This weekend marks the premature, self-induced demise of HBO’s Extras. Despite Ricky Gervais’s comments from over a year ago, saying that the show was already dunzo, he reassembled the team for a typically British Christmas Special send-off. And since Americans have better things to do on Christmas than watch TV, we get it a whole week early!
The 80-minute conclusion starts at 9PM Eastern on Sunday, and in honor of the show’s vast contributions to awkward humor and self-parody, I’m trying my hand at liveblogging. Occasions for such an activity are few and far between. Event television is a rarity and award shows are wretched. So what better excuse than this to make the jump into real-time criticism? If your Sunday night is looking empty (er, pathetic), bookmark this page and watch with me. I promise more booze-fueled candidness than you’re used to and a few celebrity guests of my own…
8:59 – I am not remotely excited for seven nights of the John Adams miniseries. Keep fishing, HBO.
9:01 – Alright, here we go. Six months of awkward setbacks are going to force Andy to go on Celebrity Big Brother. Here is the story of how it happened.
9:04 – Michael Richards jokes, however stale, are always welcome. British people making reference to Sanjaya are not.
9:08 – Dear Andy Millman, neither Doctor Who nor Hotel Babylon are “camp, frothy nonsense.” XOX – Mikey
9:13 – Bunny is cruising for elicit manlove in a London park. So is George Michael. There is self parody and then there’s just being pathetic. At least “Last Christmas” is in heavy rotation this week – a far more charming legacy.
9:24 – Clive Owen is very tan. And unlike every other celebrity guest in Extras‘ illustrious history, is not remotely interested in Maggie. Refusing to have him throw shit in her face, she walks of the set. Maggie’s OTD as an extra: 9:25.
9:27 – “Am I Bovvered” is so 2006.
9:29 – Darren’s OTD as an agent: 9:29
9:35 – Can’t this show just be funny? I realize that the whole desperately sad human struggle thing makes it better TV, but it’s really bringing me down.
**Brief intermission: our friend Dan at Ithaca Has Gorges will be taking the reigns…**
9:40 – Initial thoughts: This ep has been heavy on the tragedy and production value. The new agent is nefarious. This Moo Shu is going to be delicious.
9:42 – Nefarious new agent [NNA] said ‘Dr. Who’, then ‘Hotel Babylon’, and Mikey squirted chocolate milk from his nose.
9:46 – Andy’s shorts put the ‘short’ in ‘shorts’. This suggests that before his shorts, ‘shorts’ existed exclusively as the letter ‘s’. Someone please consult Wikipedia.
9:49 – OTD of When The Whistle Blows [Andy's sitcom]. Andy asn’t been aving any laffs.
9:51 – What’s not hotter than the What’s Not Hot list? Maggie scraping food [refried beans?] in her new job as dishwasher.
9:53 – “VERNON KAY!!” Number of notable TV presenters presented to an otherwise unaware audience = 1.
9:56 – Darren’s back at the carphone warehouse, and as much as we’re supposed to feel sorry for him, I get the feeling that he’s barely employable in his current job.
9:57 – The second clip of Kate Bush doing “This Woman’s Work” makes me think I’m watching ‘If These Walls Could Talk’, not the prequel to The Office. That’s what he said!
**End of Intermission. Thanks, Dan**
10:00 – How perfect! I’m back just in time for the David Tennant cameo. Andy shows up on Hotel Babylon too, but we don’t get any of the cast.
10:03: – Extras has always been self-referential to the cast’s real life careers… is Maggie thinking of moving to America? To star in Fugly Metty, mayhaps?
10:05 – What’s up with “The Ivy” anyways? Is there a British offshoot of the LA landmark? I’m getting really sick of Andy’s nemesis, whatshisface showing up. It’s too much.
10:07 – “Did you know that the number one killer of household cats is feline AIDS…?” God damn this is depressing.
10:10 – Ok, we’re up to Celebrity Big Brother. Andy has chosen fame over integrity. Maggie watches at home and frowns. The only British D-lister I recognize is that girl from that band. She’s doing that dance!
10:15 – Everyone does that dance! I am reminded of my awkward, childhood Brit-pop obsession.
10:21 – Andy makes his big speech about fame and apologizes, through the television, to Maggie. They’re crying. I’m crying. When did Ricky Gervais become such an incredible dramatic actor? Weirded out!
10:25 – Andy rejects fame and all that junk. Yusef Islam sings. Closing thoughts to come…
With less than eight hours of original programming under its belt, Extras was barely a blip on the TV radar. But in its brief tenure, it gave us more savvy humor and heart-tugging thoughtfulness than most of its longer lasting contemporaries. The extra bitter bittersweetness of tonight’s finale was justified by the uplifting nature of the last five minutes. Andy and Maggie, though not in the best of positions in life, have each other. And they’re finally free of the expectations that held them back for so long.
I, for one, am tremendously excited, and I think I can speak for the TV-watching public when I say, “blog on, mikey!”
I think I can speak for the TV-watching public when I say, “wow!” This liveblog was riveting; my mouth was agape. Liveblog on, mikey!