And talking. Maybe even sitting.

peanutbutter

RE: Life's Too Short, I'd say a combo of Merchant still having some insecurities about his ability to break off and assessing that it was more beneficial for him to do one more show with Gervais/BBC/HBO together and build up some stronger contacts in the process.

As a career move it was probably the right one to do if it's what led to his (fairly meh) first solo project being on HBO. Like, he's a decent performer and is fairly competent but I think it'd be a stretch to say he's much more than that.

paruses

I reckon The Waddle will come back too based on After Life 3. Shame that Vito from The Sopranos will be forgotten.

JamesTC

Quote from: QDRPHNC on January 21, 2022, 05:45:28 PMFor all the people making snide comments about Ricky inventing the bench, these benches are for talking and sharing, he's not saying he's invented the bench. It's like when you buy one of those notebooks with "My Dream Journal" on the cover, it's specifically for dreams.

Ahh, it's just a bit of silliness.

There is weird blindness by TV critics to anything other than the very thing right in front of them. The Guardian once referred to Star Trek Discovery as the first Star Trek show to deal with religion, which is the most moronic thing I've ever read in a critical analysis.

The benches in isolation might be a nice idea but wreak of cynicism as a marketing exercise. Mix that with the fact that the central message of the show is so muddied and overly simplistic. Maybe After Life may do some good for mental health through just raising awareness. But After Life raising awareness of mental health just feels like Hulk Hogan raising awareness of Black Lives Matter.

TommyTurnips

Quote from: dead-ced-dead on January 21, 2022, 05:41:26 PMIt could be two things:

1. Merchant was fed up and let Gervais steam roll him.

2. I'm attributing too much to Merchant early on and his recent quality work (Outlaws, Fighting With My Family - I know they have their detractors but I think both are broadly well reviewed) shows more of a late blooming talent, like George Harrison's later Beatles songwriting).

I remember just before life's too short came out and Gervais was promoting the hell out of it (and already responding to what he imagined the criticism of it would be, turned out that the percieved 'cruel dwarf comedy' was the least of the shows problems), there wasn't much promotion from merchant and the one occasion I remember that he did bring it up in an interview it sounded like a statement of facts where he said something like "I am working on a new comedy series with Ricky Gervais and Warwick Davis".

chveik

Quote from: Ferris on January 21, 2022, 05:53:29 PMHot take: Merchant may not be much cop either

yeah i haven't watched his recent stuff but hello ladies really sucked

kalowski

#921
It's funny, I was walking through my local park the other day wishing there was a place to sit and contemplate life, but there wasn't. There were wooden seats that would fit three or four people (two Ricky Gervaises) but there were no benches. Nowhere to think.
Thanks to Ricky there might be now.

MrsWarboysLover

I definitely don't think Steve was the secret genius behind the office. I just think he would've been doing all the typing!
like others have said, I reckon he just helped bring conventional structure and form to Ricky's ideas (while contributing some of his own of course) and probably reigned in the Chubmeister General's worst impulses.

I've just read the first episode of Derek was ten years ago this April.  It didn't seem that long.

Seems pretty clear that Ricky is just a normal, fairly untalented or driven person. He never seriously tried his hand at writing until forty and has little interest in studying the form, or indeed reading anything at all. Unlike Merchant.

The only thing that Merchant didn't have when they met is forty years of stored up anecdotes and funny bits. It's telling that Ricky's standups are usually centered around stories he's either picked up through family members / friends of friends or are just common urban myths. He is like the pub bore who's run out of stories to repeat so he just says cunt a lot to get laughs.

Mr Faineant

Quote from: Phoenix Lazarus on January 21, 2022, 08:12:43 PMI've just read the first episode of Derek was ten years ago this April.  It didn't seem that long.

It only seems that long while watching it.

BritishHobo

I watched a compilation of "After Life's Most Heartbreaking Moments", and I'm still staggered by how on earth it gets away with all the side characters constantly praising Tony. Just scene after scene of people saying "Tony, you're so good, you're so funny, you're so kind".

Sometimes I slip into the trap of thinking our criticism is a theatrical parody, and then I go and watch some clips and remember it's impossible to out-parody the man.

Mobius

I just can't get over how his fan base is now David Earl's character and co in the pub in Extras. He's become everything he sneered at on XFM and in his shows.

I do wish someone famous or credible would come out and just say After Life is shit, but it's not worth the headache is it.

MrsWarboysLover

Tim Heidecker and Limmy have both talked about Derek being shite iirc

Ferris

Quote from: MrsWarboysLover on January 22, 2022, 02:11:45 AMTim Heidecker and Limmy have both talked about Derek being shite iirc

Derek is so much more interesting(ly awful) than just shit. It's the work of a twisted mind. You could write a thesis on it.