Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #905 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-03-26
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 350 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Both series of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s triumphant Extras are united in this box, and with nothing more than a Yuletide special planned beyond these episodes, it’s a great chance to catch up with this star-packed, offbeat programme.

Unlike their previous The Office, Gervais and Merchant have delivered a less accessible but no less rewarding programme with Extras. It starts with Andy Millman, a ‘background artist’, sitting in the shadows of a variety of different shows, before, in the second series, he gets his own spot in the limelight.

What’s helped characterise the series, of course, has been the continued presence of star names in cameo roles. These range from Hollywood bigshots--Samuel L Jackson, Kate Winslet and Harry Pott.., sorry, Daniel Radcliffe--and continue through to familiar faces from British TV--step forward Les Dennis, Ross Kemp and Barry from EastEnders. Most of the plaudits, though, rightly go in the direction of the splendid Ashley Jensen, who emerges as the most likeable and rounded of all the show’s characters.

There’s little danger, it seems, that Extras will dethrone The Office from the top of its creators’ CVs, but thanks to its strong writing, its measured mix between melancholy and amusement, and some superb performances, it more than carves a very strong niche for itself. --Jon Foster

Synopsis
Contains series one and two of the comedy show Extras. In series one, Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) is an actor but his agent cannot get him an acting job. Instead he is just an extra in films, a different film a different location, ever hopeful that one day he will actually get some lines. Ricky Gervais’ follow up series to the enormously successful The Office sees Gervais repeating the acute observations on real life used in The Office, this time in the world of films. Guest stars on Extras include both Hollywood actors (Ben Stiller, Kate Winslett, Samuel.L Jackson, Patrick Stewart) and actors familiar to British television viewers (Ross Kemp and Les Dennis). All the actors are more than happy to send themselves up, whether it be Patrick Stewart and his sex obsession or Kate Winslett only deciding to do a Holocaust film because she thinks she’ll win an Oscar for it. Series two of Extras finds extra Andy Millman commissioned by the BBC to create and star in the sitcom ‘When The Whistle Blows’. However, Andy’s initial happiness with his achievement is soon quelled when he finds he has to make a lowest common denominator show in order to appeal to the broadest possible audience. Andy’s sitcom has been transformed from a show that was in many ways like Gervais’ groundbreaking previous show The Office into a catchphrase-driven show that’s filmed in front of a studio audience. Additionally, he has been told that he has to wear large glasses and a curly perm wig. The second series of Extras sees Millman attempting to adjust to fame and life in the public eye and the compromises that come with. Guest stars include Robert De Niro, Orlando Bloom, David Bowie, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Jonathan Ross, Sir Ian McKellen, and Daniel Radcliffe.

Customer Reviews

Extras! Extras
A few years back, Ricky Gervais created "The Office," a Dilberty satire on office work. Now, he's created "Extras," a wickedly funny satire on showbiz and acting, both seasons of which are contained here. And the fact that prominent actors appear in it -- as warped versions of themselves -- is just the icing on the comedy cake.

Andy Millman (Gervais) and Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jenson) are film extras -- Andy is embittered by his lack of success and his inept agent (Stephen Merchant, Gervais' work partner), while well-meaning Maggie merely pursues a series of crew members on the films they work in.

The first episode features the two working in a biopic directed by a brusque Ben Stiller ("Would you stop going on about your f**king dead wife?"), and Andy gets himself kicked off the set. Their blunders continue with other stars: Kate Winslet in a nun costume, who teaches Maggie how to talk dirty to her new boyfriend ("I'd love it if you stuck your Willy Wonka in between my Oompa-Loompas!"); Samuel L. Jackson, and Patrick Stewart, who is writing a movie about psychkinesis and naked women.

And in the second season, Andy gets his Big Break -- BBC2 is producing his sitcom "When the Whistle Blows," but they dumb it down until it's popular but critically lambasted. Meanwhile, he and Maggie tangle with a bunch of new celebs -- the arrogant woman-chasing Daniel Radcliffe and Orlando Bloom, self-promoting Chris Martin, a hostile David Bowie, and Andy even stars in a play of Ian McKellen's about gay love (much to his discomfort).

Part of the genius of "Extras" is that it isn't much like any other showbiz parodies -- the lead characters are on the lowest rung of acting, and the big egos are real stars making fun of themselves. Sometimes they play really nasty versions of themselves, such as Winslet saying that she's only making a Holocaust film so she can FINALLY nab an Oscar.

