!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In my eager froth of a nearly year-long anticipation of the Extras finale, I wondered, of course, how it would all be wrapped up. Would they show Andy having progressed in his career or having become a has-been? Would Andy and Maggie get together or not? (Interestingly, the answer to the first question was both.) The second question bothered me: did I even WANT them to get together? Because EVERYONE, obviously, wanted Dawn and Tim (from Gervais’s The Office) to get together. Two cute, young things like them? Why not? But can you imagine Andy and Maggie having a romantic moment? It would be comical—almost gross. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, major apologies to both fantastic actors. But it’s just that we’re so used to seeing gorgeous people as romantic leads in both serious dramas and romantic comedies that envisioning a “character actor” in those roles comes off as just kind of weird. Additionally, Maggie and Andy, specifically, are so far from the requisite schmaltz of the beautiful moment in which two characters finally accept their feelings for each other and kiss. It would come off as totally false. Part of the enduring make-up of those characters—along with Maggie’s stupidity and Andy’s self-aggrandizing—is their complete ignorance of their own feelings for each other. Thus, their getting together would mean the characters as we know them have ceased to exist. (See below for my review of Extras if you think their feelings for each other couldn’t possibly be more than platonic.)
So I concluded that I did NOT want to see them get together. However, having now seen the episode and suffered the disappointment of it not, in fact, happening, I now would say that I would much rather that they had gotten together instead. It’s so unsatisfying mainly because it means that their relationship has not changed—it ended up right where it started from. You might say that that the whole show was like that—after all, Andy’s career, too, comes full circle. But that’s actually precisely where the difference is: Andy’s career, superficially speaking, comes to the same place, but there’s a total difference in his OUTLOOK on it: instead of grasping for fame, he freely gives it up because he knows it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. His attitude toward Maggie, however, remains IDENTICAL to how it started. Sure, they go through a rocky patch, but after they get through it, Andy has learned nothing except to value the friendship even if he gets super famous. That’s, like, nothing! It’s still, at base, a friendship. His attitude towards fame goes through a much larger, more transformative arc.
And it’s not just my patheticaly hopeless, girly romantic imagination conjuring this up. The entire episode (like the rest of the series) seemed primed for their getting together. The moment in the “Diary Room” when he’s asked if he misses anything from the outside world, then CUTS TO MAGGIE, who is watching, and then he admits “Loads of stuff”, seems charged with a realization that he loves her. You might be thinking, well, he could just be realizing that he loves her AS A FRIEND, but again, since he already felt that way in the beginning, who fucking cares? And if THAT wasn’t clear enough as a realization, then his little tearful speech to her should have been.
So, omg, when he gets into the car with her, I just SO WISH they had kissed then. In spite of all my hesitations about seeing them get together, the fact that they didn’t made the whole show feel like just one huge tease (like The X-Files, Voyager...). And in a way, it was also completely unrealistic!! Come on, if you knew a guy and a girl who were best friends like that, wouldn’t they eventually get together, PARTICULARLY if they didn’t already have a boyfriend and/or girlfriend?? (I mean, come on; When Harry Met Sally!) It’s WAY too suspicious, and thus their not getting together feels totally artificial.
So WHY then did Gervais and Merchant maintain that artifice? I can only surmise that they were convinced of the same reservations I initially had—perhaps additionally, that Gervais has no intention of pawning himself off as a romantic lead—probably a smart career move. Maybe it’s some sick, sadistic refusal to give the audience what they want, à la The X-Files and Voyager (although I doubt that because of, as I mentioned earlier, Dawn and Tim getting together in The Office). Nevertheless, I feel that they made a mistake, and that they should have gone all out and taken the risk. So it might have been off, it might have been weird, but SO WHAT. It would have happened, should have happened, and it would have been so damn sweet!!! Now I think that actually seeing Andy and Maggie being that vulnerable together would have been really awesome—finally acting on what had clearly been under the surface for so long. I don’t care HOW funny they are. In fact, hello! Gervais and Merchant are freakin' comic GENIUSES! I'm sure they could have found SOME way to pull it off in such a way that wouldn't be weird.
