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The Ricky Gervais Show Season 1 DVD Review

“The Ricky Gervais Show” is strictly for Ricky Gervais fans.

For those that don’t know, “The Ricky Gervais Show” is a podcast turned animated TV show starring actor/writer/director comedian Ricky Gervais, writer/actor Stephen Merchant and eccentric radio producer Karl Pilkington. Basically, the entire show involves these 3 talking about offbeat stories (and news stories) about such topics as babies, a space monkey, metal pants, food, superpowers, hypotheticals, animals, Bruce Willis, Karl’s girlfriend, the afterlife, freaks, and being a kid. Mostly, the show is designed around Karl’s strange views, opinions, and diary readings. The first season contains 13 episodes.

Your opinion of “The Ricky Gervais Show” will largely be based on how you feel about Ricky Gervais himself. Personally, I think he’s good in small doses. I’ve liked him as the Golden Globes host and I found him amusing in select episodes of “Extras,” but he can get on my nerves quickly. As for his “show,” I can’t say I am a fan. The problem with the series is that I can’t tell if it’s an act or if it’s real. If it’s real, then Ricky and Stephen are just making fun of Karl’s odd stories. If it’s an act, it’s not a very amusing one. To me, the entire show feels like an inside joke between the 3 and or just random ramblings that they came up with on the spot. Another baffling question is why these podcasts were turned into shows? The material is strictly for podcasts and having them turned into crudely animated episodes doesn’t make a lick of sense.

Summary: If you enjoy the comedic musings of Ricky Gervais you might want to give this show a rent. If not, there’s no need to bother with this show.

The widescreen picture quality is decent. The animation looks as good as it possibly can on this DVD release (which isn’t saying much). The audio recordings sound solid on the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track.

Extras:
* Episode 3 in storyboard form.
* A really quick Channel 4 Comedy Gala Animation segment.

January 13, 2011 - Posted by nicklyons1 | DVD review | Golden Globes, Karl Pilkington, Stephen Merchant, The Ricky Gervais Show Season 1 DVD Review