Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Series
Review: This may be the best DVD I have bought in the past year. Very funny, very original, and well acted. I am just a little disappointed that the whole "series" is only six episodes, but they can watched over and over, so it still rates 5 stars. Just ordered series #2.....
Rating:
Summary: One of the funniest shows I've ever seen!!
Review: I first saw "The Office" tuning in one night at mid-episode on BBC America. It was Season One, Episode Three (Tim's Birthday), and it was hilarious! After watching a couple more episodes, I decided to buy the DVD of the entire season, and what I found is one of the funniest television programs I have ever seen. Ricky Gervais does a great job of creating a repulsive character in David Brent. Mackenzie Crook is downright creepy as Gareth, Brent's chief butt-kisser. Martin Freeman is great as Tim, and Lucy Davis is lovely as Dawn. Gervais and partner Stephen Merchant have also done a stellar job writing and directing the series. Season One is an excellent collection, and Season Two is nearly as good, but that's another review...
Rating:
Summary: Pathetic, mundane, dark, and undeniably hilarious.
Review: From time to time I go swimming for media outside the mainstream. In the UK, this is as popular there as Curb Your Enthusiasm (which shares similar dark appeal) and approaching Friends. I had to take a look, despite the fact that I never really liked British humor.The first episode was more confusing than anything else. Done in a documentary style, it chronicled the goings on within, of all interesting venues, a paper company, and followed the relationships between its completely pathetic inhabitants. The office constituency is led by (co-writer of the show) Ricky Gervais who plays David Brent...a cocktail of extreme insecurity, arrogance, and level of social ineptitude that pushes (but doesn't cross) the envelope of possibility. I'll embarrasingly admit that the unorthodox style took a while to get used to, from no laugh track, to a complete absence of jokes or punch lines. This show plays on a variation of the axiom about "truth being stranger than fiction". Well, after an episode or two, I became totally immersed in the environment, an environment that seemed more like reality than fiction. That threw my switch, I now find this show insanely funny, but the realistic element has a gravity of its own. You start to really care about the characters. Pretty unusual for a comedy series. So, for those of you who haven't seen it, but are curious, I recommend without reservation. For the rest, get this DVD, it's among the few in my collection that I play frequently. Hope this helped. Christian Hunter
Rating: 
Summary: Endearing but not hilarious
Review: It seems that most viewers either like or dislike this series pretty strongly. That's not surprising, because it's quite unusual, with its documentary-like style, its unappetizing star, and its grasp of the more or less "quiet desperation" of much working life. I found the series kind of addictive, because the supporting actors are sympathetic and I started to become interested in what they would make of their lives (in a sort of soap opera way.) But I don't think you have to be either a brute of a boss or utterly humorless to wonder why people find the series so funny. I think its comedy has more in common with that of the old Jackie Gleason show than with many British comedies, and that a viewer will find the series more or less funny depending on what kind of comedy he prefers.
Rating:
Summary: Ha! Ha! Brilliant! Much Better Than Friends!
Review: There's no laugh track. The humour here is subtle at times, and it makes you think. The actors' expressiveness fills the awkward silences to great effect. Many real issues and themes about life, politics of sexuality, gender and of course, politics of work environments, are embedded within the plotlines, anecdotes and jokes. It's refreshing to watch a show this funny, where the structure and writing feel real, and do not insult the viewer's intelligence. Unfortunately, there are only two seasons in this series. From personal experience working in several urban offices, I think there's enough people with stories and situations out there, that the writers could have found more material and created one more strong season. On the other hand, the writers do a fabulous job with maintaining the integrity of the show. They develop the stories and reveal the characters within the series in a seemingly natural progression. Brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: Classic
Review: This is the funniest show ever, hands down.
Rating:
Summary: Great show
Review: This is a really great show. It took the second episode to hook us, and we love it. What a terrific cast!
Rating:
Summary: Perfuciously halarious.
Review: The moment I melted into my favorite bean bag and pressed "play" on my remote, the laughter began. I was doubled over in severe stomache pains on account I have IBS syndrom. My condition howerver, did not prevent me from watching every second of these
bloddy wankers displaying what I typically experience in my own office environment. I give this obtuse, yet understanable comedy my highly regarded endorsement. You will want to shower me with fine wines and tropical fruits once you have experienced this amazing piece of film making.
Rating:
Summary: Greatest TV show ever
Review: I never write reviews online, but I had to waste my time for this dvd. It is the greatest show i have ever seen. I cant stop thinking about this show. I wish I had a british accent because of this show. I promise you will love this DVD.
Rating:
Summary: If going to the office would only be this fun and funny...
Review: From the moment David Brent comes on the screen, he suddenly becomes every bad boss you've ever had and ever hated, without ever doing anything horribly offensive or rotten that all of your bad bosses have done. Such is the genius of the BBC comedy "The Office", slowly taking the US by storm, by being both brilliantly funny and wickedly sincere. The brain child of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, "The Office" brings us into the exciting world of the paper business, led into battle by the horribly camera-mugging David Brent (played by Gervais), who is aptly clueless in his verbal running-of-the-mouth. Acutely aware of the cameras which have invaded his office, making his work life into a pseudo-reality show. Brent is fidgety aware of the camera, often looking it during one of his hilarious monologues, and also as he attempts to "be one of the guys" in the office. The results are not punch-line funny, but deeper truth funny. Adding to Brent's insanity are a supportive cast of incredible actors that add so much to the Office. Martin Freeman's Tim, who plays the office clown but also carries the more melancholy aspects of his job with him; Mackenzie Crook's Gareth, as a perfect foil to Tim as a brown nosing assistant with a huge inferiority complex; Lucy Davis' Dawn, a strong-willed receptionist who I secretly suspect is the smart one of the bunch.; to the rest of the office staff who are required to act by looking, and the looks they give are pricelessly funny. What I began to appreciate about the series is that beyond the humor, the people in the office are terribly real. It's in their realness that the humor trannscends. When we see Dawn burst into tears because of an inappropriate practical joke Brent plays on her, when we see Tim brooding in the local bar because of his situation, when we see Brent caught in the middle of some lies he tells to save face; it's funny, and painful, and more strong because these people are real, complex. The humor comes from them, and doesn't happen to them, which is more real. The first season is only six episodes, but worthy of the price for the many, many, many laughs The Office will bring you. I eagerly can't wait for the second season, and hope that American comedies learn something from this series destined to be a quiet classic.
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