So I just noticed that NBC is going to air their “own version”:http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/ of the sublime British dark comedy “The Office”:http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice/. Since I’m hard pressed to think of a way to either improve upon the original or translate it into Americanese, I’m rating this one a Rather Bad Idea.
Two rays of hope: Steve Carrell of _The Daily Show_ heads up the cast, and Ricky Gervais (the star creator of the original) has a writing credit for the pilot, which suggests a certain amount of collaboration and/or consultation.
Shallow imitation or brilliant reimagination? If anyone happens to catch it on Thursday night, let me know . . .
4 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 22, 2005 at 10:18 am
jonathan
I’ll probably be watching, but with low expectations. I love Steve Carrell, but I’m not sure he’s right for the part; that is, if they give the character the same treatment. If he’s the clueless boss in a different way, say, a la Lumbergh in Office Space, that might work, but won’t be nearly as painfully funny as Gervais was.
March 24, 2005 at 11:02 pm
Ana
I watched it tonight. I thought it was fun. But I have never watched the original. Sometimes I felt I was in a extended Daily Show clip. I would watch again.
March 25, 2005 at 11:07 am
Bill
Melissa and I watched it last night. Both of us thought it was funny. Melissa hadn’t liked the BBC version (she thought it was too slow, mostly) and said that this version was funnier.
I liked it, but my understanding is that this is the only episode that uses a script from the UK version, so I’m reserving judgement until I see another episode, one with an original script.
March 28, 2005 at 10:11 am
Bryan
I had actually never seen the BBC version (although I have been meaning to since I have hear good things about it). Overall, I thought it was funny and actually laughed out loud a few times. I found it to be a “grower” in the sense that I did not think that it was that great while I was watching it, but found that I was thinking about it the next day.
Anyway, I am going to wait until a few more episodes to see if it warrants a slot on my weekly viewing schedule.