Derek Episode 5 Review

Derek: A Review of Half an Episode. by Paul Griffin

As a self-professed RSK mega-fan since early 2007, I, like others, anticipated greatly the debut of Derek on Channel 4. After the promising pilot aired early last year, followed by a more than fair opening to this season’s run, things looked bright for the series, and more importantly, for everyone’s favourite (former) chubby funster, Ricky Gervais himself, after the critical disaster that was Warwick Davis vehicle “Life’s Too Short”. Was the ill-fated dwarf-umentary merely a blip in an otherwise strong creative resumé, or had Gervais’ creative powers started to wane, revealing him as a one-trick pony unable to escape the comfort zone he repeatedly returned to?

Sadly, it appears the answer lies somewhere in between. After what most would consider a strong opening, erring on a return to form, Derek’s second episode completely stunk out the joint. A bizarre, unfunny birthday episode featuring the most transparent bad-girl-turns-good story you’re likely to see make it past the waste paper basket and end up on your television screen. Never one to take criticism well, Gervais advised critics not to ponder the show’s failings, but simply to stop watching and spend their time better elsewhere. So I did. Having skipped episodes three and four in favour of literally anything else, I found myself sat here at 10:15 GMT on a Wednesday with nothing at all else to do. With that, I decided the time had come to return to Channel 4 and to give Derek a second chance, albeit only for half an episode. I wasn’t ready to commit to a full 30 minutes after having been burned before. What transpired over the next quarter-hour left me baffled, disappointed, and a little disturbed.

We pick up the show, completely out of context with an amateur-ish establishing shot of the nursing home on a cold damp night. Immediately I’m struck by the cinematography. This honestly would not have felt out of place in Father Ted or any of the other early ’90s sitcoms; none of which were renowned for their shooting styles, but rather for their humour, ironically enough. Fair enough, I figure, can’t really blame Gervais for that...

In any case, there’s a talent show in progress. Not sure why exactly. Again, I’m only picking it up halfway through. I imagine it’s to keep spirits up among the elderly inhabitants of the home. Although, I’m sure bingo or something would have sufficed.

Derek stumbles out and performs a bizarre ventriloquist act, the joke of which is that while he does the voice of the hand puppet, he puts his hand down and speaks with his own voice, which is then followed up by an impression of Stephen Hawking (the funniest joke in the half). Kev, meanwhile, performs an impression of his own, doing his best impersonation of Tim from The Office, muttering under his breath and looking at the camera, bewildered.

We then have what appears to be the main set-piece of the episode, a performance of Kev’s Duran Duran play. Again, the joke here appears to be silly men dressed in wacky outfits and wigs. You know… the kind of stuff that was the source of scorn and ridicule in earlier Gervais works. Of course, Hannah claps wildly like a complete fool and laughs hysterically at this, because she is kind or something. The girl from episode two is still there, also guffawing uncontrollably, but frankly I wouldn’t have expected any less from her ilk.

We get a Derek talking head, during which he explains it’s good to make old people laugh because they aren’t long for this world. That’s right folks, as long as old people laugh, even if it’s because of their increasingly harmful dementia or senility, it’s good because they’re going to end up in the scrapheap before long. I feel the point would have made more sense if it had been something like how it’s good to make them laugh because their families forget about them and their lives at this stage are ultimately depressing and pointless, but then the Derek character is presented as a child anyway, so maybe he doesn’t understand such moral quandaries. “I JUST WANT OLD PEOPLE TO LAUGH AND BE HAPPY”. #Kindnessismagic

The episode then closes out with a rap from a black man, who must have been introduced earlier on in the episode as an antagonist, similar to how that Victoria Beckham girl was in episode two. Ricky Gervais, being the great artist he is, is not afraid to shy away from the convention that all black people rap and dance. Ironic again, since Gervais’ own performance often borders on a type of minstrel act. Naturally the rapper comes to the conclusion that old people are actually alright and I SWEAR TO GOD closes out the show by uttering to Derek the most cringe-worthy line of Gervais’ whole writing career: “No. You’re brilliant, BRUV”.

Of course, it’s not all doom and gloom. “Non-actor” Karl Pilkington once again shines as Dougie, the downtrodden caretaker, and indeed his scenes were the highlight of the 15 minutes here. Aside from that though, there’s not really much to encourage further watching. Ricky promises that episode six is the “best episode of TV” he’s ever written, but given that I won’t be watching, I’m left to ponder whether Gervais honestly believes it himself, or if his standards have slipped, much like how his creative skills have.