Derek. Netflix's newest series.

[Chino]

Has anyone else watched this? I just wrapped it up and I fell in love. It's only seven episodes at 24 minutes a piece, you should give it a try. I know a lot of British stuff turns many people away, and for me it's very hit or miss, but this show was a home run. I originally described it to people as happily depressing. Now that I finished, I feel nothing but happiness. This show is unlike any other I've watched. It's fantastic. I've never genuinely smiled so many times while watching a show before. I was skeptical after the first episode, but it delivered on a huge level. Please do yourself a favor and watch this show. It's not even three hours worth of material. I guarantee that it will make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, and you'll feel like/strive to be a better person after watching it.



Here is a little description of the show:

"You might not expect that a series produced, written, directed by and starring Ricky Gervais would find a way to bring a tear to your eye, but that's precisely what the comedian's new show Derek manages to do throughout its seven-episode run. Now streaming on Netflix, the series, which aired previously on Channel 4 in the U.K. (and has already been picked up for a second season), follows Derek Noakes (Gervais) – a kind, selfless care worker in Broad Hill retirement home – and his friends and co-workers as they tend the home's elderly residents, keep Broad Hill afloat and try their best to navigate through their own issues.

Gervais initially came under fire overseas when a trailer for the series premiered and left people wondering if he was using Derek's apparent mental disability to poke fun at the disabled. Gervais has said the character is not in any way disabled, and by the end of the first season, it's clear that Derek is the centerpiece around which the show revolves, and he becomes a shining beacon for kindness, charity, acceptance and selflessness."

https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/ricky-gervais-new-series-derek-is-heartfelt-and-funny-20130912

[Kotowboy]

I liked The Office & Extras but Life's Too Short was utter shit and I saw 2 episodes of Derek and there was absolutely nothing new on show at all. **

It doesn't help that Ricky Gervais is a gigantic egotist in reality and just talks absolute crap on twitter and when people challenge him - he

just goes LOL YOU'RE BLOCKED instead of engaging in intellectual conversation.


The same goes for his stand up DVDs. Animals was great. Politics was ok. Then everything since has been dire.

Stephen Merchant is the naturally funny one. Ricky has to rely on taking the piss out of people and being arrogant to be funny.


** Both LTS and Derek are like watered down & recycled versions of Office & Extras. I've seen the same jokes used again & again plus the same character archetypes used again & again.

Gervais stopped being good when he ran out of Larry David material to pilfer from.

[TioJorge]

It should be known I haven't really gotten into much British humor and I haven't seen much of anything from Gervais, though a standup here and there. I absolutely loved Derek. Offbeat, clever, odd and heartfelt; I really enjoyed the somewhat short season. I hope they do another as long as it's as focused and on-point as S1 was.

[Kotowboy]

Seriously - if you liked that - Watch The Office. It pisses on it.

It may be a shittier version of Curb Your Enthusiasm but you'll see all the same characters and jokes. Just done better.


Everything Gervais has done since Office & Extras has been a retread of those two things.

His stand up now is so lazy that he just repeats material form his unscripted conversations with Stephen & Karl on his podcasts.

He ran out of ideas long ago and since then he's either been recycling what worked before and making it worse or making a career out

of mocking Karl. That's it. Proving that he needs people to take the piss out of - or write material for him - to be funny.

[RuRoRul]

I loved The Office and Extras, but I watched the pilot for Derek when it aired in the UK but wasn't impressed. I didn't actually know if they made the rest of the season after that, I will keep in mind that the rest might be better than the first episode though.

[Chino]

It should be known I haven't really gotten into much British humor and I haven't seen much of anything from Gervais, though a standup here and there. I absolutely loved Derek. Offbeat, clever, odd and heartfelt; I really enjoyed the somewhat short season. I hope they do another as long as it's as focused and on-point as S1 was.

He was asked by the UK network to do another. I'm not sure if he agreed to or not.

I loved The Office and Extras, but I watched the pilot for Derek when it aired in the UK but wasn't impressed. I didn't actually know if they made the rest of the season after that, I will keep in mind that the rest might be better than the first episode though.

It's really worth it. Give it a go through episode three. I promise you'll finish it at that point.

Seriously - if you liked that - Watch The Office. It pisses on it.

It may be a shittier version of Curb Your Enthusiasm but you'll see all the same characters and jokes. Just done better.

But The Office and Curb were meant to be funny sitcoms (great ones at that). But this show, while it had moments that made me crack up, never gave me the impression that it was written to be a 'funny' show. To me, it was more about how you should view life and the portraying the type of attitude that the ideal human being has.

[Kotowboy]

I loved The Office and Extras, but I watched the pilot for Derek when it aired in the UK but wasn't impressed. I didn't actually know if they made the rest of the season after that, I will keep in mind that the rest might be better than the first episode though.

My brother pointed out to me that " When The Whistle Blows " - his excruciatingly brilliantly well observed sitcom from Extras - is what he ended up doing with " Derek " . It's just slapstick and silly faces.

[rumborak]

Derrick?

(probably only Europeans will get this one)

[Chino]

Has anyone else ended up watching this? Netflix added the one hour 'special episode' that wrapped up the series. I'm sad to see it over so soon.

[sneakyblueberry]

I just caught the second series and the special not too long ago (saw the first series quite a while ago).  Really enjoyed this, actually cried like a fuckhead at a couple of episodes. 

I think if you watch it without expecting The Office or Extras you'll enjoy it for what it is, much like what Chino is saying.  It's incredibly heartwarming.  Although I get the feeling that Gervais HAD to make it that way - despite what Gervais might say, the character of Derek pretty much started as a pisstake of the intellectually handicapped, if you ever saw the first couple of podcasts featuring the Derek character. 

There are still some absolutely hilarious moments in it.  Doug (1st season) and Kev are funny as shit.

[Calvin6s]

I liked The Office & Extras but Life's Too Short was utter shit .

That's pretty much my journey as well.  And I watched Extras after Life's Too Short.  Warwick Davis was good, but it felt like I had to wait minutes, or even entire shows to find that one genuine laugh.

I'd check out Derek, but my TV plate is already filled on my DVR and lately I've just been deleting entire seasons saved up with the "gonna watch later" mentality.

[sneakyblueberry]

The only Life's Too Short I found funny was the Liam Neeson ep, and even the bloopers were funnier than the actual episode.

[dparrott]

Watched the whole series and liked it all.  We skipped over some of the dirtier Kev parts. 

Derek: "Who would win: gorilla or morangutang?"
Phone: "Here is your recipe for Grilled Meringues"
haha

[sneakyblueberry]

We skipped over some of the dirtier Kev parts. 

Funniest character in the series!

[Kotowboy]

I watched two episodes and he's basically Finchy from the Office all over again.

[sneakyblueberry]

Yeah, kinda.  Kev has a far greater depth of character once you go into it further.  Plus he's about a million times more hopeless than Chris Finch ever was - at least Finch had a job and seemed to do quite well at it.  Kev is the same misogynist twat, just more hopeless, knocking about a retirement village everyday for no reason other than its a good place to drink biieeeerrrs.

[Chino]

Kev regained all credibility at the end of the Oliver episode.

[sneakyblueberry]

Defs