NBC’s newest comedy is called The Office. It’s the American version of a British hit by the same name. I’d heard about the British show for years but never had the opportunity to see it, although everyone I spoke to who’d seen it reported that it was the funniest show ever. When I heard NBC was bringing it over, with an American cast, I feared the worst.
Those fears were alleviated, sort of, when I discovered that Steve Carell was the star. Carell, as all should know, is one of the two best correspondents The Daily Show ever had and seems incapable of not being hysterical. The question, then, was: would the show be worthy of him or would it merely be hideous to watch such a great actor brought down by awful material?
The answer is: I should have been afraid—everyone should—and it is indeed hideous to watch. Not accidentally, though: it’s hideous to watch because that’s what they’re going for. They’ve taken office situations that are too real and too familiar to be comfortable and juiced them up so much even Bud Selig would have paid attention. As one review of the original series said, the paradox is that its best moments are almost physically unwatchable. This is one of those shows you view through your fingers. It’s brilliant. It’s incisive. It’s so freakin’ painful.
I don’t know if NBC is going to keep it on Tuesday nights at 9:30—they tend to jerk their best shows around until they die a premature death—but if you get the chance to tune in, I most highly recommend it. I mean, seriously, after this rave review, what could possibly keep you from being glued to the tube at that time?
Do I know how to give something the hard sell or what?
Que coincidencia!
I watched The Office for the first time tonight. In the midst of the episode I emailed a recommendation to a friend who is a HR manager. She will get a lot of laughs from this episode.
:-)
Posted by: australisa | Tuesday, March 29, 2005 at 08:11 PM
Well shoot! Too busy keeping up with the Nadias, Anthonys and Nikkos on American Idol (where the transmission broke down during the first ten minutes) and missed what is obvisouly for the more highly cultured.
Have to catch it next week... Now where's that Tivo?
Posted by: Julie | Wednesday, March 30, 2005 at 06:37 AM
I have a confession to make. I was one of those who looked down upon, yea, verily, sneered at American Idol watchers. I would never be one of those, I said to myself (and occasionally out loud in the grocery store, just because I liked the weird looks people would give me, and if I said it loudly enough and rapidly enough and kept saying it over and over, I usually got to go to the front of the line).
Of course, not having cable or a local Fox affiliate, it really wasn't an issue; I couldn't have watched had I wanted to. But I didn't want to, so it didn't matter. So there.
But we got cable about six months and just a few weeks back Top Management found herself watching an episode and forced me to watch a bit and you know what? It's pretty good. In fact, I'm sure you DID know that already.
I take back all my snotty thoughts. There are far, far worse things than having a show where people watch musicians perform. That's really pretty groovy.
Besides, I saw the two most recent videos from Kelly Clarkson. She's hot, man.
We just got rid of cable again, though, so we'll not be watching any more this season. We're back to just our Law and Order shows, ER sporadically, and the killer double-header of Scrubs and The Office. Oh, and Lost. Top Management's week is not right without an episode of Lost. And The West Wing. But that's it. And we may be dropping a Law and Order or two. We never watch SVU because it's so damn sordid, but both Law and Order Classic and Criminal Intent (with Top Management's dreamboat, Bobby "Vincent D'Onofrio" Goran) had really, really sordid episodes, apparently in an effort to keep down with the Jonses. Ugh.
Posted by: Scott | Thursday, March 31, 2005 at 07:47 PM
Rofl!
How can you live without cable, I mean come on? It's impossible to be a pop culture maven without it. I know.
However, I refuse to be addicted to dramas and sit coms again. I was on the take back when Thirty-Something, Wonder Years and LA Law were the rage (you were in diapers, probably Luvs). Gotta have it, gotta have it. Of course, I had a fear-impaired toddler who climbed on the outside of stairwells when I wasn't looking just to get my blood pumping and a brand new nursing round the clock baby and a husband who had evening classes so I, like, needed it, man. Gimmee TV, numb the anxiety! But I coulda stopped, any time! Honest.
Then we moved to Morocco and the "one channel" and I got the DTs... spoke in tongues for several months just to recover.
And now... well, let's just say weekly dramas and sit coms are like that "one hit" that could send me back to the zoned out condition of my twenties... ::shudder::
Posted by: Julie | Friday, April 01, 2005 at 08:30 AM
LOL on the "you were in diapers" comment!
I'll tell you how we can live without cable: the power of shame. You saw Scott's reading list for 2004, right? From January through June, mine was just as long. Then we got cable and (I'm blushing) my list stops cold. I read maybe two books (not counting kid read-alouds) during the second half of the year.
Scott, meanwhile, the big show-off, kept right on reading. His list dwarfed mine, cruelly flaunting its mammoth proportions. Not my fault SOME people are tired at the end of the day and use up all their mental energy admiring Bobby Goran's brilliantly peculiar detective work and then fall asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. I mean, I HELD a lot of books during the cable months, attempting to read for several minutes after my eyes closed, which ought to count for something.
(I'm pretty sure Scott passed entire high-school classes that way.)
And look at his 2005 list. Five books already. Of course they're all light frothy stuff like Tolstoy and Cather and composer biographies. Humph. It took me six weeks to read the Willa Cather novel Scott devoured in four or five nights. I had no choice: it was either give up cable or learn to like coffee. And I really really hate coffee.
Posted by: Lissa | Friday, April 01, 2005 at 10:29 AM