When it comes to foul-mouthed comedians who effortlessly offend, take no prisoners, and leave us rolling with laughter, English sensation Ricky Gervais is nigh on unmatched. Despite recently emerging as a cultural phenomenon off the back of his scathing performances as the host of the now disgraced award ceremony, the Golden Globes, Gervais has been in the entertainment industry for decades, and has even won three Golden Globes, as well as two Emmys, of his own.
An accomplished writer, Gervais’ series tend to be crude and are more than comfortable targeting a great many societal stereotypes with uncompromising satire and excruciatingly precise detail. While there are few lines the comic has been unwilling to cross, a lot of his shows have struck audiences not just because of their comedic brilliance, but also for their memorable characters. With a strong working relationship with fellow comedian and writer Stephen Merchant, Ricky Gervais has been a trailblazer of hit TV comedies throughout the early part of the 21st century.
The Ricky Gervais Show (2010-2012) – Unrated (Season One 63%)
The Ricky Gervais Show has gone through many iterations, starting out as a radio show with Gervais and Merchant in 1998 before becoming a hugely successful podcast in the mid 2000s where the duo added Karl Pilkington for his unique insights and bizarre ideas. That podcast was then delightfully animated into a television series in 2010 which featured the ridiculous gags and wild ideas being explored in cartoon form.
With plenty of genuinely hilarious conversations between the trio, the series makes for easy viewing for fans of Gervais and Pilkington, or just fans of dry humor and fun-loving idiocy in general. While season one – the only season to garner critical analysis on Rotten Tomatoes – received largely mixed reviews, the audience rating for the series remains high with Pilkington’s offbeat theories on a range of topics the clear star of the show.
Life’s Too Short (2011-2013) – 53%
Something of a lovechild of Gervais’ Extras and American comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm, Life’s Too Short follows a fictionalized version of Warwick Davis. In the show, Davis is an actor whose career and life appears to be falling apart so, in an attempt to remain in the limelight, he opens his life to a film crew to document the everyday experiences of a professional actor.
Coming to life after Davis formed a good relationship with showrunners Gervais and Merchant while working on Extras, the series maintains the comedian’s trademark mockumentary style and awkward humor. Stacked with appearances from Hollywood A-listers, Life’s Too Short maybe bore too many similarities to past comedies but has plenty of laugh-out-loud moments for diehard Gervais fans, evidenced by a 75% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Derek (2013-2014) – 60%
By far the kindest and most sincere of all the characters Gervais’ has written and portrayed, Derek follows Derek Noakes, a quiet and gentle worker at a retirement home who views the people he works with as his best friends. Another series which attracted more favorable reception from audiences rather than critics, it was argued that the titular character remained two-dimensional, and his overall arc lacked gravitas and evolution.
However, many view Derek to be Gervais’ most affecting work, often sacrificing comedy gags for more dramatic moments and exposing how marginalized elderly people dependent on care really are. Sentimental and deeply endearing, the series showcases the most significant examples of Gervais stretching beyond his comedic roots as both a writer and an actor.
After Life (2019-2022) – 69%
Gervais’ most recent series, Netflix’s After Life is a dark comedy-drama which floats between being wickedly cynical, hopefully uplifting, and deeply depressing. Following Tony (Gervais), a newspaper writer whose perfectly normal life is uprooted when his wife (Kerry Godliman) dies of breast cancer, the series shows no fear in touching upon a vast range of emotions.
Often contemplating suicide, Tony decides to punish the world as a brutally honest, uncaring vagabond dishing out a bit of karma to everyday villains. Loaded with coarse language and crude humor, the series surprisingly finds its greatest moments in its glimmering displays of friendship and love. With a loyal fanbase – as well as a legion of people who have been helped through tough times by the series – After Life is an easily lovable show which is undeniably moving.
An Idiot Abroad (2010-2012)– 77%
Much like The Ricky Gervais Show, An Idiot Abroad sees Gervais slip into the backdrop as his friend Karl Pilkington takes center stage. Sent to visit the Seven Wonders of the World and interact with local traditions, the series blends some of the world’s most exotic sights with the hilarious close-mindedness of Pilkington whose suffering – which is clearly to the delight of co-creators Gervais and Merchant – is impossible not to laugh out loud at.
Certainly one of the more outrageous travel documentaries around, An Idiot Abroad proved to be a commercial success with Pilkington’s observations offering audiences a bewildering insight to the comic's thought process. It earned a second season as well as a three-part holiday special which co-starred Life’s Too Short star Warwick Davis.
Extras (2005-2007) – 88%
If his work on The Office (which will be discussed soon) introduced him as a force in comedy television, then Extras was the series which solidified his claim as one of the genre’s modern greats. The series follows Andy Millman (Gervais), an aspiring actor who struggles to land big roles and resigns himself to working as an extra.
Unable to compete with established A-listers (who Millman claims are blessed with “good luck” more than anything), he navigates the industry with his fellow extra and best friend, Maggie (Ashley Jacobs), and his woefully inept agent Darren Lamb (Merchant). With a trademark endeavor to explore social awkwardness in the most uncomfortable of ways with some of the industry's biggest stars, the series regards nothing as off limits and features a plethora of delightful cameos.
The Office (2001-2003) – 96%
A series which conjures strong emotional reactions from viewers, the masterpiece of cringeworthy comedy remains one of the best and most pulverizing English series – as well as some of Gervais’ most ingenious work – two decades on. The work behind the scenes is razor sharp, with Gervais and Merchant co-writing, co-directing, and co-creating the painfully hilarious mockumentary with aplomb.
Gervais is borderline insufferable as lead character David Brent, the general manager of the Slough branch of a paper distributing company who, despite being viewed as a boorish and offensive colleague, sees himself as a lovable larrikin. The bulk of his co-workers are similarly crude and self-deluded, yet somehow worm their way into audience’s hearts through raw realism and flickering moments of vulnerability. Forever changing the landscape of comedy television, The Office remains a cult classic and has spawned plenty of spinoffs including a U.S. remake which, while existing in a different plane of humor, proved to be a huge success as well.