Extras – The Complete First Season

First broadcast in England during the summer of 2005, the piercingly funny first season of the British sitcom Extras was later shown on HBO in September of 2005 and is now available to own on DVD. Created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the comedic masterminds behind the original series of The Office, Extras gives us an irreverent look at the occasionally-on-camera but mostly behind-the-scenes lives of two struggling actors: Andy Milman (Gervais) and Maggie Jacobs (Ashley Jensen).

Each episode features a big name guest star and most follow roughly the same trajectory with Andy trying to weasel his way into a line of dialogue and Maggie awkwardly trying to flirt with a crewmember. Of the guest stars we have Hollywood staples Ben Stiller and Samuel L. Jackson, master British thespians Kate Winslet and Patrick Stewert and British television personalities Ross Kemp and Les Dennis.

Aside from Jackson who has rather limited screen time (the special features inform that his window of opportunity was extremely tight), the guest stars are all committed and gleefully revel in lampooning their own star image. Whether its Winslet's award-chasing or Dennis's fading career, they're all gamely up to the task of self-defamation, with perhaps the funniest moment of the series coming from Andy's showdown with a motor-mouth Stiller's enraged ego.

While Extras is probably more Curb Your Enthusiasm than The Office in its commingling of improvisation and celebrity self-sacrifice, it still operates in the same realms of foot-in-mouth comedy perfected in The Office. Some of the references to British pop culture like television shows The Bill and Crime Watch might be initially alienating to American audiences, but the base comedy is universal.

Gervais and Merchant have no qualms about mining the depths of political incorrectness and they let the scenes play out for as long as possible. There are no mercy killings here. Check out the excruciating torment with which Andy finds himself when he pretends to be Catholic to impress a girl and winds up having his lies exposed at a prayer group. Their talent lies more firmly in their writing than their direction, as segments often feel a bit incongruous, but then, there's an admitted charm to their inexperience.

The DVD comes with eight Deleted Scenes, all of which are golden nuggets of comedy and their inclusion will over joy fans of the series. There are also a series of Outtakes which exemplify how difficult it can be to keep a straight face around Gervais. Next, there are two featurettes chronicling the production process. The Difficult Second Album features Gervais and Merchant on-screen discussing the issues they had to tackle when approaching their second television series as well as providing information on the production process of the individual episodes. Lastly, Finding Leo chronicles Gervais and Merchant's futile attempt to track down Leonardo DiCaprio's agent through internet research

and blind-bluff phone calls. It's all delightfully unprofessional with Gervais griping about phone bills and eventually exclaiming in dismay, "Steve, how did we get as far as we have? This is like real life Laurel and Hardy here."

Show Grade: A-
DVD Grade: B+
Overall Grade: A-