User reviews

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.

The beginning was quite cringe and not very funny. The first few episodes were hard to watch, not many laughs. But since I was a fan of the US office I kept persisting. Towards the end of season 1 it became much more funnier and you could see slowly the unravelling of Ricky's genius coming out. I was laughing at nearly every scene in season 2 (only 2 episodes)! Across the entire series you could really see his comedic style blossom and mature into what he has become after the office. Persist past the first few episodes (maybe 6), and you will thoroughly enjoy the last parts and a very satisfying ending.

This show definitely paved the way forward for what was an excellent US series. But let me state up front, the US series takes the style in a very different direction. The original series is much more focused on making the viewer squirm as Ricky Gervais takes you on a cringe journey through his office space.

The series is short-lived and perhaps that wasn't a bad thing. But I do wonder if the Brits will return with some hindsight and build on what was started. I really hope so as I do like British comedy, which is starkly different to American comedy. In conclusion, this is a great series with a great legacy.

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.

Brits. You gotta love them. They got the best bands AND the best comedians. "The Office" is probably the best thing in comedy since Monty Python. This show is almost perfect. It's got an original concept, the writing is brilliant, and so is the acting. A group of people completely unknown outside of the U.K. has definitely made a mark in the history of television with this so-called "mockumentary".

A program like this was really what we needed, but hadn't dared to hope for anymore. In a time when it seemed like T.V. would forever be ruled by sitcoms with canned laughter played over the same old jokes (let's face it, even "Coupling" was little more than an edgier version of "Friends"), Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant came along with their accurate observation of everyday life in an office as we all know it. What they did was take "This Is Spinal Tap!" and put it in the context of an everyday working place. In lesser hands, this idea could easily have turned boring all too quickly, because what we are being shown is basically just reality. It could also have gone the other way with stupid and forced jokes thrown in to keep the viewer interested. Gervais and Merchant, however, managed to pull it off just the way it needed to be done. "The Office" is tragic, funny, sad and moving all at the same time. This show is so popular, because people all around the world can identify with it. You feel for these characters. Tim, Dawn, Gareth and Brent (especially Gareth and Brent!) are far from being perfect people, but it's because of their little flaws and personality problems that we care for them. We know colleagues like them, we know those grey days at work. And like this crew a lot of us have big dreams that are moving further and further away as we're stuck in dead end jobs getting older. "The Office" doesn't comfort us, it doesn't tell us that there'll be a happy ending, but it tells us that we're not alone with our situations. The fact, that we know most of those truly horrible scenes from our own lives makes us laugh. Sometimes the laughs are bitter, but they're always cathartic.

SEASON 1 is flawless. Hands down the best first series in a comedy show ever. We get to know Gareth, the annoying colleague who has no life whatsoever and makes up for that by taking himself way too seriously. We meet Dawn and Tim who are fighting their desperation and dissatisfaction by playing pranks on Gareth. The two are secretly attracted to each other with Dawn's boyfriend Lee standing the way. Most importantly, we are introduced to David Brent, the boss who somehow manages to always say the wrong things and embarrass himself and everyone around him all the time. The humour comes mainly from facial expressions, nonsense philosophies (Brent & Gareth), sarcastic comments (Tim) and incredibly awkward situations. Lots of times you'll cringe and the situation gets so uncomfortable you'll cover your eyes with your hands so you don't have to see anymore of it. It's a delightful torture.

SEASON 2 is still very good, but Gervais and Merchant fall into the joke-trap too often. In season 1 they successfully avoided any jokes with punchlines or gags that seemed scripted. It was more or less a chain of uncomfortable events and funny interviews. In season 2 we already know the characters and the concept a bit too well. People expect a certain behaviour from the respective characters and Gervais and Merchant are feeding those expectations a little too often. Side character Keith gets a bigger part in these 6 episodes and sadly his wackiness is a bit overdone, too, so that sometimes you get the feeling that whole thing is getting a bit worn out by now. What I really thought was unrealistic was that everybody hated David so much. After all, he is a funny guy and if you don't laugh with him you'd be laughing about him trying so hard to be funny. People just giving him bewildered looks became a bit annoying at some point. However, the writing was still fine, especially considering how little time the makers had and under what kind of pressure they had to come up with new stuff.

