Any fan of Gervais will know he doesn't pull any punches with most of his TV sitcoms. Doesn't matter if its The Office, Derek or Extras, he will always bring in a storyline that will pull you away from the laughter and comedy for just the briefest of moments, and focus on something far more hard hitting.
In the case of this show, the balance between comedy and his brand of drama, is somewhat reversed. Don't be expecting 20 odd minutes of laughs, and a couple of minutes of grim reality because you will be sorely disappointed.
I must admit to going into this first episode looking for the slap-stick, albeit dark humored comedy given the subject matter of losing one's partner to cancer. But there was no laughter to be found hardly. Instead it was very much a deep-dive into the depressive, abusive and manic world of Gervais' character.
It was hard going quite frankly, and there were moments where I just wanted to give up and press the "stop" button on the remote, primarily because I was expecting some light-relief between all the doom and gloom (Derek & Extras, carried similar pathos at times, but as I mentioned earlier both shows were comedy-first and foremost)
Gervais' character is hard to love even when you consider he is now a widower. He doesn't go looking for support, and tells a lot of home-truths to people he knows and to perfect strangers in the street. He seems to think no one else can feel the same loss, and therefore will never understand. As a consequence he can do whatever he wants because for him life & happiness are distant memories.
There's one or two poignant scenes, especially when he buys a tin of food for his beloved dog. He doesn't buy anything else, not even food for himself. Instead he takes care of his dog because looking after the dog is the only reason he hasn't killed himself!
I am glad I stayed the course because it is quite an eye-opener.
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