The Office

I wasn't go to write a comment on the programme The Office but after reading trpdean's comment, I had to. I'm not sure what office life is like in the states, but this is what office life is like in Britain.

The show is perfect, it is indeed a true and honest reflection on every day working life.

The Boss is played by an actor by the name of Ricky Gervais, you will cringe and laugh at the same time, you will love him and hate him at the same time. The way the programme takes him thru the 14 episodes is brilliant, George from Seinfeld gets nowhere near this guy.

Then there is Gareth, a wimpy nerd, who thinks he is a big army man, but he really is just a weed of a man, we have all known someone like him.

The heart and soul belongs to Tim and Dawn though, you will cry your eyes out through out the series because of their relationship that isn't one.

This programme deserves all the awards that it has won, I don't want give too much away, its best if you go into the show not knowning too much about it, and to trpdean, once again this is what office life is like in England.

Had this been a 'Britcom-proper' it probably wouldn't have been as funny as it is now.

The tragic elements woven into it make it so much greater. Admittedly, there are a lot (and I mean A LOT) of cringeworthy moments in The Office. Moments that make you put your hand over your eyes and look through your fingers, moments that make you gasp and look away, and moments that will make you go "Aaaargh! Noooo!".

Everybody (who is not David or Gareth) who has ever worked in an office setting (especially those who worked in several ..) will feel that The Office is a condensed and compressed series of events, but very true to life. Everybody knows David and Gareth, everybody wants to slap them and shut them up forever. Everybody feels for (and feels like) Tim and Dawn. And everybody knows that an office would be a downright suicidal place were it not for common foes like 'the boss' and 'the wannabe boss' to loathe.

Don't watch The Office if all you want is a quick laugh .. you would feel way too uncomfortable for that. The Office is a true slice of (office) life, a bit larger, a bit darker, a bit more painful, but ultimately more humorous than anything I've ever seen. Make sure you catch the Christmas special(s) as well, as that puts the icing on the cake and makes life slightly more bearable.

While admitting to being a general Britcom slut (Fawlty Towers, Ab Fab, Monty Python,) with the exception of Coupling which I wasn't that big a fan of, I think The Office is quite possibly one of the greatest TV shows ever to be put on TV. The show takes a few viewings to really get all of the humor/tragedy that the brilliant Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have built into the script of the show. The first time it seems sort of blah, but if you watch the whole 1st season, by episode 4 or 5 you pick up on the style of humor and realize that it lies mainly in the simple throwaway lines that the abhorrent David Brent and other employees of Wernham Hogg's Slough branch utter throughout the show. Also, like Gosford Park, the dialogue is very quiet and to an American not used to British accents it is tremendously helpful to put on the subtitles to understand what the characters are saying (it also makes the cringeworthy things that much more cringeworthy when you see them written out). Once you get the humor further viewing will allow you to appreciate the horror of "The Office." Watching all of Season 2 in a marathon viewing session left me so emotionally drained (even though I have never laughed harder in my life) that I was crying by the end and I couldn't tell if they were tears of sadness or laughter. At the same time I was relishing David Brent's demise, the new levels of obsequiousness and insensitivity he descends to by the end of the series is almost painful to watch. Tim and Dawn's will it happen/it won't happen relationship is one of the sweetest and most soul-crushing romances I have seen in television history ranking right up there with Sam and Diane from Cheers and Ross and Rachel from Friends. The beauty of "The Office" is it mixes some of the most hilarious sitcom humor with a level of epic tragedy that is hard to capture in any performing art form and does it so effortlessly that it is hard to tell where one begins and one ends. I cannot wait to see the special and finally finish the emotional roller coaster that was "The Office."

I had been a fan of the US The Office for a while, having seen most of that before I started the UK one. First and foremost, I could not STAND David Brent and it took me three tries to get through the first episode. But I'm so thankful I kept going. This show is absolutely brilliant. If the US Office is Malcolm Gladwell, an affable and frizzy haired intellectual, the UK Office is Stephen Hawking, absolute genius.

The UK Office is borderline dystopian-from its grungy neighborhoods during the opening titles to the nearly SS Officer in Gareth-and showcases the absolute worst that work culture has to offer, much more so than the US counterpart. And in doing so, achieves a seeming truth that few shows could ever aspire to reach. Yes, the US version is a bit sillier, goofier, happier because it aims for laughs, even if subdued, the UK Office just lets the characters be themselves without a safety net: they're allowed to fail much more miserably than the US characters ever did, and in that, we find sharper humor and more vicious bite.

The closest the two shows ever came was arguably seasons 2 and 3 of the American version, where those characters were operating at their peak and the humor was witty and clever, but even still, the UK version, while missing some of the heart, pushes the envelope of allowing characters to be the worst versions of themselves much more than the US show. And it's in that where the best humor lies.

Even people from Slough have signs on their car windows "Happiness is seeing Slough in your Rear View Mirror". During the war the enemy was invited to bomb Slough; "Come friendly bombs rain on Slough")(no joke).

The Office is one of those programs which when you happen across it, for the first half-hour or so you're completely baffled, its format is so unusual, then before you know it you're hooked.

It's really about the horror of passing so much time with the SAME people (more than with our families). Where any minor incident like the photocopier jamming becomes a slight relief from monotony.

If you like The Office then try "Alan Partridge" like David Brent another nightmarish figure