LONDON - Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are experts in the comedy of humiliation, but in the second series of their BBC show "Extras," there's more humiliation than comedy.

Gervais appears determined to skewer all aspects of being a "star" or a celebrity as his character Andy, who worked as an extra on television shows and movies in the first series, lands his own primetime BBC sitcom.

The first two episodes have the same shape as the first series, with Andy hanging out with fellow actor Maggie (Ashley Jensen) and his useless agent (Merchant), and featuring guest stars lampooning themselves.

The vital element of sympathy with Andy's often forlorn aspirations is missing, however, as it is much easier to empathize with someone who tries hard but gets nowhere than someone who has a real shot at the big time.

It may be no fun being the star of a silly TV comedy watched by six million viewers and having to deal with pushy fans and hangers-on, but Gervais and Merchant suggest that it's misery.

That mood infects the first two shows so that when Orlando Bloom badmouths Johnny Depp or David Bowie publicly makes up a singalong song that is deeply insulting to Andy, it sounds more cruel than it is funny.

Which is not to say that it's not amusing when Bloom, flirting with Maggie, dismisses Depp with: "Willie Wonka? Johnny Wanker!" Or that Andy's ingrained worries over money aren't cleverly exploited in his reaction to a sarcastic panhandler or a bouncer willing to be bribed for entry into a club's VIP section.

Andy plays a curly-haired, bespectacled northerner in the show within the show, titled "When the Whistle Blows." Gervais scores with a pitch-perfect impression of a desperately crowd-pleasing British comic, something he clearly wishes never to be.

The series continues to blend comic lines and situations with moments of intense quiet. Maggie remains a splendid creation with Jensen expertly portraying her charming lack of awareness. Her scenes with Bloom, in which he becomes more romantic as her interest in him diminishes, have genuine chemistry.

The first series hit its targets with such unerring accuracy that perhaps the comic pace was bound to suffer the second time around, but "Extras" remains superior to most of the TV comedy coming out of Britain these days.