Ricky Gervais has been pissing me off recently, which is
disheartening, as I’ve always been a huge fan of the fruits of his now
long-historic golden age. The Office is
a near-masterpiece in my opinion, and Extras was,
if a little mawkish, a self-aware and timely satire. This makes it even more
perplexing that the very societal problems that Ricky Gervais mocked and used as the basis of Extras's morality seem to have rotted from his own memory. Remember how Andy Millman’s character
was transformed by his sudden fame into a thoughtless, self-centred arsehole
and the series closed with him rediscovering his humility? I wonder if the
Ricky Gervais I bear witness to on Twitter nowadays, who spends most of his time reminding everyone how clearly enlightened and subversive he is, would be capable of reaching the same moment of
clarity.
