Extras
JEFF62
Posts: 5,102 Forum Member
✭
Rewatched all 13 episodes of Extras over the last three weeks on Netflix. I cant believe the first series aired eight years ago and the final feature length Christmas special was six years ago. I really liked this series and enjoyed it again this time. Some of the humour was very cringeworthy and quite cruel. The David Bowie song lampooning Andy in the nightclub was particularly cruel. Reminded me of a school bully picking on the fat kid and making him look stupid in front of his classmates.
What really fascinates me about this series was how on earth Gervais and Merchant persuaded all these big stars to sign up for this and in some cases make them look like complete arseholes! How did they wrIte the scripts for a start? Take the Ben Stiller episode. They couldnt have written that assuming Ben Stiller would be happy to take part. Did they ask him first before writing it? Not everyone would be happy to have themselves sent up like this. I wonder who turned it down.
The second series was quite interesting with Andy becoming a sitcom star but hating the way his show was turned into a catchphrase ridden dumbed down sitcom. Did you actually want to see a whole episode? Would have interesting if they had of made one episode of When The Whistle Blows and actually aired it!
The final Christmas episode was very good. Andy forgetting about his best friend and treating her like dirt until he enters Big Brother and relaises what a prat he has become. Then that big speech and suddenly his agent wanted to know him again.
All in all an enjoyable series. Probably best to end it when it did but in a way I would like to have seen more episodes. So what do others think? Which episodes are your favourites?
What really fascinates me about this series was how on earth Gervais and Merchant persuaded all these big stars to sign up for this and in some cases make them look like complete arseholes! How did they wrIte the scripts for a start? Take the Ben Stiller episode. They couldnt have written that assuming Ben Stiller would be happy to take part. Did they ask him first before writing it? Not everyone would be happy to have themselves sent up like this. I wonder who turned it down.
The second series was quite interesting with Andy becoming a sitcom star but hating the way his show was turned into a catchphrase ridden dumbed down sitcom. Did you actually want to see a whole episode? Would have interesting if they had of made one episode of When The Whistle Blows and actually aired it!
The final Christmas episode was very good. Andy forgetting about his best friend and treating her like dirt until he enters Big Brother and relaises what a prat he has become. Then that big speech and suddenly his agent wanted to know him again.
All in all an enjoyable series. Probably best to end it when it did but in a way I would like to have seen more episodes. So what do others think? Which episodes are your favourites?
0
Comments
As I watched it, I was thinking "How dare he ! Who does he think he is ?? What gives him the right to publicly humiliate a member of the general public like that. What an absolute c**t."
The only thing that spoilt it for me was the casting of Shaun Pye (who is largely a writer) as Millman's rival. He was fine as a bitter extra, but when they tried to reinvent him as a successful actor he hadn't the presence to pull it off.
Shame that "Life's Too Short" was so awful. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but I have a soft spot for "Derek" but they do slap on the pathos a little too sloppily.
I agree about LTS - it felt like a load of rejected ideas from Extras cobbled into a new series. Johnny Depp was magical though.
"Super Army Soldier."
My favourite as well Domenica. This was the episode with the Bafta awards with Ronnie Corbett and Moira Stuart. Corbett was brilliant in this episode.
From series one my favourite was definitely the Kate Winslett episode.
On the whole I thought series 2 was superior to series 1. The final episode was likewise excellent.
Unlike other posters I actually did like Life's Too Short though it lacked the originality of The Office and Extras.
Kate Winslet was my favourite episode. I thought she was fantastic!
the first series had the best cameos in it.
Patrick Stewart - obsession with ladies boobs . 'Too late, ive seen it all!'
Kate Winslett - advising Maggie about the phone sex, and the 'guaranteed Oscar' LOL
Ian Mackellan - the dialogue with him explaining about how he gets in character is hilarious.
Orlando Bloom - hit with the ladies, hates Johnny Depp
and dont forget Clive Owen (i think??) roughing Maggie up a bit
De Niro and the pen was good but other cameos were better
Barry from Eastenders - surprised he agreed to this, sending himself up as he's always typecast in this role and to the best of my knowledge hasnt really starred in anything else on screen?
This is one of my favourite non-celeb scenes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmZ1_2gNcsM
Darren Lamb - Player!
I thought that too. Andy bought a lot of things on himself but he really didn't deserve that. I know the point of it was in the end he was better off down the local pub with the real fans who he thought were beneath him. To add insult to injury even Darren the agent and "Barry from Eastenders" who were meant to be his friends were singing and dancing along to Bowie too.
It was brilliant when the camera panned along the seats, and there was Andy in his Saturday Night Fever white suit !
The best thing about that is, as has often been noted, Kate did go on to win an Oscar for a film about the Holocaust.
Second and special, not so much. Relied far too much on Maggie doing something unbelievable stupid to drive the plot, and the cameos just weren't as funny (McKellern apart). It just got plain lazy. The whole business about Milman being terrified to portray a homosexual in the play was just rubbish.
And the speech at the end of the special was nothing that hadn't already been said loads of times before, but in typical Gervais fashion he seems to think he unveiling some great wisdom to a stunned world.