The new HBO series The Ricky Gervais Show is an animated retelling of the Office/Extras creator and star's celebrated podcasts with creative partner Steven Merchant and radio producer Karl Pilkington. Their stories are familiar to fans, but the cartoon renderings of the trio and their jokes add whimsy to their dry, delirious repartee. The question is whether that whimsy is substantial, or just a gimmick that does more to hinder the group's wit than enhance it.
Truthfully, video would be twice as compelling as animation, even if we're treated to goofy renderings of their material in this format. Drollness just doesn't register well on a cartoon character's face.
But as you see (or rather, hear) while the premiere progresses, the visual stimuli is as important as dancing cherries on a slot machine. It's all about what's inside, and on The Ricky Gervais Show, the yarns are often raucous and sometimes directionless. The least engaging member of the trio, Karl Pilkington, steals much of the running time for himself, leaving Gervais and Merchant without enough time to gawk, guffaw, and retort. And of course, that's why we're watching at all. Though there a number of good quips here (particularly, "Did you not realize that The Flintstones was only partly based on fact?"), you can glean The Ricky Gervais Show's best attributes from an iTunes listening session.