The final Christmas SPECIALS are a tearjerker. After the genuinely tragic ending of season 2, you hope so much that all will turn out well in the end. Let me just tell you this much: when the credits roll you'll be moved to tears. This just shows how well Gervais and Merchant have built their characters.

The way this show found a balance between comedy and drama, the ideas and observations that were put into it and the glorious performances are simply adorable and unmatched to this day. Thankfully, Gervais and Merchant knew when to stop and said that the Christmas SPECIALS were going to be the definite end of "The Office". As with any good show that's sad for the viewer, but it was the right thing to do as there was really nowhere else to go with the story and the concept. Remakes have already been made ("The Office" 2005 - USA, "Stromberg" Germany), but those will always just be a poor man's rehash of the original.

"The Office" made me believe that even in days when Will Ferrell saying "San Diego means a whale's vagina" is considered the ultimate revelation in comedy, there are still people who will come up with clever and original ideas.

I watched the entire series of The Office and the Christmas special exactly nine years ago, the same year I joined the corporate world. My timing could not have been better because already one year in, I had already become familiar - and annoyed - with the politics of the corporation and its more offensive personalities. Sooner or later, everyone in the corporate world ends up having a coworker like one at Wernham-Hogg, whether it be the team lead who is masculine in a way that proves he's insecure about his own masculinity and who wields what little power he has like a despotic king's scepter (Gareth), the sexist, condescending braggart who is unfairly successful with the ladies (Chris Finch) or of course the incompetent manager who would rather be popular than good and who hides his incompetence with pretension (David Brent). All of the series' situations are also genuine, especially the awkward, strained Christmas and year-end celebrations, the pointless staff appraisal sessions and the useless training class, which is the centerpiece of "Training," my favorite episode. While reliving my least favorite corporate experiences made me wince, I laughed until my sides hurt at the same time, which explains The Office's reputation for popularizing cringe comedy. Still, despite the series' damning depiction of the workplace, at its core lies a big heart. You can see it in the way the show cares for Tim and Dawn, Wernham-Hogg's lone beacons of sanity and would-be romantic couple, but you really see it in how David Brent, the source of the series' most cringe-worthy moments, becomes the man you root for in the end. By providing the perfect outlet for my frustrations with the corporate world while making me not regret my decision to join it in the truest, most funny way possible, I easily rank The Office as my favorite TV show of all time.

English cringe-comedy at its finest.

Set in an office in the UK. The head of the department, David Brent (played by Ricky Gervais) is every employee's worst nightmare: vain, reactionary, over-confident in his abilities...and not very bright. Unfortunately he's also not very self-aware, so he thinks he's doing just fine, and that the troops adore and respect him. Cue many cringeworthy scenes and much hilarity.

Very funny, very clever and with a touch of human drama and pathos. While Gervais provides the bulk of the humour, there are plenty of other characters in the office, all with different personalities. Some are there for comedic effect, some for dramatic effect.

All in all this makes a great TV series, a series which launched the career of Ricky Gervais.

THE OFFICE is one of my all-time great comedy TV shows and up there with the classic likes of FAWLTY TOWERS and MONTY PYTHON. I recently rewatched the lot - series 1 & 2 and the Christmas specials - and am pleased to report it holds up now better than ever. Even more so perhaps, given that Ricky Gervais's subsequent TV offerings - EXTRAS and LIFE'S TOO SHORT - have come across as diluted variants of this show.

What makes THE OFFICE so successful? It has to be the documentary format, which makes the characters on screen feel real like never before. Anybody who's ever worked in an office will know how true-to-life the whole thing is, and the camaraderie between the main characters is what keeps this humming along. Watching the misadventures of Tim, Dawn, Gareth and Keith is just a delight. Yes, there's too much of an emphasis on lowbrow humour, but it's the character tics that make this work.

Of course, Ricky Gervais's David Brent is the man who lords over it all, and he plays a surprisingly complex character. Given that his off-colour humour, desperation to be liked, and frequently humiliating situations all point towards somebody you should hate, Brent turns out to be Gervais's most likable creation ever. It says something that THE OFFICE is the only thing I truly like the comedian in. In any case, THE OFFICE is brilliant stuff and every episode is a zinger; it truly is untouchable.

