Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

    This is going to divide opinion, isn't it? Wow, is it ever.

    #2
    Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

    The characters are so rounded and the dialogue so subtle, I'm just not sure who I should be rooting for. Even The Wire looks one-dimensional compared with this.

    Comment


      #3
      Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

      "Is Derek handicapped?"
      "Yes, he's too nice for his own good".

      makes u think

      Comment


        #4
        Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

        I have to admit - guilty pleasure - the Karl Pilkington led conversation that went along the lines of

        "Forty - it's the new thirty".

        "Yeah, Sixty - it's the new fifty".

        [OLD WOMAN FROM CARE HOME INTERJECTS] "What about ninety?

        [PILKINGTON's character considers this, then says] "You don't need to worry about that"

        Had me in fucking stitches.

        Comment


          #5
          Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

          Gervais has proclaimed it to be the best thing he's ever done, and I for one am currently finding it difficult to argue with that. I absolutely love it.

          Comment


            #6
            Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

            Really? I think it's appalling. I'm really enjoying it.

            The end of tonight's episode was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen.

            Comment


              #7
              Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

              I've just watched the first three episodes of this, not having seen the pilot, and thought all three were excellent.

              I'd read that Gervais was criticised by some for making a mockery of disability but I don't see that at all. What I see is a programme which is more drama than comedy (although it is certainly funny) and it's refreshing to have a character like Derek at the centre of it.

              The first episode struck a chord with me because of the manager from the council. I'm a public sector manager myself (in the NHS) and the character made me feel a bit ashamed. The role was a caricature and most people I know in the same job as me are in it for the right reasons but the stereotype exists for a reason. It was thought provoking and the kind of thing that makes you think "I'm going to try even harder than I normally do not to be him".

              Each episode has given me cause for thought for one reason or another and each has also upset me a little. Which is good, really. I want television shows that can tug at my emotions.

              Comment


                #8
                Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

                Yet to watch this properly (which I will do), but I think ongoing criticism of Gervais is more down to his 'previous' in terms of targetting minorities/the disabled. He covered bigotry in The Office and Extras and used terms like 'flids' in The 11 o'clock Show and his stand-up act. (It could also be argued that Gervais bullied Pilkington in some of those tiresome cartoons they made.) He also infamously mocked wheelchair-bound producer Ash Atalla at the Comedy Awards some years back.

                I hear Derek is very good, but to many it'll - understandably - seem like the latest in a line of such baiting stunts.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

                  I'm not sure I recall the incident at the Comedy Awards as being mockery of Ash Atalla. Wasn't it a joke about attitudes to the disabled that Atalla was in on?

                  Maybe it's harder to give it that charitable reading given some of Gervais's pronouncements since (the "mongs" references on twitter being the one not mentioned above.)

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

                    I'm not sure I recall the incident at the Comedy Awards as being mockery of Ash Atalla. Wasn't it a joke about attitudes to the disabled that Atalla was in on?
                    Oh, it was undoubtedly intended as such, although I don't know how much of it was pre-planned.

                    Maybe it's harder to give it that charitable reading given some of Gervais's pronouncements since (the "mongs" references on twitter being the one not mentioned above.)
                    I think that this is the problem with Gervais's comedy. If you target minorities with such regularity (whether ironically or otherwise), then you need to be able to address the issues in a more formal manner when confronted. To my mind, he has never really countered such criticism in a satisfactory way: comments like 'these people are jealous of my success' don't really cut it, tbh. However, in terms of his work, this series might the one to quell criticism, at least for the time being...

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

                      Jah Womble wrote: I hear Derek is very good
                      Really? Fucking hell. Apart from on here, where did you hear that? Frankly I'm a bit disturbed by the idea of anyone thinking this is anything other than appalling on pretty much every level.

                      What is this weird hypnotic hold that Ricky Gervais has over so many people? He's a chancer, a preening intellectual pygmy, a genuinely loathsome human being (as his adventures on Twitter make clear) and everything he's done since Series 1 of "The Office" has been dreadfully hamfisted, nakedly derivative and often quite mindbogglingly crass. And yet, as "Derek" seems to prove, there are no depths (morally or in terms of quality) to which he cannot sink without an alarming number of otherwise intelligent people cheering him on. It's all very odd.

