Rating: 
Summary: Temporary Genius
Review: The Office is to sitcoms what The Sopranos has been to television dramas: a redefinition of the genre, and one that makes all others in their category seem second rate by comparison.Ricky Gervais has perfectly captured the absurdities of office life and filled his characters with real personality. Only a few are less than three dimensional--Chris Finch and Lee come to mind--but the rest are all human. Tim is a witty but wimpy lonely heart, Gareth an arrogant but vulnerable pain in the rear, Dawn a needy user--even David Brent, the manager/standup comedian who rumbles from one awkward conversation to the next, has enough humanity that you can feel sorry for him in all but his most asinine moments. The first season of The Office was the greatest inaugural season in sitcom history. Get it while you can, though: episodes of the second season aired on the BBC have been more angry and cruel--and less funny--and Ricky Gervais has said from the start there will be no third season.
Rating:
Summary: An extraordinary story
Review: When this series was first shown in the UK, there were some who assumed it was a documentary, possibly a management education programme filmed by the BBC Business Unit. There is no laughter track, and there are frequent shots of people doing not very much and photocopiers collating paper. The first-line manager (David Brent) was so incompetent that this must be the 'Before' section before the consultants moved in and transformed the company. But no, once viewers got it, and saw that David Brent was never going to improve (and would never do any work either), the BBC realised it had a major winner on its hands. But perhaps the most extraordinary part of the story is that the BBC should give total control of the writing, direction and acting to Ricky Gervaise and his collaborator Stephen Merchant. Ricky Gervaise, a fortysomething, had had no acting or directing experience. He had never been to acting or scriptwriting classes. His only contact with the media was in the 1980s when he was a member of a failed pop group. Before he made this series, he was the manager of the students union bar at one of the London university colleges. What happened was that, for his graduate training course at the BBC, Stephen Merchant had to create a 10-minute short. With Gervaise, he created a prototype of the Office, and the BBC liked it so much that they gave the partnership a series. It's hard to imagine that happening in the US, which tends to value training and experience rather more highly. In truth, Gervaise plays a character very close to his own persona. Here is a manager who plays the guitar and wants to be a comedian. It is that closeness to reality that lends the series such a genuine feel. Also contributing to the feeling of reality is the sparseness of comic characters. There are only two seriously abnormal people in that office -- Brent himself and Gareth, the weekend soldier with a penchant for childish electronic toys. The rest are, I have to confess, very true to life in the English workplace. The plot, such as it is, is not worth giving away here. Suffice to say, there is just one more series (of a further six episodes). There will be a holiday special, but otherwise the whole Office has been canned -- not for lack of popularity, but simply because Gervaise and Merchant do not believe they can better it.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Television
Review: When The Office was first shown to a UK audience back in 2001, it was shown on BBC2. That is the secondary BBC channel where shows that aren't supposed to be popular are first aired. It's no surprise then that when The Office was repeated, its audience share was much greater second time around. A good reputation goes a long way. Gervais and Merchant hit the spot with this DVD, containing 6, 30 minute episodes that comprise Series One as well as a lengthy interview with the 2 which comes complete with outtakes, deleted scenes and early verions of The Office. The timescale of the Series is only a few weeks but oh so much is crammed in here from training days to nights out to Brent's philosophical musings to camera. Merchant and Gervais admitted that they'd run out of ideas after Series 2. This is evident (Series 2 is good, nothing like Series 1, though) and this is also why we will only ever have 12 episodes plus one Christmas Special. Sure there are many Brit 'in-jokes' that the average American will not get but there is so much more than they will not distract you from laughing.
