The Office

My baby's got balls. Yay! Thanks for the info, I didn't get around to watching the extra's.

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"Today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

You should. They are supOYB. With a captiol OYB.

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Pumpkins scream in the DEAD of night!

*AHEM* .......Strums

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This was going to be in a new thread, but now that I was informed of this one I've moved it here.


After watching Series One I have decided it is probably the best season of any show I've ever seen on television. Almost every joke is a keeper and the main cast is just amazing. First off, there's David Brent: the boss. He's basically an egomaniac and sees himself from a viewpoint so different from his co-workers that it's really quite pathetic. That's where most of his humor comes from though. It's a long series of verbal misteps and incorrect judgements of just about everything. For all his faults he seems to have a good heart deep down and you love as well as pity him. Then there's Tim. He's a bit more of a straight man. He gets less jokes but still has a good sense of humor. He's the everyman of the program and between his suppressed yet always developing relationship with Dawn, his self doubts and his self-consiously low self-esteem, he is a truly relatable character who provides the show with the bulk of its drama. Last but not certainly not least in the line of what I would consider the primary characters is Gareth. He is the perpetually scene stealing dead-pan funnyman who never even realizes that spends most of his time being utterly ridiculous. Between his naivity and his misunderstanding of the way the rest of the world veiws him, the man is life a David Brent in training, except that without even trying, he is a lot more of "a laugh" then Brent himself.
This happily controlled chaos is shattered in Series Two though. The uncomfortable humor is intensified, while the deadpan absurdity, is pushed to the backburner. The show's brilliance really lied in its perfectly equal balance between the sad and nearly paniful, and the hilarious. Now that balance has been lost. David's new enviroment is much less accomodating to his personality. He has a boss now, a change that bruises his ego like a sledgehammer. When he tries to compensate for this loss of power it backfires. Now that someone can chastise him, they are more than willing to. While his old staff had grown accostomed to him and excepted his boorish behavior, this new batch of co-workers is completely unaccostomed to such an eviromnt and many are not all too shy about voicing it. Plus the addition of a black staff member and one who is handicapped provide new fuel to the fire of his poor etiquette and problematic social skills. Tim's relationship with Dawn has been sidetracked and further complicated by the arrival of a new love interest that is much more availible and willing. Luckily Gareth hasn't changed. However just about everything else has. It is like a whole new show. The balance has shifted. It is now more realistic, and therefore more sad and often painful to watch. The episodes often end abruptly and jarringly. While it is more dramatic, it has lost a lot of subtlety and is less enjoyable to watch. But then again, I've got to give a lot of credit to show that can sucessfully switch from hilarious comedy with a strong undercurrent of drama, to (oh so) heartwrenching drama with a strong undercurrent of comedy. Whatever the show's creators set out to do, they suceed to such a great degree, that their work is sure to go down in history. This show needed it's own thread badly, so here it is. Let's Discuss.

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"Like all dreamers, Steven mistook disenchantment for truth."

Huh?

I disagree with you about Series Two, I'd say it's as equally good as the first. I like the fact that David has a new boss, and the scenes were he tries to win over the Swindon staff are just flat-out hilarious ("Is it a black...Hiya!").

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TOP 100 | "Don't let the bastards grind you down!"

I was trying to politely draw your attention to this thread

oo I love the office (british version), I've seen one of the American versions and it doesn't have the same charm. I wish they would have kept going....anyway here is some of my favourite quotes:

“This is the accounts department, the number bods. Do not be fooled by their job descriptions, they are absolutely mad, all of ‘em. Especially that one, he’s mental. Not literally of course, that wouldn’t work.”

David (Series 1 Episode 1)

“I don’t know where we’re going tonight. Obviously Finchy’s a sophisticated guy, and Gareth’s a culture vulture, so will it be opera, ballet, I don’t know. I think the RSCs in town, so er... having said that at Chasers it's hooch for a pound and wonderbras get in free night.”

Tim (Series 1 Episode 5)

“There are limits to my comedy. There are things that I’ll never laugh at. The handicapped. Because there’s nothing funny about them. Or any deformity. It’s like when you see someone look at a little handicapped and go ‘ooh, look at him, he’s not able-bodied. I am, I’m prejudiced.’ Yeah, well, at least the little handicapped fella is able-minded. Unless he’s not, it’s difficult to tell with the wheelchair ones.”

David (Series 1 Episode 3)

“In this room, I have special-”
“Needs?”
“No, I am a special-”
“Needs child?”
“No. And that’s not even funny.”

Tim and Gareth (Series 1 Episode 2)

Brent talking about Donna:
“Her dad’s not only a copper, but he’s a bloody big bugger isn’t he? So hands off.”
“I’ve got something she could take down in evidence!”
“Oh, don’t worry about this lot.”
“Do you wanna receive some swollen goods?”
“I wouldn’t mind escaping up her tunnel!”
“Get out. Get out, I mean it.”

