February 18, 2007: "Poppa Johnnie Loves Wossy"
Extras, Extras, Read All About It!
So, it's official, according to
Ricky Gervais, it is "unlikely" that Season 2 of the fantastic British comedy
Extras will be followed by a corresponding Season 3. Boo-hoo is all I have to say. And as I watched the opening sequence of this week's episode, I felt the telling was in the tale. As Andy sits in
Jonathon Ross' hot seat, a foreshadowing of things to come sets the tone. (Jonathan Ross - known to everyone as "Wossy" - is the host of a very popular British talk show that I only saw once when Jim Carrey was on, and it was ludicrous. Jim Carrey is a ridiculous amount of fun, and Jonathan was a good sport as well.) One can only assume that Ricky has set his sights on other options.
Jonathan asks Andy if it will be more of the same or will he branch out. Andy replies he'd like to do some serious acting with the "greatest actor in the world," Robert De Niro. Little did I know that Mr. De Niro was actually going to show up! That might have been the highlight for me.
Of course, the fat bit was funnier: Jonathan asks Andy about his struggle with his weight and Andy replies, "It's not a struggle. The more I eat, the fatter I get."
I'll say here that this was, in my esteemed opinion, not as funny as last week's ep, or frankly, any of the others. I never felt the heart in this one, and for me, it just felt sad. I'm sure I was just projecting the knowledge of the end of the world as we know it (or at least the end of
Extras as we know it) onto the whole 27 minutes, but it was gloomy. Not to mention, most of the best jokes were on things wholly unmentionable here.
My favorite scene was the shot of
Barry sitting in the anti-office of Darren's office proper. He just sat there not even quite looking out into space, just sitting, as if thoughts were not even an option. I would have been happy with just that, but the joke went further when Andy walked into his agent's office and
Darren was having some under-the-desk fun. He explained that Barry had lent him his pen with a lady in a "lovely bathing costume," that when you turn upside down, her "bathing costume" falls off. I love that Andy sat in the office with him and discussed what and why he was doing what he had been doing. Darren stood up with his knickers down, and we were reminded of Stephen Merchant's brilliant comedic sense. And he's not got a bad bum as well. Andy threatened to fire Darren if he screwed up getting him a meeting with De Niro. He stormed out of the office to find that Barry was admiring the lady in the pen in much the same way as Darren before him.
Robert Lindsay, best known for his work in the British sitcom,
My Family, showed up here indignant that the dying boy's mother would pick someone like Andy Millman over his own fantastic talent. Trying to reason it out he said, "Maybe she just didn't see me." Then when that didn't make him feel better, he insinuated she'd picked Andy by saying to herself, "I'll definitely get a 'yes' from the nobody." And though Andy didn't want to go see the sick boy in the hospital, he got offended.
Maggie's dashing date turned out to be not so dashing at all. After a wonderful evening, he brought her home for a nightcap, only to find he lived with his parents and they'd struck up a bridge game with friends. Needless to say, the mother told them to keep it quiet, as they had to get up early in the morning, and asked
Maggie some horrifyingly embarrassing questions about sleeping with her son. The mother's tribute to
Gertrude Stein's "a rose is a rose is a rose" took the prize. Only for "rose" she used the big "O," and I don't mean Oprah! The poor girl went home to sit alone in her apartment, and not even Andy could be there for her, as he was now BFF with Wossy.
The montages were fantastic: Wossy and Andy romping around bare-backed in white shorts shooting each other with water guns juxtaposed with Maggie as an extra in a movie where she is a maid in a yoke trying to walk through about three feet of mud and falling down a lot.
Best line was when Andy was describing to the sick kid in the hospital why he likes Maggie: "She's so stupid she amuses me."
Between Andy and Robert Lindsay, I'm not sure who embarrassed themselves more this week. Though when Andy asked the boy's mother what she would "think is a good enough excuse" to get him out of having to say a few words at the boy's impending funeral, he proved there's few others as unaware of their grandiosity as good old Andy Millman.
It ended with Maggie and Andy going off to meet Darren and De Niro at the bar to kick back a few. I guess that's a perfectly good way to end the series. They walked off into the sunset. If it does make its way back to the small screen, you can bet this blogger will be the happiest little blogger alive.
Thanks for reading, and try to enjoy the world without a little
Extras.
