The fourth episode into Life's Too short and I have that feeling of somebody telling me a joke and halfway through I suddenly realise I've heard it before. In other words there is a distinct feeling of deja vu with this comedy. Nevertheless, considering the original joke was of such a high standard, (The Office, Extras) there's still some enjoyment in seeing this retread of some old material.
I won't give an opinion of whether this comedy is morally wrong in some way. Whether Ricky Gervais is making fun of short people or sympathising with short people or trying to make a comedy with a short person as he would with any other person. Not that it's a trivial question, but given Gervais says we have to see all six episodes to fully understand his viewpoint, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt right now.
So in the fourth episode we find the diminutive main character Warwick Davis, playing a supposedly more egocentric, selfish version of himself, flat hunting with his extremely dim secretary (played by Rosamund Hanson, perhaps the real star of the show). This flat hunting scene ends with Warwick, his trousers off, falling into a toilet bowl. I didn't find it particularly funny. In fact I didn't find it at all funny. In fact he'd already been stuck in a toilet bowl in a previous episde.
Next we see Warwick take his unbelievably incompetent accountant to a meeting with his wife and her lawyer to discuss their upcoming divorce settlement. His accountant, like Warwick Davis, is someone else who seems to be doing an all too good David Brent impersonation. The accountant, wondering out loud what job he would be good at instead of an accountant asks and answers his own stupid questions in classic Gervais style. And so that scene ended and we went on to the next scene and the next and the next...It still wasn't particularly funny.
There are one and sometimes even two moments in each episode however which are funny enough to make the rest of the episode worth sitting through. Often it's when Warwick visits Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant at their swish London offices. The funniest part of the whole series so far for instance was in the first episode where Liam Neeson is pitching ideas to Gervais about how he could get into comedy. He does so in a manner more akin to a depressed undertaker reading a shopping list as an exasperated Gervais tries to politely guide him out the door. In this fourth episode we had Gervais slagging off Steve Carell after making a video call to him. Not realising the phone call is still connected and that Carell hears everything Gervais was saying. Cue much embarrassment and Gervais showing how being Ricky Gervais in an embarrassing situation should really be done.
The point is, four episodes in, I don't find this sit-com particularly funny now. The benefit of the doubt I gave it after the first episode has gone. And I can't judge this comedy as a stand-alone work because with every knowing sideways glance at the camera by Warwick Davis and practically every other character, I'm constantly reminded of The Office and Extras. That I've seen most of this before. It's still worth watching perhaps. I mean it was a good joke the first time I heard around but admittedly now it's starting to wear a bit thin.
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