The Ricky Gervais Show - Review

Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site Whether you love him or hate him, Ricky Gervais’ TV career has taken some dramatic turns over the past decade, with Ricky now being world famous, as well as moving on up into the film world. However, Ricky Gervais has a “new” TV show out in the UK now which you might have not heard about – The Ricky Gervais Show.

The Ricky Gervais Show is not actually new material written by Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant, but, instead, the Ricky Gervais podcasts (which are hugely successful in their own right) have been turned into an animated TV show. The first series of the podcasts literally makes up the first series of the animated TV show, with each podcast being animated professionally and with great success.

Presumably, the idea was formed out of some amateur animations (but still hilarious) that Ricky found on the internet, as he would often link to those videos on his personal blog. There was potential in animating an audio show and Ricky Gervais has taken advantage of that potential.

The show consists of Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant talking to their (slightly bizarre) friend, Karl Pilkington. Anybody that has listened to the podcasts, or even the old radio shows, knows what is so special about Karl, and that really boils down to his insane opinions on everything. Whether it is which animal he would make extinct because it doesn’t have a purpose or on the definition of art, Karl’s opinions are almost always hilarious, and sometimes they are scarily correct too.

There was perhaps a danger that Karl’s personality wouldn’t transfer over to the TV world, and this is definitely untrue. Blended with the animations, the stories that Karl tells, often involving some sort of monkey, definitely help Karl’s personality transfer onto the screen. The show was almost guaranteed to be funny on the TV, however, as Karl is so funny, with the help of some prodding by Ricky and Steve, that they could have just taken the audio from the podcast and played it on TV, with only one background picture present at all times, and it would still work.

Still, the animation does actually make the TV show unique. Most of the show is just a cartoon version of the three men sitting at a table talking, just like they did for the podcast, but some inserts are also made when stories are being told, working much like flashbacks. Every little detail that we would miss by only listening to the show, such as the unique looks to each other or body gestures as Ricky gets angry at Karl’s idiotic theories, is highlighted by the animations. The animations are also brilliantly done, from a technical standpoint: it is a simple, cartoony style that does not get too flashy, but it carries the theme of the show itself, which means the core of the show is not lost in translation.

I’m not going to say the animations make this new TV show better than the podcasts, because I literally don’t know which format I prefer, but they are both outstanding comedy works that are unscripted and downright hilarious. The podcasts, and by extension, the TV show offer a different look at Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant because they did not spend months writing every little detail, like they did in The Office and Extras, but they just talk and are naturally funny, and although Karl is the superstar of the show, it is impossible to overlook the two comic geniuses that sit opposite him, steering Karl into saying ridiculous, hilarious things.

Everybody should watch this show as it offers something slightly different to the usual Ricky Gervais productions, but also still features that magical touch that Ricky and Steve have.

Andrew Cadman