Derek

Tonight I started watching Ricky Gervais' newest work titled, Derek. It has been in the UK for a bit now but all the episodes (of series 1) have been released in America yesterday. It is one of those "only on Netfix" shows. It is about a 49 year old man who works in a nursing home I have to say I was pretty impressed by it and did not expect to get hit by it like I did. I was really impressed with Gervais' performance in this. I think most of the characters I've seen Ricky Gervais have this asshole-ish kind of personality to some degree, mainly concerned with their own lives and how others think of them. Derek is the opposite of that, he really cares about everybody around him and has a very pure heart. He has a child's naivety about him. Many described Derek to be autistic but Gervais denies this saying that Derek is not mentally disabled. I do see where people are getting the idea that he was autistic though. Other than Derek all the characters seemed like very real ordinary people. No crazy personalities really going for a laugh. That is probably because it is a mockumentary. Not only is it funny but also very touching, unlike any shows I have watched recently. For the most part, I don't cry at too many movies or television shows unless some animal has died. This show really got me. I started crying. I was crying watching the very first episode. Normally it takes a couple hours or episodes for me to be emotionally invested enough to start crying but in 20 minutes Derek got to me. Watching this show you will laugh, and you will cry, then maybe cry again. There are only seven episodes (24 minutes each episode) so if you can somehow find a way to watch this, please do!

Watch Derek here on Netflix