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Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) is an actor with ambition and a script. Reduced to working as an extra with a useless agent, Andy's attempts to boost his career invariably end in failure and embarrassment.
This isn't necessarily highbrow stuff, but that is no matter: in comedy, the laugh itself is the thing. By that measure, Extras has been a quite marvelous success.
What initially seems like a rather harsh critique of lowbrow entertainment becomes a nuanced analysis of comedy where the central premise is that it should work for you, first, and not for an imagined audience.
Andy's humiliations as a minor celebrity aren't quite as funny as was his earlier shame at being a nobody, but as a satire of showbiz vanity, Extras can still be described as (what else?) stellar.
Like The Office, Extras is great comedy because it's not just about laughs but presents an at-times gruelling expose of human frailty and the hopes and fears that haunt usall.
There's no question that "Extras" is a hoot, especially for anyone who spends much time observing the ins and outs of fame and the media, but Gervais is correct that less is more.
Merchant and Gervais deserve plaudits for their daring. The Radcliffe episode is astonishing for depicting politically incorrect and embarrassing moments