by Bender, Mar 31,2005

Those who have seen The Office are divided into two camps: There are those who have seen the original BBC series and don’t like the American version, and there are those who haven’t and do.

I’m somewhere in the middle. Call me Switzerland. The pilot was a carbon copy of the original series’ pilot, using creater Rick Gervais’ teleplay. But it was more than just the same story and characters - the actors themselves seemed to ape their English counterparts down to their comic timing and mannerisms. It was a little disquieting to see this level of imitation.

When I could forget these details, I really enjoyed the show. The Office lampoons corporate culture, deriving much of its humor from the notion that as a company’s org chart narrows toward the top, so too the mind narrows. Boss Michael Scott (Steve Carroll) is a bumbling fool with an inflated (if fragile) ego and absolutely no idea how to manage a filing cabinet, let alone an office. Like the BBC series, it’s filmed in documentary style. This allows us to see the characters performing for the camera as much as we’re seeing them go
about their daily drudgery.

There I go again, comparing the two series. It’s really impossible not to when you’ve seen them both, because they are uncannily similar, more so than other shows borrowed from our friends across the
pond.

Which makes me miss Rick Gervais as the boss. Gervais brought something to the character that Carroll is missing: a sympathetic audience. Gervais’ character was just as insensitive and cruel, but somehow I felt for him. Carroll’s character so far doesn’t seem to have the self-awareness that Gervais brought to his role (however repressed that self-awareness may have been).

My second gripe is that the original could be painful to watch. When Gervais embarrassed himself, it was often so horrifying that you couldn’t help but cringe. The shock factor is missing from the American series.

But the NBC series still has bite. When Michael says, “Is there a less offensive term for your people than ‘Mexican’?” in this week’s episode, all of the magic is there from the original series. I just wish that the boss in the new series was, as Gervais was, more of a pathetic asshole. Instead he’s just an asshole.