| 100 |
Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett
Incisive, fearless and laugh-out-loud funny, "Extras" will appeal to anyone who liked "The Larry Sanders Show" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm." |
| 100 |
New York Daily News David Hinckley
If you loved "The Office" you may have grave doubts that any followup comedy could be as good and as quote-the-dialogue funny. "Extras" is that - another triumph, and a perfect Sunday-night companion piece for "Curb Your Enthusiasm." |
| 100 |
People Weekly Tom Gliatto
A looser show [than The Office], another comedy of frustration, but with a feckless sweetness (which is exactly what My Name Is Earl lacks). [17 Oct 2005, p.39] |
| 100 |
The New Republic Lee Siegel
The most original and brilliant show on television. |
| 90 |
Washington Post Tom Shales
It's got edge galore, but it's the kind that sneaks up on you and proves again that Gervais has the subtlest kind of brilliance, hard to categorize but easy to enjoy. |
| 90 |
Los Angeles Times Robert Lloyd
At once more modest and more ambitious than its predecessor; more focused on detail and yet more expansive. It is also excruciatingly funny, with an emphasis on excruciating. |
| 90 |
Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert
'Extras" is far less terminally existential than ''The Office," less depressing to watch. |
| 90 |
Slate Dana Stevens
Even if Extras never accedes to The Office's heights of comic sublimity, it's still a rare find on American TV: a series that combines the ascendant genre of cringe comedy with Gervais' rich comic gifts, and his trademark humanism. |
| 90 |
The New York Times Alessandra Stanley
A worthy and exhilarating new HBO companion to "Curb Your Enthusiasm." |
| 88 |
Detroit Free Press Mike Duffy
An instant chucklehead classic. |
| 88 |
Slant Magazine Eric Neigher
Not quite The Office II, not quite a wholly different breed, Extras should nevertheless please Gervais aficionados and newcomers alike. |
| 80 |
Wall Street Journal Dorothy Rabinowitz
Mr. Gervais has in no way lost his touch. |
| 80 |
The Onion A.V. Club
No one can backpedal his way into a ditch quite like Gervais. |
| 80 |
LA Weekly Robert Abele
[Merchant and Gervais'] meetings are gemlike exchanges of deadpan incompetence and hair-pulling frustration, worthy of the bygone era of comedy teams. |
| 80 |
TV Guide Matt Roush
Extras captures the stifling boredom and raging egotism of life behind the camera. |
| 80 |
San Jose Mercury News Charlie McCollum
"Extras'' doesn't quite rise to the same level [as "The Office"], but it is very funny and Gervais plays another memorable character |
| 80 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Melanie McFarland
Very British, coasting on quiet pauses, subtle digs and ironic discomfort -- a bonus for some, a strong negative for many. |
| 80 |
Variety Brian Lowry
Gervais and Merchant excel at capturing scenes of quiet discomfort as well as palpable desperation in the face of near-constant rejection. Those qualities elevate "Extras""Extras" above the surface-deep "Entourage" or often-frustrating "The Comeback." |
| 75 |
USA Today Robert Bianco
Though he's playing a smarter, wittier, more self aware character than he did in The Office, Gervais displays the same gift for the social faux pas, and the same inability to extract himself from increasingly improper conversations. |
| 75 |
New York Post Linda Stasi
Not that the show will be everyone's English cup of tea, but there are enough "A" list Hollywood stars (making fun of themselves) each week to bring in even the most easily offended, but curious, viewers. |
| 70 |
PopMatters Tim Whitelaw
Millman is closer to Gervais than Brent ever was, and Extras teases out compelling tension from his desperate efforts to enter the world of the glitterati. |
| 60 |
Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan
Millman... is kind of an irritating guy, and the conceit of the show wears thin pretty quickly. |
| 60 |
Village Voice Joy Press
Gervais is a comic genius specializing in the art of discomfort, but this new character doesn't have the same compelling anti-charisma as The Office's David Brent--in part because Andy is such a peripheral figure in his workplace, but also because he's a more subtle creation, a mixed bag of the admirable and reprehensible. |
| 25 |
Chicago Sun-Times Doug Elfman
Tedious. |
