Derek: Complete Collection [DVD]

Although I enjoy Gervais' comedy there are some times that he misses the mark and Derek is very much a case in point. I don't know why Gervais' portrayal of the title character is so OTT and rather offensive to disabled people. The setting, a council-run care home is also very rosy-tinged - where are the dementia patients screaming in the background?The reason that it scores 3* is for Karl Pilkington's performance as Dougie in S1 and David Earl's throughout as comic relief.

I think this is the best thing Ricky Gervais has done. I bought this box set as a gift because I'm such a fan of the series and I wanted to share the experience!It is beautifully written and the acting is superb. It's incredibly lough out loud funny but near enough every other episode makes me cry!For anyone that is a fan of Afterlife but hasn't seen Derek (and doesn't have access to Netflix!) this is absolutely brilliant and I would definitely recommend it.

Some people had a hard time getting used to Derek; some people classified it as Ricky Gervais getting soft and overly melodramatic. Some people deemed it as an insincere, cynical attempt to tug the heart's strings. All this is wrong. In fact, this may be the most sincere work by Gervais - everybody who reads interviews with the man, or follows his Facebook knows that he is a true believer in human kindness (some people just think that his sometimes bullyish and arrogant public persona is more than just a delightfully wicked act), a deeply engaged defender of causes (like animal rights, a love that propells one of the most poignant Derek episodes) and a truly talented artist. Having the man who created such classics of embarassment comedy as The Office and Extras doing a show about kindness and innocence is not watching a groundbreaking artist softening out; Derek is, indeed, almost punk-ish in the way it dares to defy everybody's expectations of Ricky Gervais and the way it positions itself in a world of once inspired but now repetitive comedy formulas. It's an amazing show that still makes you laugh - it just also makes you cry and, most important of all, think.

Amazing to watch and as usual with Gervais a potent ending!

I bought this for a friend for her birthday. Because of lockdown restrictions I was only able to give her the DVDs recently. The 3rd dvd will not read and play. I am out of time to send the box set back. I am really disappointed that my friend did not get the complete gift i had bought for her.

Hilarious one minute and crying the next.. brilliant! Fantastic cast and beautifully written. So touching - 5 stars!

I have never been to sure about Ricky Gervais until now.I thought "Extras" was a great series, but some of the episodes of "The Office" didn't really "Do It" for me."Derek", however, is sheer brilliance.It has you crying with laughter one minute, and if you have any humanity, you are choking back tears of sadness the next.An "Emotional Roller-Coaster", well worth every penny, and like all the best; it came to an end leaving you wanting more!

When you already have unlimited streaming access to a show, (and have already run through it 4 times), and still want to OWN it, well. That says it all. Amazing turn for Gervais who absolutely melts into the role. So much so that, even as a longtime fan, it is jarring in the extras to see him break character and hear that laugh break through. This set, along with some other Gervais-related and misc. non-region 1 DVD/Blus are what convinced me to finally invest into an all-region player.