Cheap Extras - The Complete First Season (DVD) (Stephen Merchant, Ricky Gervais) Price

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Customer Reviews of Extras - The Complete First Season

Hilarious
For those of you familiar with Ricky Gervais, the man behind the original and best BBC Office, Extras is a real treat. For those of you unfamiliar with Gervais, Extras may take some time getting into, but once you do, you'll find a rewarding and comedic experience. Gervais plays Andy, a bit actor who desperately wants to make the big time. His partner throughout most of his antics is Maggie (Ashley Jenson), whose acting troubles are overshadowed even more by her man troubles. Andy's woes are only exasperated by his useless agent (Stephen Merchant), who seems to be doing Andy's would-be career more harm than good. The real highlight of Extras besides the excellent Gervais is the celebrity guest spots playing themselves on every episode that are brilliantly done. Ben Stiller is a scream, as is Samuel L. Jackson, while Patrick Stewart is laugh out loud hilarious as he tells Andy of his plans of writing a screenplay where he has mental powers and women have no clothing. It's Kate Winslet though that will leave you doubling over in laughter, as she attempts to help Maggie in the "talking dirty" department. Though it's only six episodes long, the first season of Extras is superb hilarity all the way, and this DVD set deserves to be picked up by fans of Gervais old and new.

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A Polished Gervais
I've listened to hours of Gervais and Merchant doing their radio show in Britain. This became the Podcast with Pilkington. This was done contemporaneously with The Office. Unfortunately, I thought the Gervais character in Office was too harsh to be credible. So I was surprised that Gervais in Extras is 'just right'. He's not really a nice guy, but he isn't evil. He's almost heroic, from time to time. For me Extras is just casual enough to really flow. <
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>This is more like an atheistic mirror image of Curb Your Enthusiasm, rather than a rehash of Office. Whereas CYE has a hapless rich Dude at the top of the entertainment industry, Extras has someone who is begging for one line in a motion picture. Really, Extras is about the people at the top, as seen by someone at the bottom. Whereas the Gervais character in Office was the boss, he is now the 'pawn' in Extras, and that is a vastly better place for the situations and the comedy of the (similar) characters. <
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>I would say Gervais has a kind of Ernie Kovacs potential. You have to get around the British aspect of the thing. There's a thing where he told a woman he is Catholic, and he ends up in a confrontation with a Priest. Ricky just keeps his mouth moving, digging a deeper hole. But what makes the character work is that he only feels a certain amount of shame about it, and you feel his dignity is intact. There's something very solid to what Gervais does. It's an exploration of humanity, of weakness. And it's very funny. <
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>Lots of credit to Merchant, the gangly obtuse agent and co-conspirator. I think they are a great team, so hopefully they build on what they've done. <
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>This is Global Comedy at its best!?

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The triumphant return of Gervais and Merchant...
You're most likely reading this if you're a fan of Gervais & Merchant from "The Office," the podcast, or the old XFM shows. Whatever your background of familiarity with these guys, "the difficult second album" as Gervais refers to it is quite a follow-up. <
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>Ricky plays Andy Millman, a deeper character and one tougher to play than the hilariously obnoxious and uncomfortable David Brent. Never an actor before "The Office," Ricky is given more range and more of a challenge and proves he's up to the task. The bonus here is that Stephen Merchant gets a lot more screen time (and even more in season two) as the ridiculous non-agent Darren Lamb. Fans of Merchant from the old radio shows and podcast will certainly enjoy his greater participation. <
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>Rather than blather on about how original, creative, and brilliant this series is (see everyone else's review for that), I'll clue you in on the special features. <
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>OUT-TAKES: Thankfully, Gervais and Merchant have always been generous in their inclusion of their mis-steps and "behind the scenes" views of their work in "The Office," and that trend continues here. Try not to hurt yourself watching all of the takes of Ricky in the "You're aware that I'm gay" confrontation with the BBC producer from the last episode of series one. Or the multiple, failed renditions of "Mustang Sally" featuring "Barry off 'EastEnders'" with Stephen Merchant on backing vocals. It's absolutely hilarious stuff along the lines of Ricky's 70 takes with Martin Freeman trying to get through his staff appraisal in "The Office" (you remember, "the hot seat"). And it all proves once again that Ricky - though challenged by a more difficult acting role - has thankfully not become too serious a thespian that he cannot laugh at himself and continually probe his coworkers into fits of laughter as well. <
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>FINDING LEO: This won't get many repeat viewings, but it's good for its "behind the scenes" look at Ricky and Stephen scrambling to fill a vacancy in the show late into the night by contacting several people in failed attempts to line Leonardo DiCaprio up for a role on the show. <
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>TAPING NIGEL: You've probably seen this before if you've watched the special features on "The Office" DVD's: Ricky enjoys his 5-minute attention span by tying up the show's editor, Nigel, and performing his own "Project Runway" costume experiments on him. It seems when Karl Pilkington is unavailable, Ricky makes Nigel the guinea pig. <
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>THE DIFFICULT SECOND ALBUM: An interesting look at the making of the series, mostly about how impressed Ricky and Stephen were with how well the A-listers they brought in for the series performed. Again, it won't get as many repeat viewings as the outtakes, but good stuff nonetheless.