The Office vs. The Office

Because I am currently watching season 3 of the US one and it's a joy.

UK one lacks good tipping scenes, US one doesn't have racially dubious bottle-openers

It does have 'collards' though.

us one is a bit bland, american tv is scared of cruel humour.

I don't think it's particularly less cruel than the UK one. The one I was watching yesterday (Diwali) was excruciating.

I prefer the US one overall just because there's seems a tad more humanity about it.

that's its flaw.

Oh yeah, we all need a bit less humanity.

Humanity = not funny

'zactly

How could anybody pick the UK version? The US version is one of the best (and best-cast) TV shows ever!

haha snrub otm.
humanity does not equal humanity. it makes for a memorable tv show tho.

errrrrrrrrr, humanity does not equal humor, i should say.

creed vs. everyone on earth

i think the dudes playing david brent and his creepy offsider are too good at playing unlikeable characters, and so i just can't watch the office uk for more than about 5 minutes

People say "humanity" when they mean "kindness," but kindness is not funny, nor does it have particularly much to do with humanity.

I didn't say that humanity (or kindness - not quite sure what the distinction is in this context - being kind, being humane what's the difference?) is funny. However a lack of humanity - which I find in much of RG's stuff - I (personally) find unfunny. It's the combination of laugh out loud funny plus a dash of humanity / kindness whatever in The Office (US) that make it my choice.

It's pretty much an apples/oranges comparison. The US version has established its own voice by this point and it's a completely different animal now. I love them both greatly, and they both do different things well.

I'm a proud American picking the UK version. Both shows feature excruciating scenes, but the UK is the only one that's halfway believable. The US Office kinda blows things way out of proportion in cartoony sort of way (many times, in a hilarious sort of way), but the UK Office is just too real and that's what makes it so sharp.

A manager buying his own BEST BOSS coffee cop is funny, though I've never met a real boss who did that. But David Brent pointing at the monkey on the coat stand and thinking that he's spreading cheer to all of his office minions, that's real.

The Office UK (series one, at least) was a quite good spoof of fly-on-the-wall docs (though The Day Today's similar office sketch was superior). The Office US is an okay US sitcom.

i thik steve carrell is the weak link for the US version. Pretty much all the other characters are great, especially stanley, creed and angela.

the UK one is def more awkward and sharper, and yknow, congratulations on that. i vote US.

but i mean, i def agree w this

It's pretty much an apples/oranges comparison. The US version has established its own voice by this point and it's a completely different animal now. I love them both greatly, and they both do different things well.

-- Deric W. Haircare, Friday, October 5, 2007 9:10 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Yeah, but do you like apples or oranges more?

do you prefer deadpan sitcoms or funny tragedies?

Humanity = not funny

Cruelty = even less funny

lol cruelty

i haven't seen the US version

does it have gags about the territorial army?

Who was the UK Office guilty of being cruel to, asshole Brent or those who must suffer him?

Carrell has been great this season so far, more bitter and less cartoonish.

Both. xp

both? i don't think there is any real "cruelty" in The Office UK tho, more a general but all too familiar unpleasantness.

Jordan OTM, I was worried this season would jump the shark but I REALLY like how Carell's character is evolving, and how much of a total heel Ryan's becoming. Like you could see it coming, him being a dick, but he's in full dick-mode now and it's glorious. That exchange between him and Jan... omg wow

xp

Yeah, I didn't realize the skewering of contemporary workplace trials was harder to watch than Hostel or Ben Stiller.

That exchange between him and Jan... omg wow

Haha, "love the beard, keep it forever"!

Oh yeah! That exchange between Ryan and Jan really was one of my favorite parts of the episode!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I went with UK. I've only seen the first two seasons of each, but I watched them over the course of a weekend while I was sick. Steve Carell and John Krasinski's eyebrows really bugged me out. That might've been the Nyquil talking, but I'm convinced. I also feel like the pacing was more fluid in the UK version.

I'll have to check out the later seasons of he US version though. Why was the UK version cancelled after only two seasons?

