Quote: Matthew Stott @ November 11 2011, 11:34 AM GMT

My main point of concern at the moment is that I don't think Gervais and Merchant should be in it; at least not as themselves. Even though I enjoyed those scenes, the Neeson one was very funny indeed, I personally would have just constructed a world entirely of Warwick's own, rather than crow-bar the pair in, there's no real reason or need for them to be there, it seems to me at the moment. At least not every episode, maybe they could have popped up once as people he's worked with.

View original

Absolutely.

Just viewed it again as I didn't see the first ten minutes or so the other night and yes, The Office has just been reworked with a short David Brent. I don't think this does The Office any favours, because it was a ground breaking sitcom at the time, and certainly very funny. Watching this thing makes me much less likely to want to watch The Office again, because it is so staggeringly similar, so far.

Also it won't help G&M's reputation either, I shouldn't think. Bands who keep making the same album quickly lose kudos. They have a strong style that's influenced many, but that doesn't mean they should just rely on it and turn out the same sort of sitcom again and again. It becomes tedious, and possibly even embarrassing, if the next few episodes are as phoned in as that first one.

I anticipate a savaging in the press for this and a trip to The Priory for Gervais to recover from it. Which he'll probably make an Office type sitcom about.

Quote: random @ November 12 2011, 12:00 AM GMT

Come on Mr Nil Putters

What did you think???

View original

Eh?! What? Umm. Like most people, I thought it was a little disappointing and that Warwick had a 'Brent feel'. I hoping there we be more laughs in the coming episodes as I found this one a little light. The funniest bit, for me, was Liam Neeson's scene. But Warwick getting stuck in the cat flap at the end did make me laugh quite a bit.

It does feel like well trodden comedy ground now, which is a shame, but I'll continue to watch.

When I was watching it I sorta felt the whole time I would rather see Gervais playing this character and him not be a dwarf, than watch Davies do a Gervais not as well.
However, the accountant was funny and Liam Neeson was brilliant but would have liked to see Merchant say more as he makes me laugh with pretty much everythng he says.
And though Gervais has been saying that this has much less drama than the previous efforts, I hope it does begin an emotional thread as that was what I felt made Extras and The Office so great.

I got to the part when Liam Neeson came into the office and my internet bandwidth ran out so it seems I missed the best bit.
I can't say I liked it much, or maybe it was I didn't like the way Warwick Davis came across. I would have preferred to see Ricky Gervais doing that part, even if it meant comparisons with The Office...after all this is happening anyway. Always happy to see Stephen Merchant (he's my favourite one ) but I was fairly bored through this.

Quote: Steve Sunshine @ November 11 2011, 11:44 PM GMT

But Warwick Davies is not being David Brent is he?
He's just doing the material in a Gervais/Merchant style.
I think we all noticed the similarities, but I think a lot of it was due to the way the lines were written, and how they were meant to be performed.
If Gervais & Merchant weren't involved would people have made the same comparisons?
Possibly, probably but I'm not 100% convinced.

When they did the pilot of PhoneShop, & we were aware that Ricky Gervais had been the script editor I did find myself looking for DavidBrenterisms & found them.
If you told me that Stephen Mangan's next thing, whatever it is, was written by Gervais, I'd probably find similarities real or imagined.

I think we're all a bit obsessed with Ricky Gervais if the truth be told.

View original

Yes, similarities are pretty inevitable, aren't they? Same writers and directors producing a show that's stylistically near identical. It may be a disappointment that they can't write some varied characters, but we shouldn't be surprised that there are such perceived similarities, and certainly shouldn't blame it on Davis as some appear to have been doing - as the directors, if it wasn't what they wanted, G&M wouldn't have allowed it to happen.

I'm a big fan of Gervais and Merchant but the first episode seemed tired, predictable and not particularly funny. The celebrity cameos don't bother me and I think that Davis does a good job, but the numerous looks to camera, stereotypical ditsy PA and Gervais taking himself too seriously did grate.

In all recent interviews Gervais just theorises about the nature of comedy rather than actually being funny. He shoots off the same old quotes from Bob Dylan and Winston Churchill and severely overuses the word 'anodyne'.

Note that Stephen Merchant hardly smiled during The Making Of Life's Too Short show.

That said, I'm looking forward to Chegwin, Barry and Les Dennis discussing how they would kill themselves. Apparently Les says 'Pills, that's how I'm going to do it'.

I'll keep watching.

I thought Warwick Davis really did himself justice, superb.

However I felt it was slow to begin with until Liam Neeson arrived. Ricky and Steven seem to work best when cornered, when they are moved just out of their comfort zone, but with a hidden confidence to hit back

RG still comes a across as DB's more competant brothermother though, IMHO.

There was one moment that for some reason really bugged me, which was as Warwick left G&M's office the first time, they looked to each other in this weird way that really broke the realism, as well as in the Johnny Depp clip he says 'Golden Globes' too many times. Other than that I thought the realism side was good and did think Warwick was great, but it seems he shouldn't be doing a Gervais character when Gervais is there and could do it better.

Having sat through the first episode, I'm certain that Gervais and his cast had a truly hilarious time making this. It must have been great fun...

The Office is still a great show.

Arrrrrggghhhh! It's DAVIS, not DAVIES.

I thought the show was okay. Certainly there are similarities to their previous work, but I'll be interested to see how the series progresses before dismissing it as a rehash. Even then, I liked both the original series, so more of the same wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

I'm watching it finally, why did they bother?

I laughed at Ebony and Ivory but I think that's because it was so crass

The Liam Neeson bit is brilliant, but it's sort of like they decided to make a 5 minute episode of Extras 3. With a massive unfunny intro about Warwick Davis.

Why?

Having never seen The Office or Extras I am coming to this without the baggage of prior glories.

I found it pleasant enough the funniest stuff being the subtle stuff, Warwick falling out the Range Rover and the fact that G+M were both sat behind a giant glass desk together (Don't know why that was funny but it was)

Have to say I preferred Rev!

Quote: bigfella @ November 13 2011, 5:47 PM GMT

Having never seen The Office

View original

Pardon me?