The first of the fly-on-the-wall style sitcoms and still cringe-worthy for me as I was working in an office environment when it came out.
I never had a boss quite as excruciating as David Brent, nor a colleague quite as annoying as Gareth Keenan (although I did once put someone’s stapler in a jelly as homage to Tim’s prank in this episode).
But the observation of the ‘big-fish-in-tiny-pond’ wacky personalities is spot on.
People who can never see beyond the boundary of Slough:asterisk_symbol: are so depressing.
I’m so glad I escaped.
:asterisk_symbol:or any other dreary small town
It's amazing to me how little of the material was changed between this and the pilot for the US version of The Office, and yet how different the two shows are in spite of that.
Really, it's all down to delivery and pacing. What's ironic is that this version—at 29 minutes—actually keeps going at a much healthier clip than the US version—at 23 minutes. Maybe the producers cut too much for the American series premiere. Maybe it's just that I found Steve Carell's regional manager character to be incredibly punchable. Could be that the couple jokes that were rewritten in the US series really were that much worse than the material they replaced from the UK premiere.
I don't know why, honestly. Don't feel like making this into a really deep analysis. But where I feel like sticking out the whole first season of the American series will be a slog, this one feels like it has a lot of promise. Both first seasons are only six episodes long.
I'm glad I'm trying again. I'm such a big fan of The Office US that I couldn't bring myself to watch the UK one everytime I finished S9 of US! But with David Brent coming up, I've decided to give it another go and it's so fascinating how the same jokes and storyline translate in different countries for example through the delivery of the jokes! I'm looking forward to seeing if I like the original irrespective of my love for the remake!
Shout by Caner AydınBlockedParentSpoilers2021-01-24T10:25:06Z
After finishing season 1 of millennium series, i came here. I watch series season by season.
I hope i can enjoy. It seems funny and different.
AFTER FINISHING EPISODE
It was really different. They interview sometimes some of the workers, at other times they seem they are working like normal office people. But david brent looks at camera often. I did not like it.