Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

jc-osms It's been a while since I last watched "Extras" and actually wasn't aware of this final extended episode which aired originally as a Christmas Special, I believe. Now "on-top" as a household name TV star with his own inane catch-phrase in an imaginary series which eerily prefigures the awful, but apparently awfully successful "Mrs Brown's Boys", Gervais's Andy can now hob-nob at the best club in town brushing shoulders with other celebs and live in a swank pad, but he's not happy. Frustrated that he might be wasting his potential as a typecast character in an outdated show, he changes agents, spurred by the growing success of old rival Shaun Pye. The show follows his "journey to redemption" taking in some so-called highs and very definite lows, ending up on "Celebrity Big Brother", which is about as low as you can get I would imagine, the last refuge of the used-to-be-famous.Gervais is playing with a lot of clichés here and as ever, many of them are in character form, particularly his new hot-shot agent but as before he manages to mix well the humour and the bathos, the latter we see in particular through his worsening treatment of his down-on-her-luck old chum Ashley Jensen's Maggie.Again as before, Gervais makes use of his A-list contacts to bring in some very funny celebrity cameos, with George Michael lampooning his wastrel image, Clive Owen as an odious, sexist, dismissive leading man and Gordon Ramsey as a loud-mouthed, vulgar social climber, with maybe two out of three of these looking like rather thinly-veiled thumbmail sketches drawn from life. Stephen Marchant and Shaun Williamson (Barry from "Eastenders") are also caught in the fall-out from Andy's rebellion and wind up hilariously working at "Carphone Warehouse".Arguably Gervais overloads his tale with too much morality where a few more belly-laughs might have been welcome, but by the time Andy recovers his soul at the end, I had found much to savour over the intervening ninety minutes and admired his ability to so effectively satirise the lives of the acting community.

Mr_Prowse Before this finale, I loved Extras, but I did not hold it up there with the legendary television programs. I thought it was excellent, but if every show could end with a finale like this the would of television would be a better place.First, let it be said that there is not that much comedy to the finale. Some people might have a problem with this, but anyone invested in the characters will be fine. This is not to say that there is no comedy. Wonderful little gags are placed around the "finale" or basically a made-for-TV-movie more than a finale. And the jokes hit their mark very well. Stephen Merchant, scene-stealer of the entire program, has some great scenes, and the only down part of the finale is that he does not have many scenes in it. I know he is a supporting character, but in my opinion he was the funniest character in the show.But there is little room for Merchant in an episode that spends most of time with Andy and Maggie evaluating their lives. This is the main point of the episode, and I'm not going to give any thing away here, but while many writers over the years have had character tackle this existential question of 'what am i doing with my life?', no one has done it better than these two fellows here. I never thought that a comedy could almost bring me to tears, but this finale did it without feeling like a depressing Oscar story.Job well done. Every time you expect a cliché plot point to pop up and take the story where every story like this usually goes, they go the other way. It's even more sad that this is the end of a great television show, but I guess Gervais and Merchant take quality over quantity to heart.

pfogertyca I have been a huge fan of this side-splittingly hilarious series since it first aired on HBO in 2005 and have always admired the writing, the acting, and the outrageous situations created by the ingenious minds of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.I didn't think anything in the show's finale could possibly top what I'd already seen in prior episodes, but Gervais and Merchant managed to take the show's screwball concept, turn it upside down, and deliver an incredibly moving and heartfelt dramatic ending. It was a big gamble to toss aside the comedy and go for the serious stuff, but it paid off.The episode begins lightly enough, with Gervais' character, Andy Millman, struggling to adapt to his sudden fortune and fame. No longer an extra scraping to get by and dreaming of making it big, he's now the star of a hit sitcom on the BBC, he has his own catchphrase that's bigger in Britain than "You ARE the weakest link" - he even has a doll in his TV character's likeness. Trouble is, being famous isn't at all how Andy envisioned it. He feels like a sellout - a one-trick pony who will never be able to rise above the sitcom cesspool he now finds himself in.And this is where the show takes a dark turn. Andy becomes increasingly embittered, jealous, and egotistical, to the point where he fires his inept agent and literally pushes his best friend Maggie out of his life. Ashley Jensen delivers the single finest small screen performance by an actress this year as Maggie Jacobs, the long-suffering, not too bright, yet unwaveringly loyal best friend of Andy. In a pivotal scene featuring Clive Owen as himself, Maggie comes to the sad conclusion that she can no longer continue to work as an extra. The scene is played for laughs, but it's uncomfortable to watch, because although we're witnessing the ongoing degradation that Maggie has always suffered as just another warm body on the movie set, it's really the first time Maggie herself realizes what's happening to her. Jensen brilliantly plays it out through nothing more than her facial expressions, and her pain is palpable.Maggie's despair continues as she becomes more distant from Andy and ends up taking jobs as a maid and a dishwasher just to survive. The scene in which she begs Andy's former agent for a job at his new workplace, Car Phone Warehouse, is particularly heartbreaking. Why Jensen was denied a Golden Globe nomination this year is beyond me.Meanwhile, Andy discovers that his new affiliation with a hip and sexy talent firm isn't all it's cracked up to be. Andy wants to be a "serious actor," but all he's offered are throwaway roles in "Dr. Who" and "Hotel Babylon." His new agent stops taking his calls altogether, and Andy realizes the only way to get work is to throw his legitimate acting aspirations out the window and go exclusively for the fame and fortune. He winds up as a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother - something he swore he'd never do - and it's here that the realization of what his life has become finally sets in.In what's probably the most poignant and moving scene in television this year, Andy bares his soul to the watchful eye of the Big Brother camera. Here, Gervais shows he's just as adept at drama as he is at comedy.Just when you think it can't get any worse for the show's characters (Andy's sunk to the lowest of lows, Maggie's living in a run-down, one-room flat, and Andy's agent is a cell phone salesman), Andy has an epiphany, and ultimately, a redemption. What better ending could you hope for than watching Andy and Maggie drive away in her beat up little car, headed for Heathrow airport, the promise of new hope and new adventures in front of them? When a brilliantly executed series ends after such an abbreviated run (see Gervais' "The Office"), I usually feel cheated and longing for more, but not in this case. "Extras" takes us to the place we know these characters need to be, then fondly waves goodbye and doesn't look back.

psycho_randomnumber I've been a long time fan of Ricky and Steve's works over the past decade and was anticipating the Xmas Special for quite a while. We all know it wouldn't have the same emotional and comedic impact as the Office Christmas Specials, but they did very well.At 1hr 25, It's not a minute too long or short. We witness the development , rise and eventual fall of Andy, Maggie and Darren and we empathise. Those of you looking for 85 minutes of non stop gags, you won't find it here. The drama of Maggie's unemployment and Darren's working FULL time in the carphone warehouse are dealt with emotionally and sensitively. But, just like the rest of their work, there is A lot of well observed and well written humour.My personal best moments.1) The Carphone Warehouse Dance. 2) Clive Owen's cameo. 3) Andy in Dr. Who