Christmas Extras

"Well I was pissed because you called me in early--I was watching a movie."
"Get over it."
"What movie?"
"Oh um, do you know the show Extras? Its Christmas special."
"Ha! You watch celebrity gossip?"
"No no its a British comedy by the guys that did the original British Office. No? Well. The american Office is a remake of a British show created by Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais. It only ran for two six episode seasons but they concluded it with a Christmas special and, uh, you're just walking away from me in mid-sentence."
"I'm still listening to you Cam."
"Thank you Jay."
"If only out of politeness."

Extras was a fantastic show, just like its predecessor The Office. If you haven't watched Extras, I don't know why you're wasting your time with my blog, you have more important things to do. Both shows are top-notch comedies not only because they're hilarious but because they use that hilarity to build towards an honest-to-god touching emotional climaxes.

And, just like original Office, Extras was concluded with a feature length Christmas special (just this Sunday) and I was again surprised at how I actually felt those weird human "feelings" as it concluded. The beginning of the special was a little frustrating as it turned Millman into more of a jerk than usual--revealing a pretty petty core personality--and I was afraid the eventual epiphany regarding the error of his ways would just be trite, but I was pleasantly surprised. The necessary "oh I'm a prick" occurred in a non-cliched manner and in a way that's fairly biting of celebrity culture.

I'm continually impressed by how Merchant (who's absolutely brilliant) and Gervais create hilarious TV programs filled with relatively realistic characters and are able to turn all the humour in on itself to be more dramatic than Law & Order tries to be every week.

All in all I'm quite pleased with how this special concluded the series. I actually hope these guys put out something lackluster just so I can have some sort of perspective. I feel weird saying only good things about them.

Also, the show used Sufjan Christmas music. Instant bonus points.