It stars Ricky Gervais as a mentally challenged nursing home employee, his two co-workers (Hannah and Dougie), and his obnoxious friend (Kev). A big part of the show is their interaction with the elderly residents.
It’s pretty well-done in my opinion. You can go from laughing one minute to choking up a bit the next. And it takes a look inside a world rarely seen on the screen: nursing homes, both at their employees (overworked, underpaid, patience of Job, hearts of gold) and their residents (living out their final years, months and days while dealing with loneliness, death and a-hole relatives).
My wife hates Ricky Gervais, didn’t like ‘The Office’ (British or US), but I talked her into watching the first episode of 'Derek," and she says she loves it.
My only real beefs with it are that the accents make it a bit hard to understand (for me) at times, and it’s often unnecessarily crude because of Kev, a character that really adds nothing to the narrative.
It’s a short series, only seven episodes. I haven’t heard anything about a season 2.
I like the show too. I would like to know what Derek’s mental handicap is. They mentioned Autism… but I don’t know anyone like that with Autism. I know people with sever and not so sever Autism, but no one like Derek.
It isn’t actually a netflix original as it was created for Channel 4 over here in the UK last year. As such it has already had an airing on UK terrestrial TV and got a fairly good reception but with some vocal detractors.
I think some people are just hard-wired to dislike anything Ricky Gervais does. A shame because I think “Derek” is sweet and funny and based on the premise that being kind is important and worthy.
It also has a scene with swear words painted on crabs which made me laugh more than anything else in the last 12 months.
I really loved the show. Ricky Gervais is my celebrity crush and I think he does a wonderful job with the character. I’ve watched four so far. It can be so touching and emotional though. And yes, I really think it would have been better without Kev, or with a toned down Kev at least.
I know he’s said it’s not autism, but it seems a lot like autism, or at least a lot like my daughter. Of course he’s a grown man but he seems about on her level. Very sensitive, asking questions over and over and over, and painfully honest.
Eh, SyFy claims that Lost Girl is a SyFy original, but that’s not true either, it was a show on a Canadian channel called Showcase for at least the first year before SyFy bought rights to air it. (they might pay for some of the production costs now)
I was reminded how desperate the relevant BBC dept was for him to do another series of The Office, but then didn’t want this … too ‘different’ perhaps …
The first episode’s not much to go on. I saw it and was unsure, but I gave it another chance, and if I have Netflix when the next seasons out, I’ll watch it.
There is a Season 2 in the works, it was greenlit before the end of the first season (in the UK), and Kev made great comic relief in his own obnoxious way but even he has you choking up by the final episode.
It really is not normal Gervais stuff, but I really loved it between being able to go so easily between comedy and tears. Hell, even Pilkington did a fantastic job, I would never have expected that.
Agreed, I pretty much never choke up when watching films or TV but this programme has done it to me twice so far.
As for Karl (Dougie), his berating of the inspectors and the money-grabbing daughter were magnificent. Curmudgeonly weirdo he may be but he, and pretty much all of the main characters, are decent and moral and stick up for the weak.
Karl’s great. He pretty much plays himself, but it works well for his character. He really surprises you when he chews out those inspectors and the daughter that was looking to get her ring back. I think you’re right about that.
It was hard for me to follow the dialogue too randwill. It IS captioned on Netflix.