I saw this show, starring Ricky Gervais, for the first time on a flight from LA to London. I thought it was hilarious and I think its awesome that BBC America is now showing it. So far they have only shown episodes 1 and 2 (episode 3 is tonight).
UK dopers, the show seems to be quite a phenomenon in the UK (based on the websites that turned up in a Google search). There are just 12 episodes, right (6 first season, 6 second season). I hope it catches on here in the US.
US dopers, has anybody else watched the show?
UK dopers, why do you get all the great comedies? Ok, we have Curb Your Enthusiasm, and the Simpsons, and Southpark, but why can’t we ever have any great shows like the Office? (and let’s not forget the brilliant “Coupling”).
It’s won plenty of awards over here, but plenty of reviewers rave about Frasier and Friends too, so what can you do? There’s been talk of a third series but Gervais (who co-writes it) says he doesn’t want to water down its impact. There might be a short series of, say, three or four episodes to tidy up the ends, such as what happens to Dawn and Tim and what Brent did next. I’ve heard there was supposed to be a US version of Coupling in the pipeline.
I’ve liked it since my sister brought back the 1st season on DVD from the UK. It is on UKTV (pay tv) at the moment, and the final episode of season 2 is on Monday night. I think that it will screen on the ABC later this year.
It is so cringeworhty. I think David Brent is the best pommy tv character since Basil Fawlty. I had heard that there were plans to make a movie rather than a third series, but that could be a disappointment. Fawlty Towers only had a couple of seasons, and I wouldn’t like this to get stale.
My wife and I watched it last night. It took a few minutes to get into the rhythm of the show; the low-key delivery, the direct-address confessional segments, and the lack of a laugh track give it a very unconventional feel.
But once we started to get what the show was about, it was hilarious, in a painful and embarrassing sort of way. The ending was especially cringeworthy: The “throw the shoe over the roof to win the trivia contest” thing was a perfectly caustic exposure of pointless alpha-male competitiveness.
It’s very good, but it’s almost too true to be enjoyable.
