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As Alan Partridge (one of my favorite Brit-com characters ever) would say, "Put your words on a plate, and start eating!" I didn't think I could ever like an American version of The Office; I loved the original too much.
The Office (UK)--the original version by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant---has been one of my favorite shows in life since I saw the first series in England while visiting Rumcove a few years back. I've watched every bit of it dozens of times.
I didn't love the first season of the American version. There were only six episodes (like the British series) and they were close enough to the English versions to make comparisons unavoidable. During the DVD commentaries to "The Dundees," Greg Daniels remarks that they "got a world of shit" for sticking too close to the original in the pilot. Inevitable, I'm afraid. Those of us who loved the original weren't going to be happy seeing anyone else play those roles, and people who didn't love it weren't going to get the American pilot.
But over the course of Season 2---without my realizing it---my attitude change. I've now watched the American version dozens of times, and each time I see in it something I didn't notice before. I think it's fully as good as the original. I may prefer it to the original. For one thing, there's so much more of it to love.
THE FIRST AND SECOND SEASONS. It's not that the first season was bad; it's just that I was a die-hard lover of the original, and on the first viewing I was mainly conscious of all the ways the American version wsa different.
Nick and I didn't hate it or anything. The office in The Office looked like an office and the people in it looked for the most part like real people. They were similar to the UK people, but not absolute analogues, which was a relief; as much as we loved the UK version, we didn't want to see it cloned. And we were most of all relieved not to hear the typical sitcom bandinage, a laugh track, or anything that greatly detracted from the mockumentary aspect of the show.
[1] SCOTT VS. BRENT:
SEASON 1. The biggest obstacle for me was the Steve Carell character, "Michael Scott." Of course Carrell is a genius, and I think he's done amazing things with the character in the second season, but the fact is, I just didn't like that character.
I didn't feel in him the pathos that Ricky Gervais as "David Brent" in the UK version conveyed from the first with every nervous gesture, every high-pitched frenetic giggle, and every anxious glance into the camera. "Scott" came across as way more pleased with himself. He seemed much more similar to the repulsive character Carell played in the (sadly cancelled) Julia Louis-Dreyfus comedy, "Watching Ellie" than to Brent.
Recently, watching the DVD commentaries for the first time, I heard him say that he deliberately didn't watch more than a small portion of the first episode because he didn't want to find himself imitiating Ricky Gervais playing Brent. So his version of an exceptionally irritating boss has a sleek reptilian smarminess very different from Brent's begging dog demeanor. I didn't like him.
He seemed to be more oblivious than Brent to his failures and to get away with more. He didn't seem as needy, or not in the same way. He's good-looking and clearly makes a lot of money; he's much more pleased with himself and his life than Brent. Brent at various time reveals that in his imaginary life , he is a musician and an entertainer and a public personality, not the manager of a paper company; in the second season, he jumps at the chance of work as a "motivational speaker." Though in Season 2, we learn that Scott attends "improv" classes, they seem to be mainly a vehicle for him to act out his "Agent Michael Scarn" fantasies rather than his fantasy career.
For me, the Scott character---particularly in Season 1---came across as someone who was constantly striving to establish his alpha dog status (which might be an American thing), whereas Brent just wanted to be the center of attention and a universal object of affection. I'm saying that I just didn't find him as likable and though he was equally deplorable, he didn't seem as pitiable. That was Season 1.
SEASON 2. But Season 2 slowly changed my perception of Scott. In the first episode, "The Dundies," there was a crucial moment when he gets heckled by outsiders---"You suck, man! You suck"---where you see him visibly deflate, till the (very drunk) Pam's intervention saves the day.
The whole season is filled with telling moments when you can see Scott's defenses crumble and the panic set in.
Furthermore, you get more a glimpse into his strange predilections and longings: his crush on "Ryan the Temp" (played by B.J. Novak, one of the writers); his often unconcealed contempt for poor Dwight (the amazing Rainn Wilson), the one person who feels toward him the way he wants everyone to feel toward him; the weird (I'm sorry, but that's the only word that really describes how it struck me) tension that evolves between Michael and his boss, Jan; his uninhibited self-centeredness and self-pity when he burns his foot on his George Foreman grill; and on and on; his flashes of genuine kindness and competence. In "The Client," there is a brief moment of brilliant salesmanship, for example. One thing that always bothered me about the UK version is that it was hard for me to see how David Brent ever got to be the manager of anything. This episode.
