Life's Too Short

The latest offering from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, "Life's Too Short" featuring Warwick Davies as the lead starts next Thursday.

Apparantly it is in the "mockumentary" style once again, with Warwick playing an exaggerated, and self-obsessed version of himself (I assume taking inspiration from Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm, of which Gervais is a massive fan, and recently a star). Warwick, is of course a dwarf - so it will be interesting to see what sort of humour is derived from this. Though the image of Andy Millman kicking a dwarf in the head in Extras was indeed hilarious... is there really enough dwarf humour to fill an entire series without falling into cliched set-ups and bad taste?

In anyone else's hands but Gervais and Merchant's, I'd have my doubts. But this should be a good watch - and one I've been looking forward to for a long time. I'm hoping the lead time between announcing the show and getting it to screen is indicative of a lot of time and care gone into it, rather than a lack of ideas. I wonder if it will live up to the excellence of The Office and Extras? Especially with Gervais stepping away from the camera's glare this time around?

Oh - Gervais hasn't stepped away from the camera's glare at all. He was in it. To be honest he had to be though, because as per usual it is his reactions that make the comedy even funnier.

It was ok - a few laugh out loud moments, but Warwick Davies' character was just David Brent.

Liam Neeson was excellent though.

I thought Liam Neeson stole the show he was brilliant and really believable

I saw the interview preview thing they had on last week and by the looks of it its gonna get funnier each week

Warwick getting out of the 4x4, was a stand out moment.

Not on the same level as Extras, which I preferred to The Office, for me but funny nevertheless. If you were being critical you might just say Gervais and Merchant are writing the same stuff over and over again, Davis is just Brent, but if you are good at it why change!

Liam Neeson's cameo was awesome. One of the best moments in TV this year! "I wasn't here yesterday. I was at the doctor's. I've got AIDS".

Brilliantly deadpan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&v=MKTh7zBIcrM

The full Liam Neeson part, so funny even the 4th time!

Only watched episodes 1 and 2 the other day as they were on my Sky+, I think it's brilliant and very cringeworthy, in a good way.

Warwick Davies is good, but overshadowed by the exceptional cameos, week 1 from Liam Neeson, week 2 from Johnny Depp and the whole Star Wars convention and wedding had me in stitches!

I had my doubts at first but was won over, love it.

[quote="Marky"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&v=MKTh7zBIcrM

The full Liam Neeson part, so funny even the 4th time!

"Tring" "we're closed"

[quote="martyr_94"]

Marky wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&v=MKTh7zBIcrM

The full Liam Neeson part, so funny even the 4th time!

"Tring" "we're closed"

Well Liam Neeson certainly was the star of this show. It's been pretty poor since his appearence. Warwick Davies is funny in parts but it's a bit too predictble.

Was funny when he fell out of his 4x4 on last nights show

This series has been terrible.

Liam Neeson's bit was funny, and the whole Johnny Depp episode was hilarious. The rest has been crap. I may give up now

Electric Demon wrote:This series has been terrible.

Liam Neeson's bit was funny, and the whole Johnny Depp episode was hilarious. The rest has been crap. I may give up now

Well at least you liked two of teh 4 episodes shown so far!

No - I only liked the Liam Neeson bit. Not the whole episode.

Yeah I think it's getting worse.

This weeks wasnt as good as before (although I loved the right said fred bit!) but its still better than most other comedies on TV.

Only 2 more episodes to go so I will see it through to the end.

I think it's just so disappointing when you consider The Office, Extras and even An Idiot Abroad have been a lot more funny than this. I think every week the funniest parts are Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's office scenes, from Liam Neeson, to Johnny Depp to the Steve Carrell bit this week.

I thought the best scene of the entire show was at the very end of the show where Les Dennis walks in and Gervais just tells him to F off.

Johnny Depp with the dictaphone was the funniest thing of the series. That was just mental.

I don't know, the Liam Neeson part was hilarious.

Also I forgot to mention probably the gem of the show, the secretary! I think she's great every week, perfect dead pan.

I think a big problem is that Warwick Davis isn't really funny...

I agree Crimey - the secretary is brilliant. Its a shame her performance gets lost in amongst the bad stuff

No-one going to mention Warwick Davies climbing a bookcase and falling off? That was brilliant!

