As it turns out, it will not take years for fans of the brilliant British writer-actor Ricky Gervais to put aside their emotional attachment to his classic BBC comedy, “The Office,” and shift their loyalties to his next effort. After watching six episodes of “Extras,” it’s clear that Mr. Gervais has at least two classic BBC comedies in him, and probably more. Along with his longtime collaborator, Stephen Merchant, Mr. Gervais has concocted another hysterically funny journey into a workplace subculture – if we’re all very lucky, “Extras” will stick around for years.

Audiences may need a few minutes to adjust to Mr. Gervais as something other than completely clueless. The charms of David Brent – the manager and central character of “The Office,” a relentlessly cynical take on the machinations of the workplace – derived from his dangerously stupid behavior; he routinely demeaned his colleagues and underlings, and all because of his own ineptitude. Here, as barely employed actor Andy Millman, Mr. Gervais plays a man with brains and wit; he tosses off barbs under his breath that suggest his character’s intellect, if not his wis dom. The thread that connects Brent and Millman is their desperation.

Millman has embarked, late in life, on an acting career – but has so far amassed only credits as a movie extra. He devotes most days to the pursuit of a single line of dialogue. No help whatsoever comes from his occasional meetings with his agent, who hasn’t gotten Millman a job in years – perhaps because he has never placed a single phone call on his behalf, or probably for any of his clients. It’s fun to see the byplay between Millman and his agent, who’s played with sublime subtlety by his collaborator Mr. Merchant – he’s the mirror opposite of Jeremy Piven’s driven Hollywood talent salesman on “Entourage,” the anti-Ari.

As with “Entourage” – and, for that matter, most show-business comedies on television right now – the fun comes when famous guest stars show up to humiliate themselves. Kate Winslet lights up the first episode with her all-consuming interest in an extra’s kinky phone-sex relationship with her boyfriend; Ben Stiller steals the second with his performance as himself – an egomaniacal movie director who can’t stop referring to his box-office success as an actor. (“Make ‘Dodgeball 2,'” Millman mutters when Mr. Stiller wonders aloud how he can best serve humanity.) Patrick Stewart and Samuel L. Jackson turn up in future episodes of this HBO-BBC co-production, which has already aired on British television.

But for all the gimmickry of guest stars, it’s the comic byplay among the characters that elevates “Extras” to greatness. Much like “The Office,” Messrs. Gervais and Merchant have designed an ensemble of loveable losers to populate the story; Millman’s friend Maggie, also pursues the holy grail – a line or two – but can’t get herself noticed, either. Mr. Gervais has also allowed himself to have relationships with women this time around; he’s still misrepresenting himself, but here he’s doing it for a reason, not just as a symptom of the knee-jerk self-infatuation that defined David Brent. It’s fun to see Mr. Gervais relax a little and let his real self emerge. It’s evident that “Extras” comes closer to his own story than anything in “The Office” – and though it doesn’t quite deliver the laughs of its predecessor, “Extras” also spares us the steady dose of psychic pain.

Mr. Gervais’s sensibility may not play well beyond the small, loyal audience that found “The Office” at the upper reaches of cable on BBC America. (NBC’s well-done “Office” remake has yet to attract viewers, though the network did pick it up for a second season.) He’s harsh – and while that makes his show a perfect pair with Larry David and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” for Sunday nights on HBO, it might not guarantee the return of “Extras” beyond this six-episode run. This week HBO quietly canceled “The Comeback,” and in recent seasons has dropped smart shows like “K Street” and “Unscripted.” But if HBO puts the same kind of marketing muscle behind “Extras” that it gave to “Rome,” this small, well-crafted, and hugely entertaining comedy may have a chance to live beyond a single season.

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If there remains any question that “Curb Your Enthusiasm” has reached its creative apex this season after the first two episodes, doubts will be dispelled after seeing Episode 3, obliquely titled “The Christ Nail,” in which Larry David achieves new levels of mayhem and insanity. There will always be those who find his finicky and off-kilter character unamusing, but it’s clear Mr. David doesn’t care about such people; he plays his comedy to his core audience of followers, and they will love “The Christ Nail” for its rampant political incorrectness, not to mention its obsession with bra size. The number of awkward situations Mr. David must deal with seems to have grown exponentially this season, and without sacrificing any of the show’s grounding in reality. In one episode, Mr. David battles Richard Lewis over the naming of a deli sandwich; in another, he deals with a dog’s racial profiling habit. But in “The Christ Nail” he takes on nothing less than organized religion – and observes, among other things, that Christianity would have proven a lot more popular if Christ had been a girl.

dblum@nysun.com