Monday, March 19, 2007

No Extra "Extras," Please

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant find it hard to say goodbye. They ended "The Office" after two brilliant seasons and 12 pitch-perfect episodes, one of the great sitcoms of all time, alongside "Fawlty Towers" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and anything else you can name. But then they caved and did two more hour long shows -- they had moments of greatness and I'm glad to have seen them, but the lads got all marshmallow-y and undercut the entire point of the series by striving for a happy ending. Now they've called it a day after two seasons of "Extras." Of course, it wasn't as good as "The Office" -- virtually nothing is -- but it had great celberity cameos and got better and better and managed to end on a nicely sweet note that wasn't too sentimental and was well-earned. Best of all, it showcased the hilarious Ashley Jensen, who can also be seen on "Ugly Betty." Unfortunately, now they're going to make just one more episode. Guys, if you don't have enough material to do six more episodes, why make one more? Resist the temptation.

And here's a chat with Ashley, who seems a charmer.

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