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Another one for the Bowie collection
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
The Extras series is definitely one of the best box series around. If you are a fan of "The Office Series type humour then you will love this. Funny Sarcastic, witty lines and just pure funny moments will have u smiling. Episodes with "Barry" from Eastenders and Vinny Jones are class. Highly recommended
Missed this when it was on TV and a friend lent me a copy of the 1st series to cheer me up when I was feeling particularly down. Now I'm not pretending that even the best comedy can be a universal panacea and a bereavement remains a bereavement, but I can honestly say that I laughed out loud (a lot) while watching this, which was unexpected. When the box set came out, I had to have it. The 1st series is very funny and (unusually) the extras were also well worth watching, particularly the one with Gervais and Merchant drunkenly trying to book Leonardo DiCaprio from a hotel room (just watch it, I don't want to give away the gags). Series 2, however, was even funnier. Gervais' character is generally much more sympathetic here than in "The Office" - not least in comparison with the extraordinary line-up of freaks around him here and the sometimes genuine unfairness of the situations he finds himself in. He gets what seems to be a lucky break, but then his reasonable quality idea for a sit-com is dumbed down into a farcically awful catchphrase-driven racist, sexist, obvious and cheap show. Millman (Gervais' character) struggles between his artistic integrity and fulfilling his need for fame/success/validation at any price. In the end, it's no contest. There's a nice degree of tension at the end of the last episode, when Millman's feckless agent (Merchant) finally comes up with the goods and it looks like Millman may miss out as he's (finally) playing fair by his sweet and dim friend Maggie (played brilliantly by the gorgeous Ashley Jensen) and the hospitalised child he's uncomfortably been visiting. Throughout both series there is plenty to laugh at, on a number of levels. People who cringed through some of David Brent's embarrassing moments will also have plenty to cringe at here (I loved Maggie's scene when she went home with a guy and found he still lived with his parents...giving nothing more away, but watch out for it!), but the characters and situations are very different. There are some great gags, beautiful parodies, slapstick moments and some good old-fashioned filth. The show is really densely packed with great stuff, both comic and gently dramatic. I loved 'The Office' (although I'm SO fed up with seeing 'the dance' scene, which was possibly the least funny part, especially out of context), but, quite honestly, I think I laughed even more at 'Extras'. Buy it, watch it, it's brilliant and I feel quite sure it'll last. Just wish my late wife'd been here to see it with me.Read full review
Well... where to begin with perhaps the greatest ever sitcom ever made? If you liked The Office, (and most of us did), you'll love Extras. The depth of comedy writing within these two series is truly astounding - we should be thankful that Gervais & Merchant found one another and decided to write together. As well as being excrutiatingly, cringingly funny, there are many sub-points made about the hollowness of fame - the sacrifice of integrity - and the ultimate realisation that unless you are personally happy with yourself, no amount of positive (or negative in Andy Millman's case!) comments will satisfy you. I get the feeling that much of Andy Millmans' life is a re-telling of Gervais's own experiences. This is THE most grown up comedy I have ever seen - GO AND WATCH IT.
A few years back, Ricky Gervais created "The Office," a Dilberty satire on office work. Now, he's created "Extras," a wickedly funny satire on showbiz and acting, both seasons of which are contained here. And the fact that prominent actors appear in it -- as warped versions of themselves -- is just the icing on the comedy cake. Andy Millman (Gervais) and Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jenson) are film extras -- Andy is embittered by his lack of success and his inept agent (Stephen Merchant, Gervais' work partner), while well-meaning Maggie merely pursues a series of crew members on the films they work in. The first episode features the two working in a biopic directed by a brusque Ben Stiller ("Would you stop going on about your f**king dead wife?"), and Andy gets himself kicked off the set. Their blunders continue with other stars: Kate Winslet in a nun costume, who teaches Maggie how to talk dirty to her new boyfriend ("I'd love it if you stuck your Willy Wonka in between my Oompa-Loompas!"); Samuel L. Jackson, and Patrick Stewart, who is writing a movie about psychkinesis and naked women. And in the second season, Andy gets his Big Break -- BBC2 is producing his sitcom "When the Whistle Blows," but they dumb it down until it's popular but critically lambasted. Meanwhile, he and Maggie tangle with a bunch of new celebs -- the arrogant woman-chasing Daniel Radcliffe and Orlando Bloom, self-promoting Chris Martin, a hostile David Bowie, and Andy even stars in a play of Ian McKellen's about gay love (much to his discomfort). Part of the genius of "Extras" is that it isn't much like any other showbiz parodies -- the lead characters are on the lowest rung of acting, and the big egos are real stars making fun of themselves. Sometimes they play really nasty versions of themselves, such as Winslet saying that she's only making a Holocaust film so she can FINALLY nab an Oscar. The other half of the comic genius is Gervais' direction, with most of the jokes based on socially awkward situations. It's all about cringing and giggling at once, such as when Andy's pals see him pantsless in Ian McKellen's dressing room. Those hideously embarrassing situations -- usually with some hilarious dialogue involving the star guests (Bowie's "little fat man/nobody's laughing" song is a gutsplitter) are what it's all about. Gervais underplays a sort of befuddled, cynical extra, but you can really connect with his struggles, even when he gets his own sitcom. No matter what, Andy can always be depended on to jam foot in mouth, and occasionally to attack Warwick Davis. Jensen is clumsily charming as Maggie, who tries to be nice to everyone but says all the wrong things at the wrong time, when she's not being pursued by Orlando Bloom or offending Samuel Jackson. The two seasons are "Extras" are uproariously funny, barbed looks at the strange world of showbiz, with the self-parodying actors as the final perfect touch.Read full review
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