That one-second shot of Gareth leaving the bar in the motorcycle car still cracks me up

Didn't Gervais end it himself? Extras only ran for two seasons as well (with an upcoming special in the works).

(x-post)

Yeah, that was sweet. Dwight's never tried (and failed) to be such a player.

That one-second shot of Gareth leaving the bar in the motorcycle car still cracks me up

-- Pleasant Plains, Tuesday, October 16, 2007 8:36 PM (Tuesday, October 16, 2007 8:36 PM) Bookmark Link

me and my ex had this permanently saved on our dvr just for that moment. maybe one of my favorite tv moments of all time.

write in: La Job

though yeah, Creed bumps US over UK

It's pretty much an apples/oranges comparison.

If you can't compare two comedy tv shows with the same characters, the same set-up, the same jokes - even sometimes the same lines - good luck comparing, say, anything else in the whole world.

The one where Michael Scott has to fire someone on Halloween was on TBS tonight. Brilliant, lads.

haven't watched a lot of it but US one is obviously funnier

"The Office"(UK) was of course a second-rate "People Like Us".

Still good, though.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Much closer than I expected.

love how little work they do in the true version (US)

The US version had longer stretches of complex brilliance, and long, loooooong stretches of inconceivably unwatchable dreck. Maybe the first show to be utterly destroyed by the idea of "fan service".

this scene still kills me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-wfO6_eq-A

feel like series one of UK The Office was brilliant, series two was meh

The US version would be remembered so much more fondly if they had just quit while they were ahead. Stupid TV producers always want to milk that shit dry.

^ That's US televsion for you.

UK office bleak as fuk

The US version would be remembered so much more fondly if they had just quit while they were ahead. Stupid TV producers always want to milk that shit dry.

I totally gave up on it around the middle of its run, but came back toward the end and it had certainly rebounded. I think it went out strong.

A weird case where naming some of the cast executive producers with story responsibility late in the game fixed rather than caused a lot of the show's problem (although Jenna Fischer's husband was the worst director in the show's history).

UK office bleak as fuk

yeah was gonna say there's nothing in the US series as devastating and true as the Christmas party episode. whether that makes either one "better" i don't really care.

not the Christmas party, i meant the quiz night

Yeah the series is best when gervais’s essential unpleasantness and misanthropy shines through, when it goes for “humanity” it lands as schmaltz. Obv he becomes tiresome in both modes somewhere in s2 because he’s extremely limited & also cause some gammony wanker’s revulsion at plebs having fun in a shit high st club is only interesting/tolerable for so long

basically Martin Freeman became the irksome Martin Freeman p quickly and Gervais didn't have the spine to stick to the darkness, either.

i'm not sure who's more irksome out of Freeman and Krasinski

two versions of the same irksome

normie everymen for the masses

krasinski significantly worse imho

this may be an Atlantic divide, cos I've never seen Krasinski outside of the Office, so this is quite clearly Freeman

tbf i haven't seen Krasinski in a series of brutally smug mobile phone adverts

I like how the british office is more realistic yet aomehow even more unprofessional than the zany US office. There was one scene where Martin Freeman was just openly making out with the girl he is dating (not Dawn). Do they not have stairwells and storage rooms in the UK?

binge watched the US version's first three seasons and it's interesting to see them in quick succession, as opposed to watching it on broadcast...but there is a pretty clear break from season 2 to 3, where it quickly moves to a wacky boss sitcom. I honestly don't think the US version (esp season 1) is all that less bleak or uncomfortable than the UK version, but obviously that isn't something you could keep up

UK office bleak as fuk

Welcome to British comedy. The bleakest part is it launched Ricky Gervais' career and we've never been able to get rid of the fucker since.

I mean there wasn't much early evidence (that I saw) of just how odious he'd become

Gervais?

What odious stuff has he done?

I was kinda familiar with the bleakness of uk comedy from watching peep show etc but even then....there are some harrowing moments in this uk office. David Brent is just a horroshow of a human—selfish, vain, manipulative, dishonest

Right, but the series suggests (to me, anyway) a level of self-awareness and maybe even humility.