You also get some very subtly delivered hints about how he became who he is and the sources of his insecurity. In "Michael's Birthday" we see that he has felt cheated all his life of the attention that is his due; and in "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" we see in a videotape the shy and lonely child Michael appearing on a children's show and telling an audience that he wants to grow up to have "a hundred friends." These were delivered with an exceedingly light touch. I barely noticed them till after, if that makes any sense. I didn't really notice that I was beginning to feel sympathy for Michael till after. Which is how it should be.
But the main focus stays where it belongs: on his serious flaws as a man and a boss.
By the end of the second series, I had completely warmed up to Michael Scott. Over the course of the series, I was became more and more amazed by Carrell's ability to portray within the space of a few seconds and without saying a word a whole series of completely inappropriate and (often) warring feelings.
DWIGHT VS. GARETH. I of course adored the Mackenzie Crook "Gareth" character in the UK version. But "Dwight Shrute".....I don't think it's possible to compare Rainn Wilson's "Dwight Shrute" to any character in the history of characters. He is sui generis. And Rainn Wilson is a genius. Like Gareth, he's a sidekick, but unlike Gareth, he is a scorned, kicked, neglected, unappreciated sidekick. He genuinely believes Michael's hype about himself; and one of the most telling aspects of the Michael character is the extent to which he despises Dwight for being the one person who sees him the way he sees himself. I suppose it's because Dwight is the one person in the office who is even more maladroit and out of touch with reality than Michael.
Dwight's a lot angrier and more authoritarian than the comparatively ineffectual Gareth; and he is much more aggressive in his attempts to exert control over his (according to him) "subordinates." He's also much less conventional than the extremely conventional (if militaristic) Gareth. He's a beat farmer. He loves anime and hobbits and is a genuine sci-fi/fantasy fanboy. In the Halloween episode, he dresses as (I guess) a Jedi and attempts to use Jedi mind-tricks on Michael and the papier mache version of his own head Michael is wearing on his shoulder as a costume. Caught up in the moment, he totally believs that the dummy is advising Michael---who is supposed to fire one employee by the end of the day---to fire him, Dwight. It's one of the funniest scenes ever. ("Tell him NO, Michael. Tell. Him. NOT. DWIGHT.")
He's more possessive of Michael than Gareth is of Brent. Whereas David and Gareth seem to be friends and drinking buddies (with Brent as top dog), Michael seems to be repelled by Dwight and depend on him about equally. Dwight's jealousy of Ryan the temp in "The Fire" is really quite pitiable.
JIM HALPERT VS. TIM CANTERBURY; PAM VS. DAWN. Of all the characters on the show, the "Jim Halpert" character seems to me closest to the original British version, "Tim Canterbury." John Krasinski---who looks nothing at all like Martin Freeman----evoked him so strongly that they have actually sort of merged together in my mind.
Could any intelligent woman resist either of these characters? The resistance of "Pam" and "Dawn" is something that they clearly don't completely understand themselves, so I guess it makes sense that it's incomprehensible to me as a viewer.
Lucie Davies's character Dawn is a very different person from Jenna Fischer's Pam Beesley: more reticent, more stolid, and seemingly less in touch with her feelings. In Dawn's case, it was hard to see why she would stick with the repulsive control-freak Lee once she was aware how "Tim Canterbury" felt about her---because it was hard to fathom why any woman would like Lee or want to be in his company.
In the first season of the American version, Pam's boyfriend Roy was a lot more like Lee than he turns out to be in the second season. In the second season, he is neglectful of her a lot of the time and not at all interested (as Jim hints to her) in her thoughts and feelings.
Both love affairs are really different and really touching and equally perfectly handled by the actors. I immediately liked the American versions of these characters just as much as the English; I kept watching Season 1 mainly because of them. It didn't take me nearly as long to warm to them as it took me to warm to Dwight and Gareth.
EVERYONE ELSE. We get a lot more of the other characters in the American version, which is great. They're all amazing. But my favorite is Kevin. Brian Baumgartner rocks my world. I love the way that Kevin flips between that solemn deadpan expressionless Kevin-face and Kevin's trademark impish grin. And since I love Angela (Angela Kinsey) and Oscar (Oscar Nunez) too, the NBC "webisodes" called "The Accountants" were a real bonus. It was great to see Kevin, Oscar, and Angela interacting when no one else was around. And it was sweet to see Angela apologize (twice!) to Kevin for being mean in "You're Mean." But my favorite line was Kevin: "You guys are breaking my spirit."
I say give the accountants their own spin-off series.
FOR TWO EXCELLENT (AND EXTENSIVE) RECAPS OF KEY EPISODES THAT REALLY DO JUSTICE TO THE SHOW, SEE JACOB'S RECAPS AT "TELEVISION WITHOUT PITY." Jacob's my all-time favorite recapper and he is seriously into the show.
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