A Gentle Reminder That Free Speech Doesn't Absolve You

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.

Some Thoughts About Rick and Morty

When the first series of Rick and Morty came out, I was completely smitten. It hit all the right notes: dark humour, cosmic horror, interesting speculative ideas. I liked how it was creative with its position as an animated sitcom, like with its absurd multiple universes and segments built around improvised nonsense. I liked how sharp and merciless the comedy was, and how its episode ideas had this Twilight Zone science-fiction ethos to them. It was like all our weird Christmases had come at once.

Word spread, with me doing lots of the spreading, and when the long-awaited second series arrived, the show was the hottest new thing, riding a hype it well deserved. I was duly excited – after all, in my experience, the first series of any show, particularly sitcoms, often suffers from its position as the starting point, and it’s usually by the second or third series that a show truly finds its footing, and has greater confidence in what it needs to be. Therefore, I figured that the next few series of Rick and Morty would be even better than its impressive beginning.