Extras – a postmodern sitcom?

The TV show ‘Extras’ is a sitcom as it is a comedy, as it is based around the same characters, location and similar plot and ideas in each episode. It can be considered a postmodern sitcom for a few different reasons. Firstly, it is a hyperconscious test. It is a sitcom and the main character in it, writes and stars in his own sitcom. Meaning there’s a sitcom in a sitcom. The audience is made further aware of this through the writing and jokes made in the show.

It can also be considered postmodern as it is satirical as it mocks the ideas of celebrity. This fits into Guy Debord’s theories of ‘the society of the spectacle’. His ideas are about how our society is obsessed with celebrity and commodity. Also about how our obsession with theses things creates a fake reality as authentic social life has been replaced with a fake one. The main character in the show is an actor who is struggling to be respected in the acting world and wants to be an even bigger celebrity.  In one episode he meets David Bowie who makes him feel even more like an insignificant celebrity.

It is also postmodern as it is an intertextual bit of media.  It refers to other sitcoms often as the sitcom the main character writes is a very stereotypical of the genre, so it is making fun of them. It also references ‘When the Wind Blows’. In one episode they keep accidently calling the sitcom that instead of ‘When the Whistle Blows’.

 Finally it can also be considered postmodern because involves the importance of an  ‘active audience’. This means that the audience needs to understand some things of the outside world to get some of what’s going on the episodes. For example in the episode that David Bowie stars in, the audience will have to have some idea of who he is to be able to get the jokes going on.