When they took the decision to finish The Office I honestly was sad. Because you don't get much excellent series like this one. The character of Ricky Gervais is a delight to watch, even though everybody would probably hate the guy in real life. Well at least I would for sure. But in this series he's the funniest character to watch, as well as Mackenzie Crook's character. Actually the whole cast with the totally different characters are all good. When I saw that they sold the rights for an American version of The Office I really thought that it could not ever be the same. British and American humor are completely different so it took me years to finally decide to watch the American version. And that one I absolutely loved as well. So if you are sad like me when you watch the last episode of the British version I can only recommend you start watching the much longer American version.

Wish it lasted as long as the US version. Definitely the superior series. Gervais is a comedic genius and will make you laugh and cringe

I'll openly declare at the outset that I am a big fan of the American Office. I therefore pay great respect to the original British series, while simultaneously have to admit I don't like it as much. The basic premise of a boss who gives everyone a hard time and is an eyesore/disaster waiting to happen is carried through by the American version but with less of a cringe factor. The issue with the British version is that the actors, including Ricky Gervais do too good a job of making the audience squirm in discomfort. There isn't a lot of relaxing of this feeling making the experience not as fun and funny as the American version....in my opinion.

Excruciatingly good watch that is sometimes so hard to watch with what was brave writing & acting. We had never seen anything like this before and it avoided adding sweetener like the US version.

It is completely beyond my understanding how anyone on Earth may enjoy this lengthy, pathetic, boring and completely dull TV series. I like The Simpsons, Futurama, Black Adder, IT Crowd, The South Park, I can survive even pretty brutal humor of Postal: The Movie. I do not understand, however, how anyone can create TV show based ONLY on pretty primitive embarrassing situations. It is not funny, it is just completely dull. One embarrassing scene after another without relief. I had not a single laugh, maybe two or three smiles during the series. This is pretty pathetic result for "comedy" show I can say. I think high evaluation of this series probably says nothing about the quality of this TV series but probably something more about quality of jobs of people who find this horror somewhat amusing. If this is true I can only say: RUN OUT FROM YOUR OFFICE AND FIND OTHER JOB IMMEDIATELY! I would not survive a single day in this environment unless completely I would be absolutely starving.

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."

One cannot overstate enough just how cutting-edge this black comedy from Ricky Gervais really is. You're not sure whether to laugh or cringe, which is a measure of Gervais' comedic genius.

Together with Cleese - who did the same with Fawlty Towers, Gervais has demonstrated that a small-scale series leaves a stronger impression.

The US attempt does not even come close

I reckon the English version is better and Ricky would beat Steve in a fight

Can't beat it. Brilliant comedy. Shame the US version gets a higher score because it is not true comedy like this one.

Everyone in this show delivers perfectly. It's the annoying perfect amount of episodes that doesn't ruin it. Executed brilliantly on the christmas episode ending. Watch this from start to finish and you'll see it's the OG!

The Office 2001-2003 BBC 14 episodes. ( first watched 2001, then about 2010) The boredom and tedium is highlighted in this "mockumentary" about the staff of a paper merchants in Slough. The setting is inessential but the interactions aren't. Tim one of the characters states "you spend more time walking the same carpet with your colleagues, then you do with your own family". There are two principal story lines, one featuring the office manager and the other being the tentative relationship between receptionist Dawn and sales rep Tim. The show is a painful watch, see the awkward and stilted conversations be the characters. It is painful but out of this comes, funny lines and very real situations. The cliches and bullying is very real. A lot of the humour is dated but because of this it highlights how fashions change and not always for the better.

It's expertly written and acted. It is a classic and only fails when the series moves away from Slough and intervenes in the storyline. Despite my reservations it still gets 10/10.

Has there ever been a more perfect TV comedy than The Office? Personally, I don't think there has. The ability of the show to straddle the line between dour realism and laugh-out-loud hilarity is absolutely unmatched. Anyone who has ever worked in this kind of environment will appreciate how perfectly observed it is; the people, the atmosphere, the dialogue, the overbearing tedium. All the characters, including the background workers and warehouse staff, are perfectly constructed and every conversation is painfully realistic.

David Brent is Ricky Gervais' finest conception and probably one of the funniest comedy characters ever created. Gervais' ability to produce such a high level of cringe while also keeping the character relatively likeable is a tremendous feat and testimony to his acting skills.

