Ricky Gervais courtesy HBO Home Video
New releases announced today, January 13:Alien Nation - The Ultimate Movie Collection will be coming out April 15This American Life - Season 1 will be coming out January 29Extras - Extra Special Series Finale will be coming out February 26 Visit TVShowsOnDVD.com for the complete stories on these and other news items.
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Jaime Murray and Michael C. Hall by Randy Tepper/Showtime
Cheers to Dexter for finishing its second season with a flourish. Michael C. Hall's "Bay Harbor Butcher" lived to slay another day after his crazy ex-lover Lila murdered his pursuer Sgt. Doakes — making it morally justifiable for Dex to off her. (I love a happy ending.) The skillfully executed episode capped a stellar year for Showtime, which just saw the Golden Globes recognize several of its series (although, sadly, not its best, Brotherhood). Want proof Showtime is the new HBO? Dexter's finale was funnier and more entertaining than Ricky Gervais' bloated, dispiriting Extras swan song, which aired opposite it on HBO. In short: Dexter kills.Related:• Daisies and Dexter Get Their Due• Read and react to Bruce's opinions on 30 Rock, Project Runway and more!• Share your own raves and rants about other shows on the Reader Cheers & Jeers discussion board.• We may feature your Cheer or Jeer on TVGuide.com or in TV Guide magazine!
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George Michael, Ricky Gervais and Gerard Kelly, Extras
We're thrilled that Ricky Gervais is resurrecting his bloody genius HBO series Extras for a one-shot finale this week, but we can't help feeling dejected. Soon, Extras will be gone for good. Here's what we'll miss most. (The Extras series finale airs Sunday, Dec. 16, at 9 pm/ET on HBO.)
Extras features TV's most delightfully dysfunctional duoThat would be Gervais' serious-actor wannabe Andy Millman and his idiotic agent, Darren Lamb (Gervais' collaborator, Steven Merchant). In creating the duo's maddening attempts at communication, Gervais harkened back to comedy's legendary mismatched duo Laurel and Hardy. "They nailed it," Gervais says simply.
It showcases TV's sweetest relationship "People know that she's vulnerable, because she's a bit stupid," Gervais says of Andy's best friend, Maggie (Ugly Betty's Ashley Jensen). Particularly refreshing is the absence of will
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Julian McMahon and Dylan Walsh in Nip/Tuck by Michael Becker/FX
Nip/Tuck's fifth-season premiere on Tuesday reeled in 4.3 million total viewers — down a bit from last year's debut but still way better than its finale (3.8 mil).... HBO has announced that "The Extra Special Series Finale" of Extras will air Dec. 16. To mark the occasion, Clive Owen, David Tennant, Gordon Ramsay and George Michael will all be making cameos. What, no Mitovich? His vodcast proves he's camera-ready, people.... USA's third annual Monk holiday special will air on Dec. 7. "Mr. Monk and the Man Who Shot Santa" will pave the way for Psych's first yuletide outing, "Gus' Dad May Have Killed an Old Guy," to be broadcast right afterwards.... Showtime is launching The L Word's fifth season on Jan. 6. Yet they refuse to give us two episodes of Dexter per week. Bastards. — Ben Katner
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OK, first off, how freakin’ hilarious was The Bachelor Monday night? Holy human desperation, I loved it! And Hillary from my hometown made the first cut. Represent, Philly ‘ho!Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk last week’s Emmys. Yes, the in-the-round stage was a hot circular mess and why so many statues went to TV-movies, I’ll never know. It’s not like any of the good Sci Fi Originals get nominated. Hello, Mansquito? So robbed. But Seacrest didn’t totally suck, the opening Family Guy number was inspired and some of the winners were deserving.So if you’re like me and think you suffered a stroke that made the word Gandolfini sound like “Spader,” or ya can’t get your head around anyone from Torque ever winning anything, you might want to grab the champs on DVD. Turns out that the slights are, in fact, slight.Ugly Betty — Much like Betty’s Guadalajara poncho, you could spot America Ferrera’s Outstandin...
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Extras - The Complete Second Season box art courtesy HBO Home Video
July 10th is a day many of you have been waiting for, not because there's a set you're dying to buy, but because it's a slow release day. That's right, July 10th is the slowest day you'll find for a very, very long time.Beauty and the Beast, one of the top shows on TVShowsOnDVD.com, has its second season released, and this time there are extras! Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman provide video introductions on select episodes. It doesn't sound like much, but at least it's something.We also see the third season release of Hustle, a BBC series about a group of con men (and woman). It's a great series, though the DVDs aren't as good as BBC's MI-5 (both shows are produced by Kudos). It's still one of my favorites, though the short seasons drive me crazy, but only because I like it so much.My "pick of the week" award goes to another British series, Extras from HBO Home Video. Ricky Gervais isn't quite as brilliant as he was in The Office, but the show is delightfully funny, and the DVD set c...
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Friday Night Lights by Paul Drinkwater/NBC Photo
Well, this is good news to come home to. (Thanks, by the way, to all the well-wishers who e-mailed gracious greetings during my time off. Can't recommend Paris highly enough, even during an unseasonably chilly rainy spell.)If the reporting on TheEnvelope.com site is accurate, the top-10 drama finalists at this intermediate stage of the Emmy nominations includes eternal NBC underdog Friday Night Lights—which could use some good news, seeing as how NBC yanked its summer repeats for now. (Tell me you didn't see that coming.) While we find ourselves fretting over whether NBC's new post-Kevin Reilly management will stand by this show next season, we can at least take comfort that the industry hasn't entirely forgotten this show. Now that it's made the first cut (adopting a football term) into the popular top-10, we can only hope the judges screening the drama candidates will respond to this show's rallying cry: "Clear Eyes. Full Hearts. Can't Lose."If you missed the news report, her...
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During Saturday's America's Most Wanted, the FBI's latest top-10 fugitive list will be revealed. Uh-oh. Sounds like I'm going to be writing another Lindsay Lohan update over the weekend.... On July 10, HBO Video is releasing the second season of Ricky Gervais' Extras with over 100 minutes of, well, extras. None of which makes me the least bit bitter all over again about the fate of The Comeback. OK, maybe a little.... 'Til Death's Brad Garrett has been tapped to emcee the Museum of Television & Radio's Fox special, TV's Funniest Moments, airing Friday. Kinda embarrassing, though, since I have a hunch he won't be introducing any clips from his own show. Today's News was written by Ben Katner.
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Please sing the title to the music of JT's "Sexy Back". Hi all, sadly Extras is NOT coming back for a third season, but the award winning comedy duo of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have decided to give us one final send-off episode of the brilliantly funny, Extras. No details have been leaked yet, but as they did with the original The Office, they are planning on ending with a one-off show for our viewing pleasure. Last week, Stephen Merchant, who gave the most brilliant performance for his role as agent Darren Lamb, received the comedy award at the Royal Television Society's awards ceremony. Be on the lookout as Ricky and Stephen "bring Extras back"!
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Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have elected not to do a third season of Extras, and instead will wrap up the HBO series with a "one-off" special, as they did before with the U.K. edition of The Office, says the Hollywood Reporter. Explaining that the idea to end the run was in its very early stages, a rep for the duo says no timetable is in place for the series ender, but that Gervais and Merchant "will, at some point, sit down... and write it." Oooh, I love how mysterious and exotic the TV-making process sounds!
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