Lightning struck twice for Ricky Gervais. After becoming a comedy legend with just one show, Gervais and Stephen Merchant followed up The Office with the arguably better Extras. The two seasons of Extras may total only six hours but they're six of the funniest damn hours of TV so far this millennium. That's no exaggeration. The second season of Extras, which features amazing comedic moments that have made it impossible for me to look at Daniel Radcliffe or Ian McKellen the same way, was TV perfection. The first season of Extras was a hit for HBO but the second became much more of a phenomenon. Where would Andy Millman go in season three? Nowhere. Like he did with The Office, Gervais decided to pull the plug on his creation while it was still in peak form. Why mess with perfection? Why give it a chance to fall below the high bar it has already set for itself? Comedy fans cried. HBO begged. And we've now been given an 81-minute "extra special series finale." The bad news is that the finale doesn't quite hold up to the brilliance of those first two seasons. The good news is that even subpar Extras is totally worth your time.

Extras: The Extra Special Series Finale opens with a shot of our hero, Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) as a cast member on Celebrity Big Brother. He looks, as he often does, miserable. We flash back six months. Andy's still a star on When the Whistle Blows, his catch-phrase driven show, but the popularity is starting to fade (his talking doll is even outsold by Michael Richards') and Andy is stuck with what to do next. Meanwhile, his arch-nemesis in the world of extras has taken off past him to become a major movie star. Andy's feeling the pressure of age and has to decide if he just wants to stay in the public eye by doing cameos on shows like Doctor Who and Hotel Babylon or if he still wants to take a shot at artistic respectability. Whichever path, he knows his agent isn't going to get him there, so he fires Darren (Stephen Merchant), and even starts to distance himself from Maggie (Ashley Jensen). Meanwhile, after a horribly degrading incident with Clive Owen, Maggie quits the business.

You know how a lot of comedies try to get serious in the third act? Extras has always had relatively dramatic undertones about friendship and struggling to make a living, but the final hour is downright depressing. Early in what is basically "Extras the movie" (considering its running time), Maggie is cleaning bathrooms, Darren is back to work at Carphone Warehouse, and Andy has turned into a total jerk. It's not that Gervais, Merchant, or the criminally underrated Jensen can't handle the dramatic scenes, but who expected Extras to be so damn depressing? Did you really expect the music of Kate Bush and Morrissey on Extras? The tone also doesn't feel completely genuine because of Andy's quick personality switch from struggling actor to total jerk. When he humiliates an extra, it feels plot-driven and not like something the Andy we know would really do. The whole plot about ending When the Whistle Blows while it's still popular also feels a little too "meta," like Gervais and Merchant are having too much fun with the real life criticisms of ending Extras too soon.

With all of that said, there are still more laugh-out-loud moments in the Extras Special Series Finale than most theatrical releases of the same running time. A cameo by George Michael in a public park is particularly hilarious and you must watch just to see Gervais dressed up like a giant alien slug. And all the dramatic material actually pays off in the final five minutes with a great speech by Gervais that feels like nice closure to this great series. Can lightning strike three times? You would think not, but after The Office and Extras, it seems silly to doubt that Gervais and Merchant can't do whatever they want.