Ricky Gervais says he felt “like crying” after his fans pushed his animated show Alley Cats to number one in the Netflix charts, despite most critics hating the series.
Fan reaction vs critic reviews
Gervais, 65, picked up one and zero star reviews from critics when the show dropped at the end of the week, with many criticising the lack of narrative and non-stop swearing. But plenty of his fans seem to like it.
Speaking to them on YouTube on Sunday, Gervais said: “I've had a few number ones. All my stand-ups were number one, Afterlife, but nothing means as much to me as this number one. I found out this morning, I wanted to cry.
“I didn't even think this isn't going to make top 10, and then obviously the haters, the trolls came out even before trailer. This is going to be s***.
“I don't know if they watched it. If they did watch it, that's even better because, as I said last week, they helped the algorithm. When will they learn?”
Gervais thanks fans
He added that he wanted to thank the millions who took a chance on it, adding: “They've got a job, and they come home, and they go, anything on Netflix, Alley Cats what's that? And they watch it, and that’s you. And f**k me I want to hug you.”
Amongst those reviews was a one star review in Metro where writer Tom Percival said it was “the worst thing I’ve watched on television this year”. The Daily Telegraph gave it zero stars and Empire magazine said it “feels quite a distance from those glory days” of The Office in its two star review. The Guardian also gave it two stars and said it was “lazy, crude and boring”.
However on Twitter former Monty Python star and Fawlty Towers creator-actor John Cleese said: “The Ricky Gervais CATS animation is quite wonderful.”
Future of the series
The series follows the trials and tribulations of a group of feral British cats from all walks of life. In the run up to the release of the six part series, Gervais said he was keen to continue writing more series of Alley Cats in the future if it was a success.
Ricky said: “It’s the first thing I’ve ever created that I’d like to go on forever. I can see myself just making this show till I die.
“The cats won’t age and it doesn’t matter how fat and old and bald I get. Someone can just put me in a chair with a microphone, surrounded by the rest of the cast, and off we go. It won’t really matter when senility kicks in as I’m usually talking b***ocks anyway. It’s the dream job.”
Alley Cats is out now on Netflix.
