Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the same team responsible for the runaway British TV hit
The Office, were at it again with the weekly, half-hour comedy
Extras.
Ricky Gervais himself headed the cast as Andy Millman, a would-be actor in his early forties who quit his day job to become a full-time movie and TV extra. This didn't give him much opportunity for artistic expression, but did allow him to rub shoulders with such real-life celebrities as
Ben Stiller, Samuel L. Jackson,
Kate Winslet, and
Patrick Stewart, who according to envious Andy were "just lucky" in their success (these celebs had no compunction about satirizing their own established personae, and were even willing to appear nasty and obstreperous if it paid off in big laughs!). Also seen was
Ashley Jensen as fellow extra Maggie Jacobs, whose outspokenness habitually cost her valuable job opportunities, just as Andy's monumental ineptitude and gracelessness was a constant source of embarrassment for him. Rounding out the regular cast was series co-creator Stephen Merchant as Andy's unnamed agent, who in his own way was just as incompetent and woebegone as his client. Using the "showbiz" milieu to make savage comic swipes at topics ranging from genocide to mental illness,
Extras was a deliciously outrageous skewering of the perennial "fringies" in the entertainment business. Originally telecast on Britain's BBC2 beginning July 21, 2005,
Extras was picked up for American cable play by HBO beginning September 25 of that same year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide