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BBC's "The Office"
I've been hearing about this originally-on-BBC series for years (David Letterman called it the funniest show on television) and finally rented it at Tower Video ($1.49 for a three-day rental) this week.
It is that funny. If your idea of funny is limited to crotch-hits as on America's Funniest Whatever or one-line zingers as on Friends, you may not see what the big deal is. However, if you're patient and if you enjoy the humor that comes out of ironic, bizarre, and awkward situations, you're going to love this show.
Ricky Gervais, the writer, co-director, and star is David Brent, a mid-level manager in a regional office of a paper-seller. He is determined to be a good manager, but seems to be clueless to the fact that while he strives to be seen as cool and funny and popular with his employees, what he really is is a joke.
Good humor, though, cares about its victims, and there's a certain balance here between poking fun at the characters and sympathizing with them as each of them slogs his or her way through life doing a job none of them really believes in. As Red Skelton said, "Great humor makes you laugh until you cry," and here's where The Office scores. It's funny because it can't possibly be true, but then you realize it's funny because it is true. And then it's tragic.
Take, for example, a scene where David Brent whips out his acoustic guitar and plays a song he wrote in his younger days, when he aspired to being a professional musician. Brent's a decent guitarist and can carry a tune, and he sings with total conviction, but while the song he sings certainly doesn't suck, it's by no means any good. That's beside the point, however, because even if it were "Layla," the fact that it's being sung by this man in this place in front of his entire staff during what's supposed to be an all-day training session led by someone else is both hilarious and heartbreaking.
British television is something like Japanese television and completely unlike American television, in that a series is seen more as a mini-series and not intended to run forever and ever until nobody cares anymore. The Office First Series is a six-episode run with a beginning, middle, and end. It returns for a second six-episode series which is just as good as the first. There are also some Christmas specials, none of which I've taken a look at. Yet.
As some of you know, The Office was recently introduced to American audiences with a completely different (American) cast and (American) setting, with either Mo Rocca or Steven Colbert (I can't remember which and am too lazy to look it up just now). [edit: It turns out it was yet a THIRD The Daily Show correspondent, Steve Carrell] The reviews have been good, and I've seen one episode and have to agree. Still, take a look at this original series--it's truly unlike anything I've seen before.
It is that funny. If your idea of funny is limited to crotch-hits as on America's Funniest Whatever or one-line zingers as on Friends, you may not see what the big deal is. However, if you're patient and if you enjoy the humor that comes out of ironic, bizarre, and awkward situations, you're going to love this show.
Ricky Gervais, the writer, co-director, and star is David Brent, a mid-level manager in a regional office of a paper-seller. He is determined to be a good manager, but seems to be clueless to the fact that while he strives to be seen as cool and funny and popular with his employees, what he really is is a joke.
Good humor, though, cares about its victims, and there's a certain balance here between poking fun at the characters and sympathizing with them as each of them slogs his or her way through life doing a job none of them really believes in. As Red Skelton said, "Great humor makes you laugh until you cry," and here's where The Office scores. It's funny because it can't possibly be true, but then you realize it's funny because it is true. And then it's tragic.
Take, for example, a scene where David Brent whips out his acoustic guitar and plays a song he wrote in his younger days, when he aspired to being a professional musician. Brent's a decent guitarist and can carry a tune, and he sings with total conviction, but while the song he sings certainly doesn't suck, it's by no means any good. That's beside the point, however, because even if it were "Layla," the fact that it's being sung by this man in this place in front of his entire staff during what's supposed to be an all-day training session led by someone else is both hilarious and heartbreaking.
British television is something like Japanese television and completely unlike American television, in that a series is seen more as a mini-series and not intended to run forever and ever until nobody cares anymore. The Office First Series is a six-episode run with a beginning, middle, and end. It returns for a second six-episode series which is just as good as the first. There are also some Christmas specials, none of which I've taken a look at. Yet.
As some of you know, The Office was recently introduced to American audiences with a completely different (American) cast and (American) setting, with either Mo Rocca or Steven Colbert (I can't remember which and am too lazy to look it up just now). [edit: It turns out it was yet a THIRD The Daily Show correspondent, Steve Carrell] The reviews have been good, and I've seen one episode and have to agree. Still, take a look at this original series--it's truly unlike anything I've seen before.
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