Basement X

Great comedy show, premiered in the UK back in 05 or so. I had been meaning to catch it for a long time and I finally did. Ricky Gervais plays Andy Millman, an actor who is an extra in films and is trying to get larger roles in films. His friend, Maggie Jacobs is likewise an extra in films and both of them are so socially awkward its hilarious.

Each episode centers around a real life actor or actress who plays a very eccentric version of themselves and in every episode, Andy Millman has a moment where he says something awkward and embarrassing and rather than just stop speaking, he keeps on going; sometimes he realizes what he says and tries to correct it only to make it worse and sometimes he is just plain oblivious to what he says until its too late and he quietly excuses himself.

The first episode was with Kate Winslet. Winslet played herself in the episode as a cynical opportunist who was only making a holocaust movie to win an Academy Award. She was also giving Maggie Jacobs, Andy's friend, advice on how to have phone sex. Seeing Kate Winslet feigning male masturbation and grabbing her boobs while making all sorts of funny faces almost made me bust a gut.

Later on in the episode, Andy was asked to come to a get together. Not knowing what type of get together it was, he donned a white disco suit with a black shirt, only to realize it was a Bible reading among a group of Catholics, and of course, wound up offending the priest by bringing up the sex scandal, pedophilia, faking his confirmation, lying about being a catholic, and laughing at their ideals - specifically being against pre-marital sex - which in turn offended the woman who invited him to the reading.

I highly recommend this show.

Have you seen series 2 as well?

My favourite episodes featured Patrick Stewart and Ian Mckellan.

The agent character is hilariously stupid.

Yes his agent is an utterly useless tool isn’t he? The way he fiddles with his Bluetooth and the loud and annoying way he bangs the left mouse button when operating it?

While Andy Millman does have a few David Brent moments here and there, it’s important to note that he’s not channeling the David Brent character for his new series. Brent was a clingy and attention starved buffoon who wanted everyone to like/worship him and would never admit to any insecurities or faults. Millman is a struggling actor who is trying his hardest to break into film/tv and makes no bones about how difficult it has been and how it has been wearing him down on and off. He also has no problem openly joking about his professional problems with his friend Maggie; something Brent would never do.

Brent was the master of exaggerating everything to make himself top dog. Millman has told white lies here and there concerning his work, but they were to save some face and to use as a stepping stone to try and get better work and get ahead –which is something the vast majority of working people do.

How did you find the episodes which centred around UK familiar actors?

Like say the Ross Kemp episode and references to Barry from Eastenders.

I didn't get most of that. Clearly there was an inside joke about the Kemp brothers but not knowing who they were, it went right over my head. I'm somewhat familiar with Vinnie Jones, so I enjoyed his bit.

Mr Wallstreet wrote:I didn't get most of that. Clearly there was an inside joke about the Kemp brothers but not knowing who they were, it went right over my head. I'm somewhat familiar with Vinnie Jones, so I enjoyed his bit.

I thought that one wouldn't translate across the Atlantic too well.

I don't know if you managed to read the previous thread on Extras, but I mentioned that for the christmas special, the subject of the doll joke was different depending on if you saw the US or UK version. Guess they filmed it twice.

My fav cameos had to be, Patrick Stewart, Ian Mckellan and surprisingly Chris Martin!

I wikipediad the Patrick Stewart episode and it sounds hilarious. I should be getting in some more Extras discs this week so I'll let you know.

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are comedic geniuses. I've YouTubed pretty much all of Gervais comedy specials. I'm renting Ghost World (I think thats what its called) for the sole purpose of Ricky Gervais.

How could you not love this guy?

I just got done with season 1 and am halfway through season 2. It’s a great show but it does have a few problems that leave a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

But first: the Patrick Stewart episode was indeed funny. Stewart is a pervert with classical training. He goes through this long speech about art, writing and opportunities which end in him telling the story about his script – which is him seeing nude women. For me, the funniest bit in the Stewart episode was when Andy gives him his script and Stewart asks him: Is there any nudity in it? And Andy responds “no…” and Stewart looks pretty disappointed but then Andy says “well maybe there could be” and Stewart looks up with a hopeful expression on his face raises an eyebrow.