I think too many people are watching it as a laugh out loud comedy sitcom, when in reality it was only ever going to be a spoof documentary, it isn't meant to be full of jokes, it's meant to be awkward, it's meant to be borderline cringeworthy, it's not quite as good as The Office or Extras but I still really like it!

I think the comedy is similar to The Office and Extras, but unfortunately I think because of how brilliant Gervais and Merchant's stuff has been in the past it has been disappointing. It's like a mash up of Extras and Office with a midget, but it just isn't even anywhere near as good. Almost as if its all the unused jokes from their first two shows.

On the subject of Merchant, anyone else think he should stick to just writing comedy rather than be in them? I don't find him funny at all, just another comedian who thinks having a west country accent is enough to be funny, like that scruffy guy with the long hair (forgot his name).

Especially on those damned annoying Barclays adverts "is the squirrell relelvant, the squirells not relevant?"

Really? I thought Merchant was hilarious in Extras. I thought his character was by far the best one in those series's!

I dunno why but I just don't find him funny. It's the same with that other comedian with the west country accent, he had his own series trying to learn stuff in a short space of time, used to be a sort of double act with Alan Carr.

Stephen Merchant's stand up is hilarious, by the way. If you haven't seen it, check it out

JPX wrote:I dunno why but I just don't find him funny. It's the same with that other comedian with the west country accent, he had his own series trying to learn stuff in a short space of time, used to be a sort of double act with Alan Carr.

Justin Lee Collins?

gcBlues wrote:Stephen Merchant's stand up is hilarious, by the way. If you haven't seen it, check it out

Good Call.

I bought his stand up DVD Hello Ladies... the other week and it's actually very funny.

I didn't see Extras but have been watching recently Life Too Short on iplayer. I think it is brilliant and painfully hilarious in parts but the critics have panned it. I suspect it has to do with the subject matter. I think Warwick Davies plays it perfectly and all the supporting characters (secretary, accountant etc) play off him really well. Overall (IMO) it is stupidity and prejudice transformed into comedy genius.

Nore Staat wrote:I didn't see Extras but have been watching recently Life Too Short on iplayer. I think it is brilliant and painfully hilarious in parts but the critics have panned it. I suspect it has to do with the subject matter. I think Warwick Davies plays it perfectly and all the supporting characters (secretary, accountant etc) play off him really well. Overall (IMO) it is stupidity and prejudice transformed into comedy genius.

I think you'll probably like it a lot more because you didn't see Extras where it did a lot of what Life's Too Short has done but a lot better. Have you seen the Office? Warwick Davis is essentially the same as the main character in that as well. It's just not up to the same high quality of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's usual high quality programs. It feels almost like the deleted scenes of their last two shows.

I have seen some of the Office but not all of it, and not when it was first shown. From my perspective Warwick Davis plays an egotistical midget with many prejudices including some prejudice against other midgets, but he is overall a likeable character. Ricky Gervais in the Office played a fairly different character in my opinion (he seemed more of an idiot, more unprepared, a person who bulls---ted his way through life, someone who was socially inept, and someone who was prejudiced but in a different way). There are some similarities but are also some large differences (IMO). I think this will probably attain a cult status.

But at the moment I note low audience figures (less than a million in recent episodes) as well as a few poor reviews from the "professional" critics.

However, elsewhere there are those that do appear to "love it" e.g. "Rated 8.2/10 from 944 users" from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1641247/

I think people are just criticising it because Ricky Gervais is successful.

And he fell off a bookcase.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tzK_AzyNUc

Gameshow Heist wrote:I think people are just criticising it because Ricky Gervais is successful.

What do you mean by this?

I'm certainly not criticizing it because of Gervais, I'm a huge fan of him, I love his podcasts, The Office, Extras, Cemetery Junction, his stand up. (His films aren't great, not too bad though.)

I don't think Life's Too Short is that bad, just not as good as The Office or Extras so in that respect is disappointing.

invincibleILeak (CL-6WF) wrote:

Gameshow Heist wrote:I think people are just criticising it because Ricky Gervais is successful.

What do you mean by this?

I'm certainly not criticizing it because of Gervais, I'm a huge fan of him, I love his podcasts, The Office, Extras, Cemetery Junction, his stand up. (His films aren't great, not too bad though.)

I don't think Life's Too Short is that bad, just not as good as The Office or Extras so in that respect is disappointing.

He's set the standard too high. When you keep performing at a ten even a nine is seen as a slip up.