The Office
1 August 2004, terribly early in the morning
The first series of The Office, a BBC comedy, was absolutely brilliant. The Office is a mock documentary following the lives of the people working at Wernham Hogg, a company that sells paper. The show is a comedy, though not in the traditional sense. There are no laugh tracks there to let you know something funny happened—the show doesn’t need them. The humour is subtle, but so wicked, you will end up laughing at the absurdity of it all.
David Brent, the boss, is the central figure in the whole series, played to perfection by Ricky Gervais. Brent is walking hypocrisy, a character you will laugh at from the first episode on. The other central figure in the show is Tim, played by Martin Freeman, the character I imagine the audience is supposed to relate to. During the course of the series you watch in utter frustration at what Tim puts up with in the day to day goings on of his job. The fact that he is in love with the secretary in the office, who happens to be engaged, doesn’t help his situation.
Make sure you watch this series, it puts North American television to shame.
The documentary on the DVD is also quite funny. I’ll need to get the rest of this series. Apparently there is a second series and a Christmas special I need to track down.
by ramanan on August 1 2004, 4:58 pm #