                      There are signs now, I suppose, that his critical reputation is starting to curdle, but I can't believe it's taken so long. What a fucking fraud; what a fucking tosser.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

                        I think his writing comes from a different place than his behaviour. It wouldn't be the first time that someone was creatively brilliant in one field yet a cunt in all others. Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan? Not that he's as good as them, obviously.

                        Pilkington is a very odd figure in Gervais' career. The 'Idiot Abroad' persona is clearly a scripted fabrication, a hoax, yet he brings it off very well and stays in character a lot.

                        Note also that Idiot Abroad now has a disabled character and had a scene in which Pilkington asks offensive questions to conjoined twins, so this is a trope with a lineage.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

                          I love Taylor Parkes.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

                            Taylor wrote: Really? Fucking hell. Apart from on here, where did you hear that? Frankly I'm a bit disturbed by the idea of anyone thinking this is anything other than appalling on pretty much every level.
                            It would help if you attacked the programme, not the man.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

                              The programme's not even worth attacking, surely? It's based on a character dreamt up years and years ago to mock the mentally ill (because nothing gets easier laughs than pulling a "spaz face"). Aware that even a comedian as "edgy" as himself (i.e. as keen on punching down) can't really get away with that over the course of a series, Gervais has tried to paint over the fundamental nastiness of "Derek" in the most insulting way imaginable: with mawkishness and base sentimentality so fucking clumsy it beggars belief. That way, he still gets to do his spaz face.

                              You don't have to be a comedy boffin to spot how technically poor Gervais' work has been since "The Office", either. "Extras" was a fucking mess (whether or not anyone enjoyed it, technically it was a fucking mess, despite Gervais' apparent belief that he's some kind of great comedy technician), and that thing with the hilarious dwarf (he falls out of cars because he's only a dwarf!) was just beneath contempt.

                              It's important to "attack the man", incidentally, in order to attack the programme(s). If shows like "Life's Too Short" and "Derek" aren't just having a good old laugh at the disabled or the different, what exactly are they doing? Offering "us" fascinating, valuable new perspectives on how "we" see "them"? Right. How strange it is that the one comedian noble enough to devote his life to challenging worn-out views of the disabled is the same comedian who keeps getting in trouble for calling people "mongs", and whose whole career is littered with sniggering schoolboy references to disability. Jesus Christ, do me a favour.

                              If he wasn't such an unpleasant man he'd be much easier to ignore, too.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

                                i watched three episodes of derek. it seems a bit strange. i only remember laughing twice, both at karl pilkington lines. one where he was talking about how his hairstyle was never coming in to fashion, and one when he told derek the factory in china had switched off the machine when they saw what they had produced.

                                the show isn't funny, but neither has it got much in a dramatic sense. i'm not sure what it thinks it's getting at. autistic people are people? old people are people? good people are good? life is about being good to people?

                                brian limond had a series of tweets about derek, theorising that gervais was a psychopath and the show was an attempt to re-establish his human credentials in the hope that people would forget the "mong thing". the circumstances of which i can't really remember, other than that he was criticised for using the word. limond then deleted the tweets and talked about how he felt bad criticising a fellow comedian's work.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

                                  I don't find Richard Herring funny at all (and actively dislike Andrew Collins, who can be heard squawking in the background here) but this is pretty much on the nail re. the Gervais "mong thing":

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

                                    I don't follow Gervais and have found most of his stuff to be hit-and-miss (mostly miss, to be honest). But what I've seen of Deerk I quite like; it has a humanity about it that's very appealing. It's not played for laughs but, then again, I've no idea if it's supposed to be laugh-out-loud funny — I approached it with no preconceptions..

                                    If you're going to start attacking the — alleged and demonstrative — work and opinions of everyone in the entertainment industry, you'll end up rubbishing a large number of artists.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

                                      It's incredibly, fascinatingly. magnificently terrible. It's the work of a man who's spent the last 10 years being told how much of a genius he is, and now believes he's such a great dramatist that he can show the world how caring he is, and how caring we should be, without bothering to actually show any interest or research in the subject he's supposed to be depicting.