David and some employees (Series 1 Episode 2)

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Concert Tab!! MOFO poetry Been Dreaming Lately?

I see. Well keep in mind, I haven't seen all of Series Two yet. I'll post here again once I finish it. I guess part of the problem is, that despite all of his faults, I really wanted to like David Brent and this series makes that so much harder to do.

Ah. I suspected as much. Thanks.

Well, Strummer, have you finished watching the second series yet?

OK... reviving an old thread here...

I just started a NetFlix thing that lets me watch however much I want online, which works well for me as I have no issues with watching stuff on my PC (at least until I'm insane enough to spend the big $$ to buy a cool plasma TV).
I decided to start watching the US version of The Office from the beginning.

I hate to say it, because I think Steve Carell is a really amazing actor, but his character is about the only one on the whole show I actually dislike. I get the idea that he is supposed to be "off", but I don't know if its the writing of his character, or his portrayal (I'm thinking its mostly the writing), but most of the things he does in the show aren't laughable at all. They are cruel, painful, deceitful, and well... lots of other words that basically mean this is a guy that just doesn't give a damn about anyone other than himself... and the way it is written and acted, its not done in any way that is funny. There are times though that what I think are the true intentions of how the character is supposed to be do come out, and those times, he is funny, or sad sometimes, and even pathetic in his disillusionment.

Other than that though, I consider it to be a very good show. There are very well defined types of people being shown, and then kicked up a few notches on the silly absurdest level, and that is where the humor comes from. It doesn't hurt that many of us can probably relate to specific characters in some way, which draws you in even more.


I have not seen the original British version of this. I was thinking of saving that for after I make my way through all the US episodes. I have heard so many good things about the original that to watch it first might actually spoil my fun watching the US version.

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The Divide by Zero Foundation - Where the real world ends... and mine begins

For me, Michael Scott is just someone who desperately hungers for friends.Because of this he alienates people,but he always comes from a good place and in later episodes he may do and say things that change your opinion of him.


But I like Dwight.Especially when he's concussed.

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And lo the whispering wanderer weeps
what whit to whom did my life keep?

Really? Do you mean until the strike ends or is it for keeps?

lol - it's not , just no new episodes currently

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Um...you guys very seriously need to watch the original UK version of The Office. Don't get me wrong, i love the US version, but the UK version is genius. It should be watched first...

Oh yeah, I love the UK Office. Free Love on the Free Love Freeway is the second most frequently played song on my ipod. And David Brent telling Finchy to **** off in the Christmas special has gotta be the single greatest moment in the history of television. But I think (and you obviously disagree) that the last few seasons of the US version have been just as good as, if not better than, its English counterpart.

I doubt the UK can top the US one - but im sure it will be great.

You're a moron.

So because the WGA strike is continuing and Carell and some of the others in the cast have movie careers you just inferred that the show is going off the air and never, ever coming back (which is what your initial post said, though now you've backpeddled to "anytime [soon]"). So to be clear this time, you aren't basing this on anything that anybody like Greg Daniels, Ken Kwapis, B.J. Novak, Carell, Krasinski or anybody else involved with the show has actually said or written, you've just decided to proclaim the entire series done and over with because...because you and the voices in your head figured this out? Congrats.

"The series has come to an end". Really. You are apparently the only person on the planet who "knows" this. Whether or not this particular season ever resumes, and not just for "The Office" but most any of the network shows on indefinite hiatus right now because of the strike, to say the "series has come to an end" because Steve Carell makes movies, too...that's just nonsense.

You're a moron, jrs. Even TMZ.com and The National Equirer don't make such leaps of "logic". As I said to you in a PM, first of all don't make a B.S. post like that with no information, no links, no nothing - that's just bush league crap. More importantly, don't make such declarative statements based on your own suppositions unless you're going to identify them as such (and even then, please don't).


Man, I expect more from you, jrs. Though right now I can't think of why.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Can you go back in time and say whatever it is you originally meant to say, unsubstantiated or not?

Because you still aren't really saying anything, other than still more than hinting that you know some reason why the show is not ever coming back on the air for any more episodes...but you either can't or won't say what you know. And if you can't or won't say then it goes back to my original PM: why bother making such a post in the first place? It's childish. And boring. The only reason to make a post like that first one is so that everyone will come into the thread and say, 'Oh, jrs, tell us more, tell us more!' Are you this needy? Really?

Put up or shut up. In clear English, please.


Thanks.

Well considering it finished in 2003 and the US one is still going i don't think it's going to 'top' anything. In terms of goodness, the UK version is genius. VIEW IT before making an assumption.