Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant: are they finished? Do you rate them?

IvaBigWun

Gervais is doing Derek whilst Merchant has his new Hello Ladies. The last TV they wrote together was the underwhelming Life's Too Short and it'd be great if they could give us another Office or Extras.

Do you rate them? I think they gave us an all time great in The Office and an excellent follow up. Have they fallen out or are they just on a little break?

LandonRicketts

Gervais i think can only do one character hence he's going back to the well with the David Brent character again. Hated Life's Too Short and Derek is so-so. Un followed him from twitter because he kept banging the atheist drum with every second tweet.

I actually think that Merchant is the better comedic writer out of the pair. Watched the first episode of his new show "Hello Ladies" with not much fate going in and actually found it quite funny.

And for the record The Office and Extras are up there with my favourite tv shows off all time along with Curb Your Enthusiasm

RayM

I watched every episode of The Office again recently. First time I'd seen it in years. Forgot how good it was. I thought it was a shame that they wrapped it all up so neatly in the end though. I hate when sitcoms do that. It would be great if they could bring it back for a one-off episode, ten years on, with nothing having changed at Wernham Hogg. Ah, well...

I love Extras. After the success of The Office, it always seemed a bit unfairly underrated. It's always worth re-watching though - full of funny little details. Stephen Merchant's character was probably the best thing about it, but some of the celebrity guest appearances were brilliant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF2yT31FXTw

"Just a bit of whizz, you know... to blow away the cobwebs"

Dman001

LandonRicketts wrote: »

Gervais i think can only do one character hence he's going back to the well with the David Brent character again. Hated Life's Too Short and Derek is so-so. Un followed him from twitter because he kept banging the atheist drum with every second tweet.

This. Goes on and on about how he is an Atheist and how stupid everyone is for believing in God, etc - Irony of it all is he often mocks people for talking about God and their religion, yet he bangs on about it more than anyone. He seriously needs to get over it!

Not a fan of him brining back Brent. Loved the character in The Office , and enjoyed the Red Nose Day gag he did a few months back. But it only worked for me because (I thought) it was a once off thing. Dragging it out to a full tour and everything, thought Gervais was always against that sort of thing.

Merchants character in Extras was hilarious, loved him and Gervais together. It was fantastic stuff. The trailer for Hello Ladies looked to be in the same vein, so very hopeful for it. All in all, I don't think its a bad thing they are doing their own thing for a bit. Hopefully a bigger audience will see Merchant and what is has to offer, as he went a bit under the radar in his previous stuff.

BrianJD

I think Derek is one of the most beautifully written piece of telly in years. Such amazing characters.

IvaBigWun

BrianJD wrote: »

I think Derek is one of the most beautifully written piece of telly in years. Such amazing characters.

Ive heard mixed reports about it.

Hopefully they have an idea in mind to write together to properly follow up Extras

Basq

I absolutely loved 'Derek'.. not for everyone, but the closing scenes of season 1 are just superb!

I've watched two episodes of 'Hello Ladies' and am not convinced however!

Tipsy McSwagger

Dman001 wrote: »

This. Goes on and on about how he is an Atheist and how stupid everyone is for believing in God, etc - Irony of it all is he often mocks people for talking about God and their religion, yet he bangs on about it more than anyone. He seriously needs to get over it!

Not a fan of him brining back Brent. Loved the character in The Office , and enjoyed the Red Nose Day gag he did a few months back. But it only worked for me because (I thought) it was a once off thing. Dragging it out to a full tour and everything, thought Gervais was always against that sort of thing.

Merchants character in Extras was hilarious, loved him and Gervais together. It was fantastic stuff. The trailer for Hello Ladies looked to be in the same vein, so very hopeful for it. All in all, I don't think its a bad thing they are doing their own thing for a bit. Hopefully a bigger audience will see Merchant and what is has to offer, as he went a bit under the radar in his previous stuff.

If you actually read his tweets he is replying to religious people and having great fun in doing so. I stopped following him after he was going on about Derek all the time but miss his replies to the god fearing christians.

expectationlost

ep 3 of hello ladies is good

Patty O Furniture

expectationlost wrote: »

ep 3 of hello ladies is good

Saw the ads for it, looks good 1st ep this Wed@9pm Sky Atlantic.

Havent heard of Ricky in a while, but i think he's got too much of a big ego goin, similar to what James Corden was doin a while back til he copped himself on, as he said it himself. IMO

Boom_Bap

I've loved The Office, Extras and Lifes Too Short.....in fact, some of Life's Too Short nearly caused splitting to my sides.

Must check out Derek and Hello Ladies.

Dman001

Just watched the first episode of Hello Ladies, and thought it was bril. Very, very funny, but I'm a bit of a sucker for cringy, awkward comedy. Very similar character as Darren Lamb, as David Brent was to Andy Millman.