My new favorite episode is the one with Orlando Bloom. His seething jealousy of Johnny Depp and his insecurities about his looks were hilarious. “Willy Wonka?, huh, more like Johnny Wanker” “look, just topped the 5 most handsome stars list…Again. And look, Johnny Depp came in at #4”. “oooo I do Art-house movies, look I’ve got scissors for hands”. Bloom also doesn’t take rejection very well. Seeing him beg Maggie for a kiss in front of that annoying woman who had been harassing her all day was satisfying. She looked completely dumbfounded, like she was on another planet or something and Orlando's expression after finding out he didn’t “do it” for Maggie was priceless.

As funny as the show is, it has a few glaring problems; some of which may not be seen as problems at all - but may be attributed to what makes the show so great. The first one is Maggie. I think she’s a great character; she’s sweet, kind-hearted, funny, tries to help out but she’s utterly hapless. It's like she has almost no common sense at all. Midway through season 1, it becomes painfully obvious that Andy should never tell her anything remotely important because she will, in all likelihood, tell it to the exact person who isn’t meant to hear it. I understand that this drives the humor in many, if not all, the episodes but by the 4th episode every time Andy had a conversation with her I’d start muttering “Don’t talk about other people, don’t talk about other people”; she’s going to tell them later and sure enough she did. It becomes formula and extremely predictable.

The other problem is the way Andy constantly gets shitted on. I’m not saying the comedy shouldn’t have laughs at Andy’s expense but they soon stop becoming hilarious jokes and more mean jabs that don’t endear the protagonist to you anymore, you just end up feeling lots of pity for him and want to stop watching. I understand the running gag was that Andy was an extra throughout the first season, always getting foiled in the last 3 minutes of the episode from getting a line, but like Maggie’s scenes – its formula which wasn’t all bad but it became predictable which made it less funny each time.

Andy’s agent, Darren, is someone who I originally disliked but gradually came to find funny. At first I thought he was a male version of Maggie: hapless, witless, clueless, intentionally and unintentionally sabotaging Andy. When it came to Andy’s career, it seems as though Darren couldn’t care less; it looked as though instead of doing the bare minimum for Andy’s career, he did absolutely nothing. I was really astounded why Andy kept him around at all. During the second season Darren really started to have an interesting dimension to his character. As apathetic as he seemed towards Andy’s career, he cared infinitely more for “Barry from East Enders”. He’d go out of his way to find him work (always at Andy’s expense), to find women for him; get him food, a place to shower, live etc… Darren’s relationship with Barry is an interesting contrast to his relationship with Andy. I had to wikipedia Barry from East Enders to get the gist of his character.

Lastly, Greg is a complete tool. I really hate that smug bastard.

According to the actor who plays Greg, Gervais casted him because he needed, "a guy who had a smug looking twat with a punchable face".

I think my favourite bit in the Patrick Stewart episode is, "it's too late. I've already seen it. I've seen everything!"

So you've seen the episode where the BBC exec sets Andy up with a co-writer and the catchphrase is born. That episode is one of the worst moments where Maggie opens her mouth. It's also, perhaps, one of the only times where her opening her mouth could have been seen as malicious and intentional. Must other times it's just her being stupid.

Stocky Boy wrote:
I think my favourite bit in the Patrick Stewart episode is, "it's too late. I've already seen it. I've seen everything!"

Agreed. Additionally, I found it amusing the way he says "And then I rode away. On the grass". As though that cements his action

So you've seen the episode where the BBC exec sets Andy up with a co-writer and the catchphrase is born. That episode is one of the worst moments where Maggie opens her mouth. It's also, perhaps, one of the only times where her opening her mouth could have been seen as malicious and intentional. Must other times it's just her being stupid.

Yes, the gay fellow who is so gay, he's camp. Thoughh I felt that Maggie letting Andy's co-writer know what he really felt about him wasn't malicious. It was Maggie just trying to help and screwing the pooch royally while doing it. Maggie, it appears messes things up on a regular basis but this was indeed one of her worst blunders to date.

And speaking of date, I love the running theme of Maggie trying to land a suitable mate in every episode.

Oh have you got to the Ian Mckellan episode yet? Mckellan does this fantastically patronising scene with the Millman character and the gay theatre director from the first series makes a perfectly timed appearance in that episode!

The theare director was fucking awesome! Not because he hammed it up by playing a closeted, yet flamboyantly gay character, but because he was so inapprioriate and overbearing with his daughter.

I also loved Maggie's interaction with her when the daughter invited Maggie to her birthday party. That whole scene reeked of awkward and desperation: Please come *Owl eyes*

I haven't gotten to the Ian Mckellen episode just yet but I expect to be finished with the series by the weekend.