The Office (BBC) TV Show - The Office (BBC) Television Show - Yahoo! TV

The original office blows the american version away! No one makes a better douchebag than David Brent aka Ricky Gervais. He is so good that he makes it uncomfortable to watch at times. The whole cast puts its counterparts to shame! One of the best comedies to come around in a long time.Leave it to the Brits to once again show us the way.

The first office I started watching was the BBC version. When the American version began, I didn't like it at all. NO ONE can be as funny and goofy as David Brent... Now that the BBC version is not on anymore, I reluctantly began watching the American version. It's okay, and after a while I got into it but I SOOO MISS DAVID BRENT! and the other BBC office cast members.

While the U.S. show has some good moments, it can't really be compared to the original. The Brit effort had the rare courage (or insight) to disgorge the most blatant uber-vile jokes or situations into a cloistered office space inhabited by outwardly normal, but inwardly wierd or flawed characters; giving maximum scope to very talented actors to react in ways both subtle and grotesque. Over-the-top politically incorrect humor like this just can't be done full throttle on American TV. To put it another way, the Brit show may have been dumbed down in terms of sheer, stunning crudeness (and why not? It's plenty funny just on this level), but by dropping the bottom out, it can and does then smarten up with sophisticated, deadly accurate comedic rebounds. And strangely, there is a real dramatic impact as well. Brent, for all his oblivious, mind-boggling awfullness (maybe because of it), can be pathetically touching, and these situtations have as big a cringe factor as the comedic moments. Just one of many examples: it is a unique pleasure to get an initial gutter laugh at the crudest possible racist joke, as told by Brent while in the company of a black man and several women at a social gathering at the office, but to then get a payoff of explosive reaction laughs as each of the persons within earshot recoils in their own way from this slime bomb, while Brent is simultaneously making the most smarmy, assine, and hilarious efforts to talk his way out of his self-induced hell; well, it's simply priceless. Or, more accurately, it has a price: the purchase price of the two boxed sets of DVDs for the two seasons it was made. If you like laughing, but gave up on TV, it's money well spent. Don't worry too much about the sometimes inscutable to American ears dialects (use the subtitles if you must), or the English slang. Most of the thing has a very universal connection to the dark side of human thoughts not often expressed, but like monsters in the closet, they are less terrible when brilliantly lit.

I was amazed, and in full agreement with Mr. David Letterman when he had Ricky Gervais on the show for the first time, and the first thing he said to him was that The Office was the funniest show ever, completely mirroring what my friends and I had been telling everyone and anyone who would listen at the time. If you think Michael Scott is a real shmuck of a boss, wait till you see David Brent. True television genius. If you're a fan of the American Office and have never seen the original, or even if you are not a fan, do yourself a favor and check out what I and Mr. David Letterman agree to be the funniest show ever.