The Guardian‘s television critic Steven Wells has got his skivvies in a twist over The Office. In case you’ve been hiding out in a vault with the BBCs nuclear bombing scripts, the American mockumentary isn’t “original.” It started as a British show of 14 episodes starring Ricky Gervais; American producer Gregg Daniels brought the show’s concept to American shores. Both shows have similarities. There’s an office selling paper in a suburban industrial park. The characters have the same jobs: there’s the hapless office manager, an underachieving salesguy, an idiot paperpusher. Ricky Gervais gets a creator credit on the American show. Both shows are labeled comedies. And that’s where all similarities end.
Wells writes: “It’s rubbish. The American ‘Office’ is a dysfunctional and unfunny pastiche of the original. When the British version first aired, I met several Americans who thought it was a documentary. ‘Is England really that awful?’ asked one. Where the original is nail-bitingly excruciating, the US Office – dumbed down to the point of being insulting – is comfort food for liberals.” He later proclaims the character of Michael Scott is, “a straightforward sad bastard to be straightforwardly laughed at.”
I don’t agree with his assessments. Given Americans’ national sense of humor, which Brits like to label puerile and obvious, I’m not surprised by Wells’ opinion. I happen to like both shows for what they are. The British Office is dark and makes me laugh out of discomfort. American workplaces can really be that awful and so very easy to laugh at if you’ve spent any time there; the American Office strikes me as familiar, sad to say.
What do you think? Is the American version of this show dreadfully unfunny to you? Do you hate the British Office or love it? And did you know there are all kind of national versions of this show out there (Le Bureau anyone)? What do you think of your national version of The Office? Add your comments below.
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I actually like both versions, and agree with your assessment of the differences. One of my all-time favorite British comedies is Coupling. The British version is absolutely hysterical, and I understand that the American version (I think they even used the original scripts from the British version) wasn’t well-received at all. After hearing about that, I wondered if the American version of The Office would be as problematic as the American version of Coupling, but fortunately, I was wrong. The American version is hilarious!
Yes, I also agree with you- the British version makes me feel creepy, but the American version makes me laugh out loud. Both reflect the comedy of the country in which they were produced.
I love both versions. When I first watched the British version I admit it took a few episodes to really “get” the accents, but I was totally hooked. I saw it after I’d seen the American one. The American Office is still a much better show than most primetime, even if it’s not all it could be.