The Office: 9/20

In all the hoopla over the AD premiere, I nearly forgot *The Office * was back tonight, yee. Anybody else catch it?

Not one of their very funniest, imo, but still great. I shudder to think of one of my colleagues receiving an award for Bu(sh)iest Beaver. :stuck_out_tongue:

One of the best aspects this series has retained from the British original, I think, is a very endearing, very lovable pair as the “normal” leads (Jim and Pam- Tim/Dawn in the original). They’re building up the quasi-romance quite nicely.

It started off a little slowly, but got better.

I rented the first season from Netflix a few weeks ago and really loved it. I think it’s just as good as the British version, though I wonder if, having to do twenty-two episodes a season, they’ll be able to maintain that quality.

Did they actually do 22 episodes last season?! Man, it seemed like they were showing reruns about four weeks into it.

I’m missing all the premieres because I haven’t been watching TV at all, but I heard this one being announced on my son’s TV and commandeered his room for the half-hour. I thought it was sweet how Pam saved the day and then got herself banned from Chilis for life! And how she knew right away that Jim had had a hand in getting her award changed

No.

THey did 6 shows. But, a regular season is supposed to be 22 shows.

As opposed to the brit series, which only did like 13 total shows, IINM.

It took me a little while to get into it, but upon rewatching last season, I’m really liking it now (and I adored the British version, so that’s a big compliment, especially when I’m one of the first to hate badly-done American remakes). One of the things that I like about it - it makes me very uncomfortable at points (mostly Michael). But David made me incredibly uncomfortable in some of the British eps, too, so I know they’re doing it right. I think it’s supposed to be somewhat uncomfortable at times.

The stuff with Pam had me in hysterics. I LOVED the part where she thanked God for her award, and I love the chemistry between her and Jim. As much as I loved Tim and Dawn, I really think I like these two better. I love how she was banned from Chili’s…that’s just classic.

And since we’re still waiting on our British Office DVDs to arrive - are the theme songs for the two versions the same? I swear that they’re the same basic melody, just different arrangements, but my husband’s not so sure. Anyone know?

E.

“Handbags and Gladrags”? I don’t think so. . . but I ain’t a hunnert percent. Props to youse who are remembering spolier boxes, btw. Bad Mal, bad!

Re: feeling uncomfortable. I think that’s one of the fundamental aspects of both shows. They’re perfected a (possibly?) new brand of comedy- cringe humor!

“Comedy of horrors,” maybe?

We’ve got the special saved on DVR, so I think I’ll compare the two when I get home tonight.

I think that’s what makes it so good - it’s so politically incorrect that you don’t WANT to laugh, but you do, and it makes you uncomfortable to laugh.

I had my doubts about Steve Carrell, but he definitely has the same quality as Ricky Gervaise where you absolutely want to dislike him, but there’s that thread of likeability that pulls you back. Again, that’s where the discomfort comes in.

E.

I thought it started much to slow but all the Chillis stuff was great.

I like how they made it clear that although everyone in the office really is tired of and upset at Michael they do kind of like him. They see that he’s just ignorant not malicious.

I think that the biggest difference between David from the UK one and Michael in the US version is that: David needed to be liked by everyone. Michael wants to be the dad of a happy family.

The Pam stuff was great.

I am curious to see if the hot hand bag girl comes back this season.

I think the one thing that this version trumps the UK one on is giving funny bits of character to the supporting characters. Other than Keith, the staffers in the UK one rarely got bits and most of their characters were never defined.
In the US one I feel like all the staff have had some moment to shine.

I adored Ryan the Temp getting an award for being the most attractive or whatever it was. It was such a weird moment.

I thought Pam’s drunken acceptance speech was great, and the lady who won the tight-ass award refusing to accept hers was perfect.

Oh, and I laughed SO hard when Michael was attempting to tell his joke about a girl from Human Resources making him fill out 6 pages of paperwork and Dwight interrupted him with “Oh, like an AIDS test?”

I really like this show and I hope NBC doesn’t cancel it. Apparently the ratings were down quite a bit from “My Name is Earl,” and since I like this show, there’s a good chance it won’t make it until the end of the season.