The Office vs. The Office

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.

I was watching the UK one again last night (having been pretty much immersed in the US one) and was surprised at how funny it is. I think my memory of it was more that it was just more cringeworthy but there are plenty of just plain funny moments.

I don't think I could have ever chosen. I think the UK show is better in an objective sense of being more creative and more realistic and just having the character of David Brent, and at its peaks it's probably funnier than the US office. But the US Office is just more fun to watch, and there's more of it, and has better side characters and side plots since it's had more time to develop them.

"better in an objective sense"=better

"i haven't seen the US version
does it have gags about the territorial army?"

Yeah, what is the US equivalent of that joke?

general hayseed gun enthusiasm, i guess

There is no equivalent, really.

The equivalent is Dwight being a "deputy sheriff" or whatever, right?

ohhh yeah that's good.

I don't think I could have ever chosen. I think the UK show is better in an objective sense of being more creative and more realistic and just having the character of David Brent, and at its peaks it's probably funnier than the US office. But the US Office is just more fun to watch, and there's more of it, and has better side characters and side plots since it's had more time to develop them.

-- n/a, Thursday, October 18, 2007 1:20 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

David Brent is outstanding, and the UK version definitely makes me squirmier, but yeah, the US version is consistently funnier overall.

I would have, and used to say, that the US equivalent of the Territorial Army is the National Guard and Army Reserves, but in the past few years any distinction may have been erased.

They wouldn't put Dwight in the Guard, because then they'd be making fun of America too much.

I think the Nat'l Guard became something different from the territorial army around the same time everyone found out that GWB dodged nam via it

"better in an objective sense"=better

-- M.V., Thursday, October 18, 2007 10:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

Not necessarily, ponch.

not sure I follow you Will. Before the war, how was the National Guard much different then the TA? I don't know anything about the TA, but I assumed they served similar purposes.

I mean when I saw the Office UK I didn't understand the TA jokes untill somebody said "it's like the National Guard". I don't think anybody's opinion of it changed drastically after the GWB stuff.

the national guard might be analagous to the territorial army in practice but i don't sense much disrespect for the guard in this country, it just wouldn't have worked. the 'volunteer deputy' jokes seem to nail the same tone as the TA ones, not saying i fully understand the TA connotations.

I thought the territorial army was a place where, like, the nerdy skinny gun nerds went, whereas the nat'l guard is where you go when there's a draft and yr dad's rich.

no the national guard people are all in iraq now, actually.

but i'm not from the US or the UK, so what do i know?

xpost ouuuuch.

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.