His recent-ish decline is chronicled here:

https://thebaffler.com/latest/what-happened-to-ricky-gervais-james

my kid got hooked on this at the end of last year and I wound up wathing the last few seasons which I hadn't seen while broadcast and I agree this series went out pretty strong even though it certainly wavered at times.

His stand-up comedy is excruciating, his movies are instantly forgettable, and his smug, dorm-room atheism makes any self-respecting unbeliever want to convert to Wahhabi Islam just as a personal fuck you.

lol

Agree with people about US Office getting worse and then better again. Robert California and Catherine Tate’s character were later season highlights, but it really peaked around the fourth season.

The bleakness of the UK version was too uncomfortably real and the sentimentality was difficult to stomach. Gervais is definitely someone to culturally forget outside of this role. I preferred the US Office for its hysterical melodrama. That episode where Michael and Jan throw a dinner party is one of my favourite moments of 00s TV.

Little fat man who sold his soul
Little fat man who sold his dream

Pathetic little fat man
No one's bloody laughing
The clown that no one laughs at
They all just wish he'd die

He's so depressed at being hated
Fatso takes his own life
He blows his stupid brains out
But the twat would probably miss

A weird case where naming some of the cast executive producers with story responsibility late in the game fixed rather than caused a lot of the show's problem

There were writers in the cast from the first episode - I don't think any of the non-writing actors got added to the writing staff late on?

the Baffler piece doesn't even go near odious things like Gervais relentlessly physically bullying his employees, or hiring a one-man PR firm to create a fansite and twitter account for him and then retweeting that site's tweets daily with notes about how they're thoughtful appreciations of his art

No, I mean the stars who weren't writers got added as producers, and Jenna Fischer (for one) was reportedly extremely hands-on in wanting to get away from silly sit-commy stuff and get back into the character-driven tension.

I honestly don't think the US version (esp season 1) is all that less bleak or uncomfortable than the UK version

Tbf, a lot of s1 is a direct remake. The US show already gets way softer by s2 imo: for a start, Jim is a pretty-boy romantic underdog hero, less of a bullied sad sack whose crush on the receptionist is an object of mockery for the entire office.

Tbh I just rewatched the dinner party ep and it's not as good/funny as I remembered

"Gervais is definitely someone to culturally forget outside of this role."

I give him Extras too

I missed this the first time round, but binged seasons 2-4 without coming up for air - they're pretty great on a comedy and soap opera level, but no specific individual episode sticks out. I kinda lost interest after Michael breaks up with Holly.

I'd tell you when to dive back toward the end of the series, but I don't remember when or what specifically happened to make it stop sucking.

The selling of Dunder MIfflin and introduction of Catherine Tate, IMO.

Gareth, are all these questions going to be about war?

Starting to become very "WATCH ANOTHER SHOW" about this one, you guys.

about which one

the american office

yeah, they should cancel this already

"the american office" always sounds like a grim frontline documentary

even more so with the Season One title

yeah, they should cancel this already

― We were never Breeting Borting (President Keyes), Monday, April 22, 2019 1:05 PM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they should cancel the memes!

I like how in the UK version they portray true contempt. Like in “New Girl,” the new girl is not bemusedly frustrated with David and Gareth, she fucking despises them.

otm, one of the best elements of this show.

also Gareth is pathetic in a way that Dwight doesn't manage to achieve. Dwight's irritating and OTT obnoxious, Gareth however could make you murder him if you had to spend 10 minutes with him.

The look of murder in her eyes is never broken. I imagine it took several takes to get it that intense—it’s a definite directorial choice.

Yeah good point neanderthal. Gareth is repulsive.

I've never like intentionally watched US The Office for long periods of time, but every time it's on, it feels like someone is running a cheese grater across my head. the further the show went on, the characters didn't feel lived in, they just tack on more awkward quirks on them as if this is a Kids in the Hall sketch.

I was a much bigger fan of UK The Office Series 1 than Series 2, but give me Gareth and Tim over Dwight and Jim anyday.