Pounding_Grooves
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- Oct 4, 2001
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ricky gervais -extras
starts tonight 9pm bbc2
looks promising.
LONDON (Hollywood Reporter) - Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the creative talent behind cult comedy hit "The Office," have come up with another winner in their brilliant new six-part series "Extras."
Incisive, fearless and laugh-out-loud funny, "Extras" will appeal to anyone who liked "The Larry Sanders Show" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Fans of "The Office" will surely embrace Gervais' new character, Andy Millman, who is far from being David Brent but is just as needy and driven in his own way and given to hilariously wince-making utterances.
Millman is a would-be actor who would rather take the humiliation and low pay of being an extra than work in an office. His goal in life is to get a line of dialogue in a production, and much of each episode is taken up with his ineffectual attempts to do so.
His agent (Merchant), who works part time at the Carphone Warehouse mobile outlet, hasn't gotten him a speaking part in the five years he has represented him. His resume reads like a begging letter, and his agent even puts to him the question, "Are you sure you want to be an actor?"
But Millman persists in his ambitions invariably with his friend Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen), also along as an extra though her main objective is to land a husband. She is, as Millman observes, deeply shallow and just as likely as he is to come out with inappropriate statements. When she asks a man she fancies what he is having for lunch and he describes a healthy salad, her response is, "No bowel cancer for you, then."
Each episode begins with a scene from the film Millman is working on and follows him as he breaks out of the frame and goes in pursuit of that elusive line. The comedy is devastating in its insider's grasp of the egos and power structure of filmmaking. Millman is a master at sidling up to a producer speaking rubbish to acolytes, but he invariably picks the wrong person to entreat.
All of the shows are built around a star guest who is involved in the film the extras are working on. In the first episode, comedy actor and director Ben Stiller plays a comedy actor and director named Ben Stiller who shamelessly quotes the box office returns of his movies and names the women he has kissed (onscreen). It's one of Stiller's funniest creations, and later in the series he's matched by Kate Winslet, who plays an actress named Kate Winslet who is an expert at phone sex and thinks films about the Holocaust and the handicapped are the sure way to an Oscar.
Gervais and Jensen are immediately ingratiating in their roles, as are Merchant and Shaun Pye, who shows up as an extra who can afford to indulge himself. Masterfully written and deeply layered, "Extras" has enough one-liners to create an instant cult, and these shows will be mined for all the wonderful gems they contain.
Cast: Andy Millman: Ricky Gervais; Maggie Jacobs: Ashley Jensen; Greg: Shaun Pye; Agent: Stephen Merchant. Guest stars: Ben Stiller, Ross Kemp, Kate Winslet, Les Dennis, Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Stewart.
Writer-directors: Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant; Producer: Charles Hanson; Executive producer: Jon Plowman; Director of photography: Martin Hawkins; Production designer: Anna Higginson; Editor: Nigel Williams; Music: Glyn Hughes.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsA...836_RTRIDST_0_REVIEW-TELEVISION-EXTRAS-DC.XML
starts tonight 9pm bbc2
looks promising.
LONDON (Hollywood Reporter) - Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the creative talent behind cult comedy hit "The Office," have come up with another winner in their brilliant new six-part series "Extras."
Incisive, fearless and laugh-out-loud funny, "Extras" will appeal to anyone who liked "The Larry Sanders Show" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Fans of "The Office" will surely embrace Gervais' new character, Andy Millman, who is far from being David Brent but is just as needy and driven in his own way and given to hilariously wince-making utterances.
Millman is a would-be actor who would rather take the humiliation and low pay of being an extra than work in an office. His goal in life is to get a line of dialogue in a production, and much of each episode is taken up with his ineffectual attempts to do so.
His agent (Merchant), who works part time at the Carphone Warehouse mobile outlet, hasn't gotten him a speaking part in the five years he has represented him. His resume reads like a begging letter, and his agent even puts to him the question, "Are you sure you want to be an actor?"
But Millman persists in his ambitions invariably with his friend Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen), also along as an extra though her main objective is to land a husband. She is, as Millman observes, deeply shallow and just as likely as he is to come out with inappropriate statements. When she asks a man she fancies what he is having for lunch and he describes a healthy salad, her response is, "No bowel cancer for you, then."
Each episode begins with a scene from the film Millman is working on and follows him as he breaks out of the frame and goes in pursuit of that elusive line. The comedy is devastating in its insider's grasp of the egos and power structure of filmmaking. Millman is a master at sidling up to a producer speaking rubbish to acolytes, but he invariably picks the wrong person to entreat.
All of the shows are built around a star guest who is involved in the film the extras are working on. In the first episode, comedy actor and director Ben Stiller plays a comedy actor and director named Ben Stiller who shamelessly quotes the box office returns of his movies and names the women he has kissed (onscreen). It's one of Stiller's funniest creations, and later in the series he's matched by Kate Winslet, who plays an actress named Kate Winslet who is an expert at phone sex and thinks films about the Holocaust and the handicapped are the sure way to an Oscar.
Gervais and Jensen are immediately ingratiating in their roles, as are Merchant and Shaun Pye, who shows up as an extra who can afford to indulge himself. Masterfully written and deeply layered, "Extras" has enough one-liners to create an instant cult, and these shows will be mined for all the wonderful gems they contain.
Cast: Andy Millman: Ricky Gervais; Maggie Jacobs: Ashley Jensen; Greg: Shaun Pye; Agent: Stephen Merchant. Guest stars: Ben Stiller, Ross Kemp, Kate Winslet, Les Dennis, Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Stewart.
Writer-directors: Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant; Producer: Charles Hanson; Executive producer: Jon Plowman; Director of photography: Martin Hawkins; Production designer: Anna Higginson; Editor: Nigel Williams; Music: Glyn Hughes.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsA...836_RTRIDST_0_REVIEW-TELEVISION-EXTRAS-DC.XML
