I think it’s going to show up in the US before too long… if you’re watching it, what’s your opinion? How successful has it been over there?
This is Ricky Gervais’s (of “The Office”) new show, for those unaware.
The first one - with Ben Stiller - was a bit of a duffer in my view and I was quite prepared not to like the rest of them (I am one of the 8 people in the UK who didn’t like The Office and usually find Gervais about as funny as a hernia).
But the 2nd one, featuring a bloke of whom you’ll not have heard (Ross Kemp) and another you may (Vinnie Jones), was much better. In fact, it felt like it ought to have been shown first as it did much more to establish the main characters (Gervais, his friend Maggie and his agent).
Eps 3 and 4 have Kate Winslett and the wonderful Les Dennis, sending themselves up something rotten. Les Dennis, someone else who may not have penetrated the airwaves anywhere west of Inishmore, is particularly wonderful and Gervais’s turn as a camp pantomime genie in Aladdin is a treat.
On Ricky Gervais’s own website you can get sneak previews.
I’ve been watching them illicitly over here on this side of the pond, and I quite like the show. Ricky G. is basically playing the same character he did in The Office - just possibly a bit less unlikeable - but I like the new setting.
The episode with Kate Winslet nearly killed me. She was in a movie playing a nun in WWII, because, as she puts is, a Holocaust movie is a guaranteed Oscar. She spends much of the episode giving Ricky’s friend advice on how to give phone sex. A foul-mouthed Kate Winslet making obscene gestures in a nun’s habit? Works for me!
(If you don’t mind an opinion from an American)
I’ve seen the first four episodes, I liked it once I got into Rickey’s character. He’s not the weird one which everyone else reacts to, like in The Office. He’s actually a (somewhat) reasonable guy in a sea of maniacs.
I thought the Ben Stiller bit was a bit overdone, funny nonetheless. Kate Winslet’s stuff was perfect; the "Oscar " commentary was good, but the phone sex stuff was great. I mean, Kate talking dirty can’t be anything but a winner, still I thought her performance in the show overall was killer.
I didn’t recognize most of the other celebs in the series, so I’m sure I’m missing things here and there.