![]() ![]() It is terribly cloying and clunky to say the least. Once we have had a chance to laugh at, sorry "with" the characters, we get into the drama in which the music is as obvious as it comes, Derek gets to stare mournfully from inside simple eyes and a "life goes on" message sort of comes out. I have read some reviews of it defending this saying "it isn't that type of comedy" as if it is more high-brow, but yet we have "high-brow" gags such as Gervais falling in a pond (a gag so signposted that it appeared in the previous programme on channel 4) and then running naked across the old people's home. The comedy isn't funny – not even at all. This split is made worse by neither working. In terms of structure, this isn't comedy/drama as in the two are merged together and play off each other like The Office, I mean it is comedy, then drama – and never the twain shall meet. I'll comment on this but for me this was a side issue – the main thing was whether or not this half hour of comedy drama was any good. When it showed recently critics seem to be split but they were generally split on whether or not Gervais was giving a good portrayal of a simple type helping in his community or if he was being offensively insulting to those he was trying to represent with Derek. And it seems such a long time ago doesn't it? I know this is because it is about 10 years old now but work like Derek just make it seem even more like a distant memory. It was painfully well observed, all at once funny but tragically sad and it had great characters throughout it. The Office was a work of genius that will stand for time as such, that it spawned a successful US version and created a slew of comedies using the "fly on the wall" documentary approach just serves to confirm this. ![]()
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