On other notes, I was mainly surprised and chagrined at the fact that the episode was so SLOW. Both the editing and writing lumbered along as if Gervais and Merchant had a 40-minute episode that someone convinced them to expand to 140 minutes. Major mistake. We get to see montage after montage of Maggie looking sad and sullen and Andy looking miffed and self-righteous. There are several ENTIRE SCENES that reiterate stuff we already know and should have been cut. It’s really bizarre. I can only sadly surmise that they were pushed to do so by the usual ad-money-raking suits at HBO and/or the BBC, and just couldn’t think of anything better to fill the time. If that’s really true, I imagine (or at least would hope) Gervais (who in his interview with Larry David talks about how one should be a fascist about one’s art) must have been FURIOUS at such unreasonable demands.
Also, surprisingly, they make frequent use of music during scene transitions, something which I don’t remember Extras having EVER done, and which I’ve even (controversially, apparently) heartily commended them on (see the below comparison of Extras and Scrubs.) Even more disappointingly, the TYPE of music they chose was the schmaltziest Christmas-style tripe I’ve ever heard. It got to the point where I was almost positive that Ricky and Steve were MAKING FUN of the schmaltzy Christmas TV movies that unfortunately abound at this time of year. Or that they were mirroring Andy’s increasingly taking himself too seriously.
On a more positive bent, there were, as I expected, a few HILARIOUS moments, especially towards the beginning, of course. The moment with Gobbler and the sandwiches was GENIUS. And the interview with the journalist, at the same time that it dishes out the usual crushing, mortifying moment of Gervais and Merchant’s work, lets good ol’ David Brent peek out from behind the curtain in what is essentially a CLASSIC Office-type moment; even Andy’s facial expressions momentarily flash those of Brent’s.
And we get more scenes of “When the Whistle Blows”, which I was extremely grateful for.
I have no conclusion. That's it.
In my eager froth of a nearly year-long anticipation of the Extras finale, I wondered, of course, how it would all be wrapped up. Would they show Andy having progressed in his career or having become a has-been? Would Andy and Maggie get together or not? (Interestingly, the answer to the first question was both.) The second question bothered me: did I even WANT them to get together? Because EVERYONE, obviously, wanted Dawn and Tim (from Gervais’s The Office) to get together. Two cute, young things like them? Why not? But can you imagine Andy and Maggie having a romantic moment? It would be comical—almost gross. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, major apologies to both fantastic actors. But it’s just that we’re so used to seeing gorgeous people as romantic leads in both serious dramas and romantic comedies that envisioning a “character actor” in those roles comes off as just kind of weird. Additionally, Maggie and Andy, specifically, are so far from the requisite schmaltz of the beautiful moment in which two characters finally accept their feelings for each other and kiss. It would come off as totally false. Part of the enduring make-up of those characters—along with Maggie’s stupidity and Andy’s self-aggrandizing—is their complete ignorance of their own feelings for each other. Thus, their getting together would mean the characters as we know them have ceased to exist. (See below for my review of Extras if you think their feelings for each other couldn’t possibly be more than platonic.)
So I concluded that I did NOT want to see them get together. However, having now seen the episode and suffered the disappointment of it not, in fact, happening, I now would say that I would much rather that they had gotten together instead. It’s so unsatisfying mainly because it means that their relationship has not changed—it ended up right where it started from. You might say that that the whole show was like that—after all, Andy’s career, too, comes full circle. But that’s actually precisely where the difference is: Andy’s career, superficially speaking, comes to the same place, but there’s a total difference in his OUTLOOK on it: instead of grasping for fame, he freely gives it up because he knows it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. His attitude toward Maggie, however, remains IDENTICAL to how it started. Sure, they go through a rocky patch, but after they get through it, Andy has learned nothing except to value the friendship even if he gets super famous. That’s, like, nothing! It’s still, at base, a friendship. His attitude towards fame goes through a much larger, more transformative arc.