Martin Freeman is brilliant as Tim, essentially acting as the eyes and ears for the viewers. His interplay with Gareth, Brent and, of course, Dawn is perfectly executed. This is a real hero- a normal, unremarkable and entirely believable guy whose superpower is simply his ability to cope with the stupidity of everyone around him without losing his civility or sense of humour.

But by far the biggest achievement of this show is the incredible love story between Tim and Dawn. This is so much more than the cliched Hollywood romances we are used to seeing in films and TV shows. These two are not beautiful, successful and young. They do not live in swanky studio apartments and frequent glamorous nightclubs and social hotspots. Their love story is not portrayed through exciting dates and engaging conversations. Tim and Dawn are just very normal. They have boring jobs, boring social lives, are mildly attractive at best and are going nowhere in life. Their romance is told through brief glances and awkward conversations. It is barely told at all in fact, and yet we feel it so intensely from start to finish. The writing strips away the non-essentials from the love story, leaving you to connect with the raw yearning that propels it. It takes you back to having a school crush, when that person consumed every second of your life and every part of you just ached to reach out and hold them. The culmination of this love story is one of my favourite ever TV moments. No matter how many times I watch it, I choke up. It's just incredible. A monumental piece of writing and the undisputed highlight of Gervais and Merchant's careers

This would be my desert island box-set, a show I could easily watch every day for the rest of my life. Sheer perfection.

The Office starts out slow, but by the end, I became extremely fond of it and wish there was more. It may well be one of my favourite TV shows of all time. The US version was also great but I lost interest around Season 5. Sometimes it's better to end on a high than become stale over time.

Ricky Gervais is the star of the show. And he's equal parts hilarious and so, so, cringe-worthy. David Brent is incredibly immature. He somehow walks a perfect line between being offensively selfish and rude, and likeable despite his flaws. Carell's version (Michael Scott) is different in personality and style, but identical in character flaws.

The side characters are also really effective. They're slow burners. I've noticed that's the nature of great comedy a lot of the time. Instead of familiar cliches and standard jokes which immediately hit, you get something truly simple and original. As you get to know the characters and atmosphere, it grows on you and the laughs gain momentum.

That's the thing. The Office doesn't try to force too many laughs. It's often comfortable just being awkward or stupid. In many cases, I'd only start laughing once a scene was over, realising how ridiculous it actually was.

The key is that it feels real. That's hard to maintain. But for 14 episodes, it works. Brent is a consistent character. They don't change his nature to suit a joke. He's always the same.

Martin Freeman is great. He was very good in the Hobbit movies, one of their few consistent strengths. And here his performance is understated. But you need the straight man for the buffoons to play off of. Less is more and in that sense, I got a lot of laughs from Freeman's bemused and frustrated expressions.

Mackenzie Crook is perfect as a nerd who takes himself way too seriously. But he's also very likeable. Lucy Davis is the other straight character caught in a love triangle with Freeman and her boyfriend. They manage to somehow make the show seem like a real documentary, all the details just seem so improvised and real.

Although the focus is comedy, there are also quite a few nice moments - sad, romantic, touching, etc. When you commit to the truth of a story, all kinds of things can come out. There are parts of The Office which will stay with me more than most dramas I've seen.

At the end of the day, The Office is just hilarious. Many parts caused me to pause just so I could catch my breath from laughing so hard. So familiar are the characters and situations. Brent is one of the funniest fictional characters ever.

And because the acting is so good and the story so honest, I found myself laughing but also reflecting, hoping, feeling sad, etc. I cared about what happened. And, I have to admit, I saw parts of myself in all of the characters, even David and Garth. They're humans after all. Who can't relate to David's pettiness when someone doesn't laugh enough at their jokes?

David Brent is a really good character, I thought it was funny in parts but probably a reason I haven't watched this in the past, I've watched more stuff since afterlife and that is by far his best series.

I hold everything I watch to a very high standard and in general I can't watch the vast majority of what is put on TV - 24, Lost, Gray's Anatomy, Heroes, essentially anything you can think of that people seem to go crazy for... and the reason is simple: they aren't driven by the writing.

