Grid Effect

That’s it. Twelve episodes, no finality, and Extras, much like John Elway, ends on a high note. And while I wish Gervais and Merchant would feel compelled to piece together a third season of this series, I understand this doesn’t seem to be how things work in Britain (or at least not for these two).

Who would have thought the highlight of the evening revolve around a “nudy pen” that we see two, and presume a third man in the show will be masturbating to. And our protagonist would catch his agent (and moments later, his agents assistant) in the act, leading to the first time I have ever heard self-gratification referred to as “tossing off”, which I thoroughly plan on incorporating into my everyday conversation.

Coincidentally, that third man is Robert DeNiro, whom Darren gives the pen to as a sort of peace offering for Andy bailing on the meeting his agent had set up for the two of them. Missing the meeting was almost mandatory though, he had been transforming into the self-involved proto-typical celebrity, neglecting his best friend and a kid set for neurosurgery (though it is a tad obnoxious that the mother wanted Andy to do the eulogy should the kid survive the operation).

All I could think about while watching this finale is what the outcry would be like had this aired on American network television, developed a widespread, mainstream audience…. and called it quits after twelve episodes. If this show had the same viewership as Friends (not that it ever would), can you imagine the hysteria? They would just be a barrage of unanswered questions that would culminate into the audience ultimately being dissatisfied with the series:

“Why didn’t they get Andy and Maggie together? Did Andy ever get to do a film with DeNiro? How much longer did “When The Whistle Blows” stay on the air for? Is Darren still his agent? Did Bobby ever get his acting career back on track?”

… And so on and so forth. It was a comedy series, a great one at that. Plot development and a neatly packaged conclusion were not the motivating forces for the creation of Extras.

All in all a great series I do not want to see come to an end, but Gervais wants to export this series ala the Office for the huge payday for the minimal amount of work. Sound move from a business perspective, but I don’t have to like it. Hopefully Gervais and Merchant give me something else too write about in the near future.