And it’s not just my patheticaly hopeless, girly romantic imagination conjuring this up. The entire episode (like the rest of the series) seemed primed for their getting together. The moment in the “Diary Room” when he’s asked if he misses anything from the outside world, then CUTS TO MAGGIE, who is watching, and then he admits “Loads of stuff”, seems charged with a realization that he loves her. You might be thinking, well, he could just be realizing that he loves her AS A FRIEND, but again, since he already felt that way in the beginning, who fucking cares? And if THAT wasn’t clear enough as a realization, then his little tearful speech to her should have been.
So, omg, when he gets into the car with her, I just SO WISH they had kissed then. In spite of all my hesitations about seeing them get together, the fact that they didn’t made the whole show feel like just one huge tease (like The X-Files, Voyager...). And in a way, it was also completely unrealistic!! Come on, if you knew a guy and a girl who were best friends like that, wouldn’t they eventually get together, PARTICULARLY if they didn’t already have a boyfriend and/or girlfriend?? (I mean, come on; When Harry Met Sally!) It’s WAY too suspicious, and thus their not getting together feels totally artificial.
So WHY then did Gervais and Merchant maintain that artifice? I can only surmise that they were convinced of the same reservations I initially had—perhaps additionally, that Gervais has no intention of pawning himself off as a romantic lead—probably a smart career move. Maybe it’s some sick, sadistic refusal to give the audience what they want, à la The X-Files and Voyager (although I doubt that because of, as I mentioned earlier, Dawn and Tim getting together in The Office). Nevertheless, I feel that they made a mistake, and that they should have gone all out and taken the risk. So it might have been off, it might have been weird, but SO WHAT. It would have happened, should have happened, and it would have been so damn sweet!!! Now I think that actually seeing Andy and Maggie being that vulnerable together would have been really awesome—finally acting on what had clearly been under the surface for so long. I don’t care HOW funny they are. In fact, hello! Gervais and Merchant are freakin' comic GENIUSES! I'm sure they could have found SOME way to pull it off in such a way that wouldn't be weird.
On other notes, I was mainly surprised and chagrined at the fact that the episode was so SLOW. Both the editing and writing lumbered along as if Gervais and Merchant had a 40-minute episode that someone convinced them to expand to 140 minutes. Major mistake. We get to see montage after montage of Maggie looking sad and sullen and Andy looking miffed and self-righteous. There are several ENTIRE SCENES that reiterate stuff we already know and should have been cut. It’s really bizarre. I can only sadly surmise that they were pushed to do so by the usual ad-money-raking suits at HBO and/or the BBC, and just couldn’t think of anything better to fill the time. If that’s really true, I imagine (or at least would hope) Gervais (who in his interview with Larry David talks about how one should be a fascist about one’s art) must have been FURIOUS at such unreasonable demands.
Also, surprisingly, they make frequent use of music during scene transitions, something which I don’t remember Extras having EVER done, and which I’ve even (controversially, apparently) heartily commended them on (see the below comparison of Extras and Scrubs.) Even more disappointingly, the TYPE of music they chose was the schmaltziest Christmas-style tripe I’ve ever heard. It got to the point where I was almost positive that Ricky and Steve were MAKING FUN of the schmaltzy Christmas TV movies that unfortunately abound at this time of year. Or that they were mirroring Andy’s increasingly taking himself too seriously.
On a more positive bent, there were, as I expected, a few HILARIOUS moments, especially towards the beginning, of course. The moment with Gobbler and the sandwiches was GENIUS. And the interview with the journalist, at the same time that it dishes out the usual crushing, mortifying moment of Gervais and Merchant’s work, lets good ol’ David Brent peek out from behind the curtain in what is essentially a CLASSIC Office-type moment; even Andy’s facial expressions momentarily flash those of Brent’s.
And we get more scenes of “When the Whistle Blows”, which I was extremely grateful for.
I have no conclusion. That's it.
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