And to those who are already upset and ready to describe the genius of the plot of X TV show or one I named above, consider that none of those shows are driven by the characters, by pureness of emotion created, by novelty of the plot, it can all be reduced to a few things: 1) Love triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, etc. 2) Action (doesn't take a PhD to blow something, put a child in harm's way, etc.) 3) THE BIGGEST ONE - leaving you hanging (which makes the viewer, in between episodes, feel like they just can't stand to not be watching this show, but really, you could tell one of the worst stories ever and stop just short of an important climax and people will naturally be interested - but why not ask for more)

And in general, what I like to think of as the plot skeleton (the core conflict or plot outline) in these shows is tried and cliché in all of these shows. There's nothing new.

The US version of the Office is just plain unbelievable. The characters are not real people. It's very funny SOMETIMES and I do watch it (which makes it like 1 of maybe 5 shows in the last several years), but Michael Scott could never exist in real life, and he's the only decent actor in the show. Jim and Pam don't have the incredible subtle, Victorian, romance that Tim and Dawn had. Martin Freeman is also 10x more the legitimate actor, and Dawn was significantly better than Pam - Jenna Fischer just doesn't have much of an emotional range. Dwight is just always high strung - Garreth had depth and incredible subtlety and a range of moods. Stanley's humor was meant for 9 year olds. Keith was infinitely better at deadpan and numb-skull humor. Angela, Meredith, Oscar, Creed - all 1 dimensional. Ryan's not awful.

AND THEN THERE WAS THE OFFICE (BBC)...

Incredible realism. Incredible and subtle use of the documentary genre. A barrage of original, subtle, diverse jokes. No laugh track (which many people notice, but it's more than that - it's that the show doesn't hit high hat cymbals to cue you to laugh too, it creates genuinely funny and awkward moments). The actors are outstanding too - such an incredible repertoire each of them has of emotional capacity (even, and in fact ESPECIALLY, Garreth, whose US counterpart Dwight can't come close to the pathos and sadness Garreth can evince - or really even realism, Dwight is just always high-strung and not a real human character).

I've seen lots of movies. More than anyone I know. I'm a pretty smart guy (at least on paper). Movies are my favorite thing in the world. If I put this series as a whole into my list of top movies of all time, and ignored the differences of the media, it would make the top 5.

My life is better because I've seen The Office (BBC). Just don't watch season 1 and 2 and forget about the Christmas special, like I did for a year. But I do think if you give yourself at least a week after watching 1 and 2 before watching the special, you can better "simulate" the time lapse that is meant to exist before the fictional creation of the documentary.

Do yourself a favor.

I watched the US version before the UK version, so that could be the reason. I'd say "Meh" to the UK version. The US version is much more versatile, funny and lovable. The UK version just focuses on one character and there are more annoying moment than the funny ones. Had I watched the UK version first, it may be the other way around, may be not.

OK, I really didn't like The Office (UK). Maybe it's because I saw the US version first and fell in love with the show, but the UK version really fell flat. It was boring, clichéd, and tried too hard to exaggerate David Brents character. Granted, I've only seen the first season, but to me there was nothing funny about any of the infamous "subtle, British-ish sophisticated jokes", and by that I mean "tedium" of the show, and the US Office leaves the UK version trailing in the dust. Yes, I realize that they were two different shows (kind of), but to be honest, you can't really watch one without comparing it to the other.

For starters, Ricky Gervais isn't nearly as talented as Steve Carell (just watch Little Miss Sunshine and witness the emotion in his eyes alone), regardless of what almost every other poster seems to think. Gervais' acting doesn't convey the same loneliness and intrinsic fear of rejection in Carell's Michael Scott, that redeems the character of his loud-mouthed, childish facade and makes him so complex and lovable.

I also found that the jokes were old-fashioned (kind of out-of-date humour)with some of them were drawn out way too long (David Brent's awful singing in ep 4 might still be going on). The writing is noticeably slow-paced and kind of crude. I never thought I'd say this, but US censorship can be a good thing. Tim's inflatable birthday present, acting like an sore loser on quiz night and David Brent's awkward sexual advances to the poor secretary? More eye-rolling than funny. Trying to buy gaydar online, bubble wrapping a george-foreman-grilled foot, and having an ambiguous obsession/man-crush on the office temp? Funny. And maybe that just shows a superficial sense of humour and an ignorance of the "subtlety" of British comedies, but yeah. I don't care.

The side-characters are markedly less chararismatic and quirky (as well as less attractive *shallow* :P), in essence, they are losers. Cold and unlikeable as well. Hardly a legendary comedy, British or otherwise.

I gave it a 3 because the acting wasn't terrible.