By Chris Ryall
March 22, 2004
Let me start by saying there's no need for this show. Ricky Gervais' BBC show THE OFFICE, shown over here on BBC America and available on DVD, is pretty much perfect as is. Gervais himself, who won the Best Comedic Actor Golden Globe in 2004 for this role, seems irreplaceable as David Brent, the boss of a dreary paper company in a dreary part of England. As played by Gervais, Brent is, in his mind, the funniest guy in the office, everyone's friend and confidant. To everyone else, he's an insufferable and unfunny boor (or bore--spell it either way in this case and it's still apt). And he's also one of the best, most fully realized and yet understated characters I've ever seen on a sitcom.
So why do we need an American version of this show? Especially after COUPLING's disastrous American adaptation last year made everyone not only hate NBC for foisting it on us but also think less of its British counterpart. And how could anyone replace Gervais in a role that would live or die based on the actor's ability to underplay the materal?
COUPLING was a disaster for many reasons, not the least of which was the actors' inability to paint every line in anything but the broadest strokes. Why would NBC even attempt something like this again so soon? Better to acquire Gervais' show and air it on Bravo where its arch sense of humor might find the appropriate audience.
The show itself is actually a somewhat decent effort. As someone said, though, it's a bit like seeing the Brits do a version of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM. Why bother when the other version is note-perfect? Still, the show's here, and deserves to be judged on its own merits, long Gervais shadow cast over it or no.
Gervais actually serves as a producer on this version, as does Stephen Merchant, another BBC OFFICE mate of Gervais's. The show's pedigree is solid through and through--it's headed up by Greg Daniels (creator of KING OF THE HILL) and in Gervais' role, retitled here as Michael Scot, is maybe the only name they could have gone with to make me look forward to this show: Steve Carell. Carell, who us DAILY SHOW fans know as "Produce Pete" (everyone else should recognize him as the newscaster Jim Carrey messed in BRUCE ALMIGHTY. Carell also stole scenes from Will Farrell in ANCHORMAN, too).
Carell is solid, a funny guy who doesn't overact when the part doesn't call for it. And as long as you don't know the BBC version and keep picturing Gervais delivering his lines, you'll be very happy with him here, too. He does come off as more "funny" in his role and less of an oblivious bastard, which weakens the impact of some of his lines, but what can you do? He can't just do an outright impersonation of Gervais's take on the character, so he has to change things a bit to differentiate the two and fit into his acting style.
The British OFFICE features a documentary-style look and this show follows suit. I just wonder how that will work for mass American audiences. After all, somehow ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, the best and funniest show of last season, couldn't find a mass audience with its faux-documentary feel. But it's used to good effect in the pilot, anyway -- the on-camera "asides" from the office workers provide a funny contrast to the perception of their co-workers.
The pilot closely mirrors that of the BBC show. As a small paper company's sub-office is in the midst of downsizing, a documentary crew records everything that goes on. The main four people in the office are Michael Scot, who's not nearly as loved (or even liked) as much as he thinks he is; also suck-up "Assistant to the Regional Manager" Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson, who played creepy Arthur on SIX FEET UNDER last season), beleagured secretary Pam Beesley (Jenna Fischer) and Jim Halpert (John Krasinski), who appeases his boredom by torturing Dwight and flirting with the engaged Pam.
The show's producers have stated that they'd look to avoid the problems COUPLING faced by not using the British scripts verbatim (trust me, that was not the problem with the American COUPLING) but instead changing unfamiliar references to Americanized versions. This is evident from the start with a funny SIX MILLION DOLLAR man bit that Carell engages in. But therein lies a small problem with this show--Carell, despite his bad office manager hair and jerky demeanor, is just inherently more likeable than Gervais' David Brent. Thus, as I mentioned, the sting of some of his lines, like when he and his unsuspecting and unwilling new intern Ryan pull a "PUNK'D"-like prank on Pam, telling her she's being fired, are lessened. He lets the prank go far longer than it should, not letting her off the hook until she's well past anger into tears, but it never quite seems as mean as when Brent did the same thing to his secretary.
So the fear will be that too many people do what I just spent a few paragraphs doing, comparing every detail about this show to the British version. Hell, E! Online already dismissed the new version as being "dismal." Tt's never going to get a chance to be viewed on its on its own merits. Actually, the jerky, docu-style camera movement and lack of a laugh track positions the show outside the dreadfully familiar sitcom norm, which is a good thing . Not that experimental shows are ever awarded with much beyond cancellation (you can read more of that every week in my TV Recommendations, especially in regards to Sundays at 8:30 PM on Fox), but it holds true to the spirit of the Brit show, anyway, and works nicely here, too.
The other characters also deserve to be judged by their performance and not by how closely they ape their overseas counterparts. Rainn Wilson is less of a kiss-ass than Mackenzie Crook's Gareth, but he's also more pathetic, the perfect embodiment of weasly middle management. Jim is a suitably bored office worker, looking for ways to stay entertained through his dead-end job.
In the end, I'm somewhat apathetic about this show. I thought it was funny, yeah, a decent enough adaptation. Hardly "dismal," anyway, even if people will watch it with such a closed mind that they'll never even consider that it could be better than the American mangling of COUPLING. It would actually be a welcome respite from the banality of the average sitcom, and I'd like to see it work and develop more of its own identity, which I think it might if it lasted more than three weeks. We could use a good office-themed show that comments on the soul-draining atmosphere in which many people work. And since this show is much more OFFICE SPACE than DILBERT in its observations, it's got potential to be more than just a watered-down version of the original. But at the same time, it's tempting to just put in a DVD and watch Gervais and company work their magic all over again.
NBC's THE OFFICE: AN AMERICAN WORKPLACE debuts this on March 24 at 9:30 PM.
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