3 Ups And 2 Downs From David Brent: Life On The Road

1. It's Afraid To Break The Rules

Life On The Road is at its best when it doesn't heavily lean on The Office and instead forges ahead being its own thing. Unfortunately, there seems to be a real fear to actually do that. None of the series' cast return (which makes sense - it's highly unlikely Brent would have kept in contact with anyone from Wernham Hogg), but we're once again in an office with a wide range of archetypes to eye-roll at his antics, while much of the failed music career stuff we got from across the show (and some of the songs have already been available on YouTube). Heck, that awkward laugh is taking a minor inflection and making it a major trait.

There's a regurgitative element to the story and character that makes this feel in many ways The Christmas Special Redux; the message and arc is really rather similar and its ultimate concluding beat is really not all that different.

As I said in the intro (and my main review), this feels very much like Gervais attempting to emulate the success of Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, but what he ultimately misses is that there Steve Coogan's bumbling D-list former-celeb was advanced as a character, put in new situations and changing subtly as a result. Brent develops, but it's only enabled by earlier regression.

Oddly enough, of couple of jokes feel directly lifted from Partridge (we open with a song in a car, and Brent praising a hotel’s hairdryer is a mirror of Alan’s admiring of a cassette deck’s “action” in Knowing Me, Knowing Yule), which chimes in with a bigger problem with Gervais’ post-Extras work; maybe he’s tapped out of story ideas. Thank goodness he's still funny.

David Brent: Life On The Road is in UK cinemas from 19th August.