The Daily News ran a New York Times essay on “Extras,� Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant’s latest wallow in cringe-inducing comedy, and it was a bit of a head-scratcher. The writer assailed Gervais for his treatment of all the celebrities who portray heightened versions of themselves on the show (a bawdy Kate Winslet cynically taking the role of a righteous nun only in order to win an Oscar; an even bawdier Daniel Radcliffe randily dangling a condom all around), suggesting that he has a rather dim view of them:

“(I)t leaves you wondering, in the end, whether Gervais down deep imagines no real difference between what motivates Clint Eastwood and what drives Vanna White. … (Celebrities playing “themselves�) are there to enact Gervais' caricature, largely reprising the same dim, self-aggrandizing megalomaniac over and over. Every time they do, they seem to be inadvertently making Gervais' point for him, because by getting in his game, they are betraying the kind of self-regard that leaves us assuming that they consider themselves exempt from his critique. Anyone who subjects himself to Gervais' camera must believe that he does not belong to the class of arrogant jerks that Gervais is making so much fun of.�

Where to begin? Did the writer think Gervais considered all middle-managers as incompetent as "The Office's" David Brent? I think, actually, Gervais found all sorts of different ways for the celebrities to tweak their personae: Some are arrogant, some are foolish, some are downright mean. (My new favorite is Ian McKellan, who is particularly funny in next week’s episode describing the process of acting in a self-important yet utterly imbecilic way. “How do I act so well?� he asks rhetorically. “How did I know what to say?� He then whispers, conspiratorily, “The words were written down for me in a script,� and recalls having to inform Peter Jackson, when asked to play Gandolf in the “Lord of the Rings� films, “You are aware that I’m not really a wizard.�)

Where was this crack Times writer when “The Larry Sanders Show� was on TV? That show did the same thing, and far more truculently; by contrast, “Extras� is fairly benign and even seems fond of celebrity peccadilloes. The main problem with the show as I see it, in fact, is that it feels a little late in the game to have actors parody themselves. Rather than actors doing these shows because they think it shows they don’t “belong to the class of arrogant jerks,� they do it because it’s trendy and they have a sense of humor about themselves and their line of work, not because they’ve been duped by a secretly sinister Gervais.

And besides, “Extras� is, after all, a comedy. To have celebrities play themselves as normal, well-adjusted people, simply put, wouldn’t be very funny.

The essayist then made another point: “Abjection, one of the show's favorite themes, is now almost entirely Maggie's (Ashley Jensen) to bear, and she bears more than a viewer's comfort level can sustain.�

To which I can only respond, at the risk of sounding like Dick Cheney, hogwash. Maggie has been hit on by both Orlando Bloom and Daniel Radcliffe this season, and if that’s this writer’s notion of “abjection,� I can’t even imagine the kind of rich, exotic and fulfilling life she must be leading.

Gervais’s character, Andy, has suffered horribly this season, and he’s not even a quarter of the unrelenting boob that David Brent, Gervais’s inspired creation on “The Office,� was, and therefore hardly as deserving of his routine humiliations. Andy has watched in muted dismay as his TV series, “When the Whistle Blows� (a bizarro-world version, in fact, of “The Office�), has been compromised by his collaborators into something worse, even, than “According to Jim.� (In fact, “Extras� in its second season really isn’t about movie extras, sort of like how “Prison Break� this year hasn’t been about breaking out of prison.) Andy’s “Whistle� character, wearing a doltish wig and a nutter’s coke-bottle spectacles, has been reduced to uttering a spectacularly unfunny catchphrase: “Are you having a laugh?� (And finally, the headline on this entry makes sense.) Despite withering reviews, the show’s a success, but all that manages to do is further thresh Andy’s soul. Now that’s abjection.

So anyway, onto the final three episodes, the first of which airs tonight (long after the Super Bowl will have ended, one would think): Tonight, Chris Martin of Coldplay (whom Gervais once witheringly parodied on his hilarious British radio show, which resulted in his podcasts) shamelessly promotes his new album, whether when doing a public service announcement or when appearing, for no reason whatsoever, on “When the Whistle Blows.� Andy’s further pilloried for that creative decision, which he fought tooth and nail, but on the other hand, he’s up for a BAFTA (England’s Emmy). His cynically clueless (or is it cluelessly cynical?) agent (hilariously played by Merchant) informs him, “It’s all crap this year, so you’ve got as good a chance as anyone.�

And yet, what should be at least a decent evening devolves into an utter horror show for Andy. Yet again. Again, I say: Now that’s abjection.

Next week, Ian McKellan casts Andy in a play that promises to demonstrate that he has real acting chops, except that the play has a gay theme and the homophobic Andy makes a shambles of it. Again, I say: Now that’s abjection.

In the final episode, Andy’s bullied by the mother of a terminally ill son to visit him in the hospital. British actor Robert Lindsay is insulted that he wasn’t asked, and makes a horrible scene at the hospital; Maggie dates a nerd who still lives with his parents, who expect her to satisfy their boy – “You don’t want people saying you’re a pr!ck tease, do you?� mom asks/warns Maggie – and the show employs the most wasted use of Robert De Niro in entertainment history. But, of course, that’s the joke.

This is reportedly the last season of “Extras,� and I can’t imagine that like Gervais’s “Office,� they’ll be asked to do a Christmas special finale. As entertaining as it could be, Gervais and Merchant never really found a clear and driving point to the show (as evidenced by the change in direction from season one to season two). And Andy was hardly as memorable a character as David Brent (or as Steve Carell’s Michael Scott on the American version, for that matter). Gervais allowed, wittingly or otherwise, for the show to be stolen by Merchant and Jensen, who both played dementedly dim characters, albeit ones with precious few redeeming qualities.

Still, I did have a laugh.

- “Extras,� 10 tonight; HBO.