Extras was great, wasn't it? I kept my expectations low - I mean, how on earth do you follow a phenomenon like The Office? - and I hadn't seen one single trailer (the hype machine seemed to be pretty low-key, which felt slightly ominous). One thing was certain though: the weight of expectation on Ricky Gervais' new series was massive.
I'm happy to report that he's done himself proud.
It was classic Gervais, really; plenty of awkward and embarrassing situations which provide a mixture of belly laughs and the kind of horror that only a really bad social faux pas can provide.
The similarities to David Brent are superficial: Millman is still selfish and utterly tactless but this time he doesn't have any power. As a result he's not so overbearing but one theme remains constant: he's a man completely out of his depth.
Ben Stiller was simply brilliant as "himself" - a savage caricature (I hope!) who was obsessed with his own box office receipts (I loved the way he knew the exact running time of the multi-layered Dodgeball) and I hope all the celebs drafted in to play themselves in future episodes play the game with the same spirit. The Starsky and Hutch exchange was priceless and I'm amazed they got away with it.
I really enjoyed it, it could so easily have crumbled under the pressure but instead it worked really well.
Posted by: Paul Hayes | Tuesday, July 26, 2005 at 02:16 PM
Agreed. I look forward to the next episode!
Posted by: Darth Marsden | Thursday, July 28, 2005 at 10:58 PM