Warner Bros. | 2010 | 317 mins. | NR
While Ricky Gervais is a cast member of the show that bears his name (and the one most viewers are apt to recognize), the real star is Karl Pilkington, or as Ricky loves to describe him, “the round headed, little chimp.” Pilkington has been working with Gervais and the series co-creator, Stephen Merchant for nearly a decade. He first teamed up with the duo on their London radio show as their producer. Gervais and Merchant quickly realized that Karl had some interesting and peculiar ways of looking at things. After all, Karl has a weird obsession with monkeys.
The show began in 2005 as a series of 12 free podcasts, followed by several “seasons” of for-pay episodes, video shorts, and specials. The 2007 edition of The Guiness Book of World Records named it the most downloaded podcast, ever. In 2010, HBO adapted The Ricky Gervais Show into a TV series, taking audio from the early podcasts and adding a layer of Hanna Barbera-style animation—a mixed-media experiment that’s out on DVD, as The Ricky Gervais Show: The Complete First Season.
Each episode unfolds much like the podcasts: animated versions of its three hosts, Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington, sit around a table in front of their microphones, discussing issues. Animation occasionally attends their discussions. While there’s no real purpose or need for this show, many will appreciate its sharp wit.
We get thirteen episodes:
Disc One
“Space Monkey”
Grandmas birthing babies, dinosaurs and cavemen, and a banana dispenser.
“Knob at Night”
Cambodian Midget Fighting League vs. lion, sex machines, and reality TV appetizers.
“Charity”
Goats as gifts, lame superpowers, and a monkey interview.
“Dolphins”
Tribal police, Russian wood, and deadly dolphins.
“Glass Houses”
Freaks, toffee shops, and literal interpretations of well-known sayings.
• “Cobblers”
Thumbless dishwashing, Bruce Willis beats Churchill, and shoe repair.
• “The Diary”
Karl’s vacation diary, nicknames, and CB radio slang.
Disc Two
“Nuts”
Homeless advertising, face transplants, and animal improvement.
“The Jockey”
Talking with animals, diapers on a train, and wewes.
“The Fight”
Child re-education, dishwashers on Mars, and doppelganger time travel.
“Beetles”
Valentine’s Day, slug life, and an old folks home for monkeys.
“Noises”
James Lipton questionnaire, worm rescue, and freaky baby laughter.
“Freaks”
Meeting God, bike riding, and Karl’s Top 5 Freaks.
For those not familiar with Karl, he is both caustic and funny. However not everyone will appreciate his style. He holds back nothing. He’s fascinated with “freaks” and repeatedly returns to the subject. He’s also xenophobic (and moderately homophobic, as made clear by his constant fear of sexual assault by male doctors), at one point drawing the ire of Ricky and Steve when he claims that “some bacteria lives better than that,” in reference to the Inuit. Not everyone will approve of Karl’s views (I certainly don’t, much of the time), but he certainly has conviction.
The 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer captures the simple, but solid animation very well. There is some color bleed and a few instances of compression artifacts, but its still worthy.
The English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track is dialogue dependent and front heavy. Dialogue is as clear and additional effects are good. Overall, the 5.1 mix is probably not necessary.
We get two special features: “Comedy Gala Animation” is a promotional spot for the show, while “Episode Storyboard” is the third episode presented as a series of production storyboards.
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