ashley jensen

Yes, I know it's been a couple of months since the second season of Extras came out on DVD. But since I reviewed Season One earlier this year, I figured it would only be fair to look over Season Two, even if it's only for anal completist reasons (Of course, our UK Bureau -- otherwise known as "Martin Conaghan" -- reviewed the series when it aired on the BBC; his reviews start 1/4 of the way down this page).

From everything I heard and read, the second season of the Ricky Gervais / Stephen Merchant comedy was better than the first season. Of course, given the high standards set by Gervais and Merchant, that was saying a lot. After watching Season Two, I have to say that I agree with those assessments, but not for the reason that you think.

(S01E16) To quote Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill and as The Chin on Ugly Betty, "You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you?" Tonight's theme - "it's complicated." I ended my review last week by saying this, but I think it bears repeating. Watching good TV can be an emotionally masochistic endeavor. One of the first lessons you learn in "how to be a TV writer" class is to put the screws to your characters. This lesson is often phrased as, "Give the audience what they want, and then take it away." This week's episode was all about giving us what we wanted and taking it away. Betty opens up to Henry about her feelings for him. Done. Christina catches a break. Done. Alexis gets to feel a little human connection post-op. Done. Justin gets to see Hairspray. Done. Hope you enjoyed it because now those cruel, cruel writers are going to make us regret that we ever wanted those things to happen in the first place.

Tomorrow night's episode of Ugly Betty will feature a dress designed by one of the show's viewers. Announced a few weeks back, the show held a design-a-dress contest in which viewers could submit sketches of a dress made entirely of office supplies. The winning bubble wrap, newspaper and paper clip confection was created by Ricardo Rodriguez of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Ricardo was flown out to LA and attended the taping of "Derailed," the episode which will feature his design.

The conceit of the episode is that Christina only has a few hours to create a dress for a prominent celebrity, but a blizzard prevents her from the leaving the office for fabric. Fortunately, she's a crafty lady and, like Scarlett O'Hara, Carol Burnett and Julie Andrews before her, uses whatever is available to whip up a celeb-worthy creation.

WARNING: SPOILER AHEAD

As I may have mentioned here once or twice, I was a huge fan of the British version of The Office. No matter what the US version accomplishes or how good it gets, I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for the vision Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant had of the average dead-boring workplace and the relationships that are developed there.

So when I was sent a preview copy of the first season of the pair's follow-up effort, Extras (out Tuesday), I was intrigued but wary: after such a successful debut, the sophomore effort more often than not disappoints. Also, all the reviews of the show I had read during its BBC and HBO runs (I have neither channel) were of the mixed-to-positive variety. So... is it worth buying, renting, or neither? I'll let you know after the jump.

(S01E05) One of the issues I've had with Ugly Betty since it started is that, beyond Betty and Daniel, the show hadn't given viewers any reason to care or invest themselves in any of the characters, including the ones in Betty's Queens neighborhood.

This week's episode starts to remedy some of that; it does a good job of giving some previously unsympathetic characters human characteristics, but it fails to do a good job with deepening others. And the characters that fall into that latter category may surprise you; at this point, I'm starting to like the Mode crew better than the Queens crew, which is something that I'd never thought I'd say.