Such a disappointment after Gervais & Merchant's previous wonders. I absolutely adore everything they (and Pilkington) have done up to this and Gervais' terrible Science show. The XFM shows and Gervais' first two solo shows are especially close to my heart.
Warwick Davis doing a David Brent impression and falling over is only funny for so long. Not to mention how all the other characters are just versions of characters from The Office and Extras. When Gervais lost weight, his funny must've went with it.
It just feels lazy, like they wrote a quick first draft and just stopped there. One popular theory making the rounds is that Stephen Merchant was too busy with his standup tour/special Hello Ladies and couldn't commit fully to the writing like he had in the past. Sounds about right, since this does have Gervais all over it. Without Merchant to reel him in, this is what you'd get.
The Liam Neeson scene and the suicide chat with Cheggers, Barry and Les Dennis were just about the only great scenes. Helena Bonham Carter, whom I normally like, was appallingly bad.
They should've done a spinof show centered around Darren Lamb & Barry, that would've been fucking incredible. Needs to happen. This has just been depressing.
Oh well, at least An Idiot Abroad delivered.
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