Rating:
Summary: Minor themes worth mentioning
Review: Rather than merely parrot the acclaim already accorded the show by other reviewers, I will simply point up a few of the lesser lights, as it were. Ricky Gervais' performance is so wonderful that it overshadows two 'b' themes from the show: Tim and Dawn's attraction and Tim's feelings about his job. Dawn's fiance is an ass and is obviously wrong for her, but she stays with him. Tim is a thirtyish college dropout who longs for success in his field of choice, if only he knew what that was. In both cases the characters long for something more, but their own insecurities keep them locked in their paths. Ultimately, it's about settling. It's about that moment (around your thirtieth birthday, or it was for me, at any rate) when you realize that you're not going to be a rock star. When you realize that though your mother thinks you're special, you're just one of 5,999,999,999 other nobodies-in-particular, and maybe that's OK. After several years of hard knocks, you start to crave the comfort of certainty over the thrill of risking it all for your One Big Break. Dawn clings to her fiance because he's a sure thing, if a lousy one. Tim says that he's going to quit and go back to school, but ends up taking a "promotion". Better the devil you know.... <<SPOILER>> In the final episode of season two, we get to see why it's easier to follow this path. After Tim's initial humiliation in season one, when he asks Dawn out and is shot down in front of his coworkers, he tries again after he learns that Dawn has given her notice and is leaving for the States with her fiance. He takes her into a conference room and pours out his feelings for her (or so we assume -- before entering, he removes his microphone, leaving the camera to peer voyeuristically through the blinds. And why not -- we've all seen this scene before). When he returns to his desk he plugs back in his mic, faces the camera and says, "She said no." An American show would have had them in bed by episode two. Brilliant, simply brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: Prime
Review: mmm
Rating:
Summary: just magic
Review: It's rare that you watch a show that has you gasping with embarassment and watching through your fingers, yet unable to look away - this is a "reality" show set in a suburban British office outside London, with a smarmy boss, David Brent, who wants to be everybody's mate, and is constantly showing off for the ever-present camera. In addition to this train-wreck of a boss there's his side-kick/suckup Gareth, likeable loser Tim and his silent crush Dawn, awful Chris Finch the sales rep, and a host of other bit characters. The episode with the quiz night is hysterical, as is the training session one...oh what am I saying they are all great. And the DVD comes with a Wernham-Hogg weekly newsletter, ably penned by Brent himself. This guy is a comic genius, just dead-on in his portrayal of working in a Dilbert-like office. Hurry up and release Season 2 on DVD please!!!
Rating:
Summary: Unique and Surprising
Review: The Office is one of the best comedies on the market today. In the camera style of reality television, or more recently the new FOX comedy "Arrested Development," this sitcom is sure to please. The episodes are as memorable as Seinfeld, with catch phrases that you won't be able to get out of your head for the rest of the day. Every single person who acts in this comedy does a supurb job. After the first episode I immidiately fell in love with the characters, identifying each of them as a person in my office or someone like myself. If you liked "Curb your Enthusiasm" or "Best in Show" this new series is for you. Please let Season 2 come out soon!
Rating:
Summary: UNIQUE - YOU'LL WATCH IT OVER AND OVER...
Review: Very very good - excellent - amazing - buy it!
Rating:
Summary: great SHOW, Man!
Review: Wow this is such a really cool show & right on the mark. Every guy on the make for evry little cutey & the cuties not sure whether to show eegerness or modestie you know, just like the old life...Just too bad you can't smell the office gassss!
Rating:
Summary: Watch it Through Your Fingers
Review: What a relief it is to discover that one is not alone... Ricky Gervais' observations on human behavior in a typical office are so true to life, so acutely and agonizingly and hilariously well-observed, so marvelously accurate. This series is not just about its unique and innovative humor. It also provides reassurance for many of us that we are not the only ones who notice that humdrum office life is deeply comical... and deeply tragic at the same time. A lot of people say that they "can't watch". This is because though they are drawn to the humor, they'd prefer not to be reminded of the truth revealed by the darker side of Gervais' acute observations. Go easy on the reviewers who say they "Don't Get It"... At least ten percent of us must be Gareths or the equivalent. He'd never "Get It" either!
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