Extras: The Complete Series

The box set arrived quickly and in excellent condition.

Ah, the Brits. No one else can produce so many successful shows with such unlikable main characters. Consider  The Office - The Complete Collection BBC Edition (First And Second Series Plus Special)  and  Black Adder: The Complete Collector's Set . Neither David Brent nor any of the various Blackadders (with the possible exception of Captain Blackadder), were especially likable, but the shows built around them were very good and very popular.Enter Ricky Gervais, formerly David Brent, now Andy Millman, would-be TV star. As a character he's very unlikeable and one of those for whom the word "cringeworthy" is coined. He's a character who tries very hard to get ahead, but his own lack of ability and confidence really holds him back.The character is fascinating to watch. He starts out as an extra, or "background artist", as he puts it. He wants to be more. He wants to have his own TV show on the BBC, but it's hard to just get speaking lines, and his particular personality traits and skills at self-sabotage only serve to make things worse.Consider, for example, and episode in which our hero is dating a Catholic woman. He's an atheist himself but is lying to her and saying he's a Catholic. This works reasonably well until her priest starts talking to him and he begins what my friend and I call "The Millman Slide", as instead of manning-up and taking responsibility for what he's done, he starts lying even more, and more ineffectively (at one point saying his childhood priest was one Father Michael O'Flatley). Soon he's buried himself so deep he knows there's no point in trying anymore and simply leaves the room. At one point he's talking to David Bowie and his insecurities are so obvious to everyone around him that Bowie makes up a song, on the spot, mocking him ("Depressed and all alone / Fatty takes his own life").Along with Andy we have his incompetent agent, several celebrities playing exaggerated versions of themselves and Andy's friend Maggie, who in many ways is the heart of the series. Watching her develop as a character is one of the great joys of the show, particularly in the Christmas episode.The DVD's have several great extras (or "bonus material," I guess I should call it), including outtakes, behind-the-scenes material and a short film on the efforts of Gervais and his collegue, Stephen Merchant, to get Leonardo DiCaprio onto the series. The only thing that's lacking, actually, is any additional features on the Christmas episode, and that's really too bad. I would've loved an audio commentary.This is an excellent series available on Amazon at an amazing price. You get all twelve episodes plus the Christmas special, and I highly recommend buying it as a set rather than just getting the discs on their own. You'll save money this way.If you have any interest in Hollywood, the movies, television or the entertainment world in general, you owe it to yourself to watch this show!

I'll start by saying I think Ricky Gervais is a brilliant guy and one of the funniest people in the world; I loved "The Office" and all of his work with Karl Pilkington, and find his podcast to be sublime. Having said all that, I'm not honestly all that keen on "Extras". This box set has each of the six-episode seasons and the longer finale.I don't want to give away the plot, but can safely say that the arc of the series is that Andy Millman (Gervais) and his friend Maggie (Ashley Jensen) are employed as film extras. Andy desperately wants fame and fortune and ultimately gets a terrible sitcom that he hates. Fame makes him nastier and nastier (the finale has some brutal moments) and shows how low he's willing to go to attain his goal. The resolution of the finale was, by far, the highlight of the show, though I won't divulge it here. I loved Stephen Merchant as Darren, Andy's utterly incompetent agent (and part time cellphone salesman), and many of the most cringeworthy moments (unsurprisingly) hinge on Merchant and Gervais interacting. The show also contains a ton of celebrity cameos, most of which I couldn't care less about (I did love David Bowie and Samuel L. Jackson, though) but it provided a unique angle for the show and did provide some comic relief. That brings me to my issue with the show: Ashley Jensen absolutely steals the show. Her acting and character are better and more likeable than Andy, and while that may seem a trivial point as Andy is supposed to be a bit of a jerk (a formula Gervais excels at), I found Gervais never really became the character of Andy and was wooden compared to Jensen and Merchant. What I'm saying is it's not that I disliked the character of Andy, I just didn't think Gervais owned it like he needed to, especially in season two.If you like Ricky Gervais and his off-putting characterizations, you'll like "Extras". There were moments I loved, but on balance I found much of it to be extremely repetitive (and I understand tedium as a theme) and frankly boring. The standout here is definitely Ashley Jensen, and I hope to see her in more things in the future; based on her performance alone I recommend "Extras".The DVD package has numerous extras (no pun intended) including behind the scenes documentaries, outtakes and deleted scenes. It is a very nice package at a very good price.

