One Of Those Genius Things (Office, The)

Member Name: Peakly

Product:	Office, The
Date:	20/01/03 (565 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brilliant Script, Brilliant Acting, Brilliant

Disadvantages: You Still Might Not Fully Get It

The Office is a situation-comedy, in the refreshing guise of fly-on-the-wall parody. But before I strain my vocabulary for words that mean ‘funny’ (I’ll need at least sixteen others to make it through this opinion), allow me to throw out some adjectives you weren’t expect to hear from this genre: Believable. Enlightening. Relevant. Moving. That is, of course, unless you’ve seen The Office before, in which case you’ll know exactly what I mean.

If I were David Brent, the main protagonist in the series, I’d likely describe the show with an allegory alluding to the rise of the Roman Empire, The Last Supper or the Russian emancipation. On a more modest day, perhaps, England’s World Cup glory in 1966. Whatever it might be, what would be so painfully funny (or annoying, as it’s written on a screen) would be how over-blown and preposterous, how self-deluded and, well, naively pretentious I’d sound. Yet, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is greatest joke of all. The Office, unlike it’s leading character, can and will live up to any compliments bestowed upon it. Which is why you must rush to HMV this instant, and purchase a copy of the first series on DVD.

The premise, as mentioned, is a mock voyeuristic documentary set in a typical working office. This variation makes only for certain stylistic changes, which, once noticed and gotten used to, enrich and elevate the show beyond the it’s more convention competitors – formulaic American shows such as Friends or even Frasier, for example, soon seem flat when compared to Gervais and Merchant’s direction. Canned laughter, for example, is automatically absent. No life-less guitar lick threads each third of an episode. The camera work splits between the infamous talking-head sequences, free-hand moving shots and secure shots around the office – combined with the dazzling realism of the script and the acting (all from f
ully-trained non-comic actors), the atmosphere created is one of genuine and believable spontaneity.

Gervais plays Brent, a incompetent manager who becomes immediately and obviously affected by the presence of television cameras in his office. In endlessly creative ways he seeks to perpetuate an image of popularity, sensitivity and intelligence that are thoroughly and awfully contradicted by his actions and the reactions of those around him. Herein lies the comedy. Like Chaucer’s aging Merchant, we laugh at Brent because he thinks he’s something that we know he is not. In the words of one friend as he watched The Office, “it feels good to cringe”. And yes, his ‘dance’ in series two will make you wet yourself. No, however, it can and does get funnier still.

Martin Freeman and Lucy Davis play Tim and Dawn, through whom the show’s ‘ace card’ is played. Suddenly, at times, you are no longer aching with laughter but with deep desperation and peculiar sadness at the story of two people in love, yet helplessly apart (I’m biting my thumb in avoidance of a flippant allusion to Shakespeare). The subtle beauty of The Office is shown in Tim’s glance at Dawn as she works, and her at him. In all honesty, the only scenes with any true good in them are of these two, though it is never long before the lurking figure of Gervais descends like the world’s funniest rain-cloud to dampen the love.

Then there is Gareth, played by Mackenzie Crook, who constitutes the show’s most typically comic offering. Hilarious both as a physical presence (the costume design works deliberately so that he seems absurdly disproportionate), and as a harmless wally side-kick for Brent. For every obscenely crude and tactless pass he makes at female members of the cast, there is a talking-head in which Gareth muses child-like about, to pick something direct from the script, the likelihood of a b
oy being born who can swim faster then a shark. Along side these main four, there are a cast of twenty or so others. Although their primary function is to form an audience for Brent’s moments of idiocy and indiscretion, occasional character’s such as David’s bully of a best-friend ‘Finchey’ are works of genius in their own right.

Oh just buy it. The Office grows funnier and funnier still, and unlike other comedies I have indulged in repeated viewing, there is never the fear that the bubble with burst and you’ll grow bored. There is simply too much depth, too much quality, for this ever to happen. As well as the first (and marginally best) six episodes, the DVD includes a length and interesting (if somewhat randomly structured) documentary and collection of decent deleted scenes.

It’s nice when the hype is real, it’s nice when you can rant and rave about something without secretly knowing you’re exaggerating. The Office is everything television should be, innovative, intelligent and a tremendous pleasure to watch. Oh, and if you ever saw the last three series of Red Dwarf, the newest Simpsons or Alan Partridge 3, then you’ll be pleased to hear Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have decided not to write another series of the show. Like Faulty Towers, The Office is destined to transform from a drop of gold in a pot of brass, to an enduring and cherished jewel from our life-time. Bravo.

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