The other half of the comic genius is Gervais' direction, with most of the jokes based on socially awkward situations. It's all about cringing and giggling at once, such as when Andy's pals see him pantsless in Ian McKellen's dressing room. Those hideously embarrassing situations -- usually with some hilarious dialogue involving the star guests (Bowie's "little fat man/nobody's laughing" song is a gutsplitter) are what it's all about.

Gervais underplays a sort of befuddled, cynical extra, but you can really connect with his struggles, even when he gets his own sitcom. No matter what, Andy can always be depended on to jam foot in mouth, and occasionally to attack Warwick Davis. Jensen is clumsily charming as Maggie, who tries to be nice to everyone but says all the wrong things at the wrong time, when she's not being pursued by Orlando Bloom or offending Samuel Jackson.

The two seasons are "Extras" are uproariously funny, barbed looks at the strange world of showbiz, with the self-parodying actors as the final perfect touch.

In a world of shallow celebrity, this is the antidote
Some find Ricky Gervais's take on being a struggling actor-writer self-indulgent but writers are always at their best when they write about what they know and this is a world Gervais clearly knows intimately.

With themes of ambition, artistic compromise, the erosion of friendship when career gets in the way and selling out, this could be very heavy stuff. Instead it's hilarious. Yes, the comedy is almost always born of gut-wrenching embarrassment, but then so much of the best comedy draws from this source, particularly today.

And the celebrity cameos (is celebrity the right word? Many are big stars) are endlessly rewarding: the randy Daniel Radcliffe (on that adolescent cusp from Harry Potter to Equus on stage?); Moira Stuart selling speed to the likes of Ronnie Corbett at the BAFTAs; Ross Kemp revealed to be a big wuss. You know they are sending themselves up rotten because the script is so good and no one will confuse their performance with how they really are. I can even now forgive Orlando Bloom for being so tedious in all those Pirate films!

Stephen Merchant is right on the button as the hopeless agent, too. His role is expanded in the second series and some of the best scenes are his.

Although the fake sitcom 'When the Whistle Blows' feels a bit seventies, they're still making them like that even now (I checked and I'm still reeling).

This is a wonderful series. Most of us have worked in an office in real life and very few of us have been actors. After seeing this, though, how many of us would want to be? Maybe selling paper in Slough's not so bad after all?

Their difficult 2nd album!
This is the second series from the writing duo of Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais, after their super-successful debut of The Office, and comparisons are immediately going to be made.

The Office relied on awkward, embarrassing humour, and Extras is no different. It's where the writers talents obviously lie, and Gervais is terrific at playing the lead role.

However, before I get into describing the shows many positives, a few negative comments to balance things out.

The show isn't quite as good as it could have been. It is a very funny show, but laughs are sometimes hard to come by. A major reason for this is the portrayal of Gervais' lead character, Andy Millman. In The Office, Gervais' David Brent character was socially awkward, embarrassing, and unjustifiably egotistical but he was blissfully unaware of this, so it was easy and enjoyable to laugh at him. Andy Millman is in awkward and embarrassing situations too. But he's a more humane character, and crucially, he knows how embarrassing he's being, or how embarrassing he's being made to look. It's difficult to laugh at him - it feels a little cruel. It'd be easier to laugh at him if he was unaware of how he was. You end up feeling a little sorry for him, and that's how the biggest recipe for laughs.

Having said all that, there are still plenty of funny moments, and it only manages to drop the show 1 star in my review. Gervais plays the character well, and despite the celebrity stars (who are huge names, the likes of Samuel L Jackson, Kate Winslet, Orlando Bloom, Robert de Niro and Ben Stiller make appearances), the majority of the episodes focus on the developing relationships between Millman and his agent, or Millman and his best friend Maggie.

Maggie, played by the fantastic Ashley Jensen, finds it easier to generate laughs. She is blissfully unaware of how funny she is. The agent Darren Lamb, played by a surprisingly excellent on-camera Stephen Merchant (off-camera, his writing is typically terrific) is also hapless and socially inept and is living in his own little world, and those two characters steal the show from Gervais. They generate all the laughs, and tellingly, one of the funniest brief scenes is the "date" scene, featuring just Maggie and Darren.

In summary, Extras is a worthwhile and worthy follow up to the incomparable Office, in which the celebrities do add a little something to each episode without detracting from it, the juxtaposition of seeing someone like "Harry Potter" Daniel Radcliffe flicking a condom onto Dame Diana Rigg's head is entertaining and unique, and the standout performances from Ashley Jensen and Stephen Merchant make this an excellent series to own on DVD.