I watched this when it was originally shown on HBO and when I saw it again it was apparent that Gervais is a true original

Comedy that makes you forget you're watching a comedy until boom you're suddenly dying with laughter. These seasons are amazingly short, like 6 half-hour programs per season for the first two and I haven't seen the finale yet. The box set is the most sensible option price-wise and if you liked The Office then you will enjoy Extras as well. Perhaps the characters in The Office were somewhat less annoying than in Extras though. In Extras it's a toss-up as to who's most annoying - his agent (Stephan Merchant) or Maggie (Ashley Jensen). The agent is overly idiotic, to the point where it almost seems slapstick - although Merchant seems like a pretty nice guy as himself in interviews. Maggie is foot-in-mouth ten times over also, and will compete with the agent for getting on your nerves. Andy Millman (Gervaise) is the silent (or not-so-silent) sufferer of these two fools. Fortunately the whole program doesn't just revolve around these two (or you'd die of exasperation) and some of the comedy that suddenly evolves out of the typical Gervais-esque 'awkward moments' can be side-splitting. This is a very entertaining show that is easy to watch. The fact that it includes famous guest stars is interesting though by no means the only highlight - performances that I found especially funny would have been Kate Winslett and David Bowie. I will say that the program leaves you feeling that everyone is cheap, shallow, two-faced, petty, corrupt, jaded and stupid. But it's a laugh, if not a commentary on how shallow (British?) society can be. Can't wait to see what Gervaise does next.

The series is not one long laugh, there are some semi-serious stretches, some bordering on cringiness. However, overall the production is very funny, whether you like Ricky Gervaise or not. In the best of the British tradition he pushes the envelope and strays to gray areas beyond political correctness. The stars that contributed, including Sir Ian McKellen, Robert DeNiro and many more, are generally outstanding in their ability not to take themselves seriously. The downside is that I can no longer think of Sir Ian in terms of any of his illustrious roles but first and foremost for his role in the Extras. I laugh every time I think about his performance.The writers are quite clever in a sort of East European way in a way they slip in some unpopular opinions by having them delivered by the "wrong' characters.This is the second time I watched the series and no doubt will watch it again. Highly recommended!

As a big fan of The Office (BBC), I watched this show and was not disappointed at all. Ricky Gervais cements himself as one of the great comedians of this era with this fantastic show. The guest stars play twisted versions of themselves, and it is often surprising and somewhat disturbing in the absolute best possible way. The episodes with Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, and David Bowie stand out as favorites for me. The series finale is a good wrap-up, it is just sad to see such great shows stop after only 12 episodes and a special (just like the BBC Office), but everything good has to end, and it's better than going on for way too long (like Seinfeld did for the last season, and How I Met Your Mother is doing right now).

Ricky Gervais, Steven Merchant and Maggie are a hilarious comedy trio in this show! Based on some extras for tv, these shows are chalked full of celebrities. From Daniel Radcliffe, Liam Neeson, Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Warwick Davis etc, this show will have you in stitches! Highly recommend!

Went into future shop, checked out their rubbish supply of tv shows and of course didn't find this gem.The gentleman working there was able to pull it up on their computers and said they could order it in for me but the price seemed a bit high so I told him I'd think about it.Get home, open up amazon.ca and find it for almost 10 dollars less. Fantastic.

Probably my favourite of Ricky Gervais' genius, with After Life a close second.