                                      The characters are about as subtly drawn as you'd find in a pantomime - the people we're supposed to root for are so cartoonishly selfless, whereas the bad guys - the councillor, the daughter in the third episode - are so obviously bad guys, they may as well wear a cape and laugh maniacally at the end of sentences, while lightning strikes in the background. If this wasn't clear enough, we're continually being told how good/bad the characters are, in the incredibly unsubtle dialogue typical of the show ("I dont fink I've been anywhere nice before").

                                      The people that we're supposed to admire how caring Derek is towards - the old people - aren't given any sort of character at all. The plotting is dreadful - the first episode sets up the threat of the home being closed, with the weird false jeopardy of made-up stats ("93% of residents die within 4 months or being moved" - are you sure you mean residents? And not fruit-flies?), but by episode three it's forgotten ("Yeah, we run it ourselves now"). Simple as that.

                                      The standard of care in the home isn't much to be admired either - it's one thing to have Karl stealing the residents' possessions on a whim, but why let an unemployable alcoholic pervert hang around for no reason?

                                      It's messy, ill-conceived, unrealistic, and kind of creepy, and I haven't even mentioned that mind-blowing montage at the end of episode two. I haven't been this excited about a piece of television in years.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

                                        It is really creepy, the way this schlub has got by. He was a completely baffling presence on the 11 O'Clock Show - no one had heard of him, he wasn't funnny, and the joke remained elusive. The Office was, as people say, good. Extras was painfully shit. The poor bastards who like any comedy put before them had to make do with impersonating these pillocks talking about the writing process in interviews, because they hadn't bothered to write any proper lines or situations. It was like some tragic reality TV experience where we were supposed to do the work they'd been paid to do.

                                        That dwarf thing was beyond comment. Not because it had a dwarf and was that a thing to think about, but because how the fuck did anything so confused get near a TV screen even today? Not a bit of it made any sense, even as cliche.

                                        These people are as thick as shit, but they're pushy. They barged their way onto the final series of Curb Your Enthusiasm and made for the only episode that's ever fallen flat. They even got God on Twitter to say Derek is good. There is nothing in it for me, you or anyone else. (Karl Pilkington is alright, though.)

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

                                          I never liked The Office.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

                                            Me neither

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

                                              The Office was brilliant, especally the first season. The characters had some depth, and David Brent was quite brilliantly realised. The scene where Brent begs for his job is quite touching.

                                              I can understand it not being everybody's bag, but it was a quite exceptional series. Alas, it turns out, Gervais hit his high-water mark right there, at the beginning.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

                                                I liked the Christmas Special of the Office. But then I am a complete sucker for soppy happy endings, no matter how terribly written (threads passim). I even liked "Love, Actually" in that respect. Fuck, come to that, I even liked "Notting Hill" in that respect.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  Ricky Gervais's "Derek"

                                                  I find Ricky Gervais to be an annoying individual who makes my teeth grind every time i see him on screen. I only watched a little bit of Extras and hated it. I have also seen some of this show which bears my name and thought it was brutal. Even when he was on the 11 o'clock show i just thought he was murder.

                                                  It was for that reason that i avoided The Office for a couple of years after it first aired. Why would i want to watch a show with that arsehole in it? One night lying in bed, flicking through the channels and i find a repeat of an Office episode. It was the one with the role play situation where Gervais ends up getting his guitar and singing.

                                                  I wanted to turn it over when i saw his face but something made me stick with it and for 5 minutes out of hatred for him i stuck to my guns. "This is shit and he is not funny in the slightest." Once i let my prejudice die down a bit i ended up on the floor of my bedroom in fits of laughter. Within days i had looked out all the other episodes and now rate The Office as the best comedy i have ever seen and one of the finest tv shows ever.

                                                  That experience always makes me feel like checking out his new material just in case it recaptures that feeling but i just cant go him. Whenever i see his stuff i feel it is trying too hard to be touching and manipulative. The Office just seemed to achieve those tender moments naturally.

                                                  Comment

                                                  Working...
                                                  X