Review: Extras 101 – 104
Climbing out of the pool of awards won for the 2 seasons (and one special) of The Office (both in the States and back home in Britain), Ricky Gervais and Stephan Merchant cook up a new comedy. Airing free on the BBC2 (the States will get it later this year, on the payed cable channel HBO), only 6 episode are produced again. Luckily, they all are quite funny. The premise (Ricky plays an extra, with every episode featuring another gig) is a rich environment, and the line up of guest stars is fabulous. Luckily, stories are not dependent on the guest spots (for instance, Ben Stiller, Kate Winslet, Samuel L. Jackson and Patrick Stewart, all of them willing to play either an outrageous role, or an exaggerated charicature of themselves), and there’s still time to delve into the lives of the two principle characters (Ricky Gervais as Andy Millman and Ashley Jensen as Maggie Jacobs). It’s a shame 4 episodes have already aired, and the only thing to do is hope for more seasons to come.