Today news broke via Ricky Gervais' Twitter account that Derek, Gervais' most recent TV comedy drama, has been commissioned by channel 4 for a full first season. Reports from channel 4 suggest the series will air in early 2013.
For me, this is great news. I saw the pilot as both funny and touching. The lovably ignorant Karl Pilkington - playing the care home janitor - shined in the pilot and, oddly, was often the voice of reason amongst the other quirky characters like Derek. Gervais, I feel, explores a more emotive style than ever in his writing and yet still managed to generate the kind of humour everyone has come to expect from his work.
It's, of course, difficult to talk at length about Derek having only seen the pilot. What I will say though, is that it presented a number of important opportunities for the development of the full season. I saw the opportunity for a real connection with the family of characters and, importantly, I felt like it had the same potential for truly classic moments as The Office.
There were occasional moments in Derek where dialogue appeared a little forced. For example, at times Gervais' would noticeably set up Pilkington for one of his infamous rants and this, to me, felt somewhat uncharacteristic for Derek. Having said that, it is difficult to fully understand the complexities of a character having seen only one-hour's worth of the show.
Derek appears to me as Gervais' at the top of his game, and so this news brings excitement and anticipation for the coming season. But then I always was a sucker for anything Karl Pilkington related.
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