Extras

Last night I was watching the whole of the second season of Extras on DVD. The show was a British sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, about a movie extra (basically one of the people hired to fill out the background in movies and TV shows) desperately trying to hit the big time. By the second season, Andy Millman (Gervais) is no longer an extra but has his own sitcom which he writes and stars in but, unfortunately for him, the BBC change his concept from a realistic, innovative sitcom to basically one relying on irritating catchphrases (such as "you 'aving a laugh? Is he having a laugh?"), sterotypes and comedy wigs and glasses. He also still has to deal with his friend Maggie (Ashley Jensen) and her disasterous love life and his idiotic agent Darren (Merchant) (when negotiating a deal for his client: "Does he still get paid even if his performance is crap?... He does? You've got more money than sense, mate".) Millman also manages to annoy almost everyone, including celebrities such as Orlando Bloom, Daniel Radcliffe, David Bowie, Ian McKellan and Robert DeNiro. I really like Ricky Gervais' stuff. I think that he is really funny.

It was the start of another week at work today. It was also really quiet, as it usually is.

I had an idea for something like a fantasy take on The Wire, and what I mean by that is that what I liked with The Wire was the way it created this deeply complex and detailed protrait of an American city, and I had the idea of doing the same thing except with a fictional city populated by supernatural creatures, I suppose something a bit like a supernatural soap opera in a way.