It's finally here to own - the best piece of British comedy in years. (Office, The)

Member Name:

Product:	Office, The
Date:	28/05/03 (95 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: .

Disadvantages: .

The Office takes everyday life behind a desk...and makes it side-splittingly funny. Ricky Gervais took a terribly mundane concept, and created a brilliantly captivating concept. Nothing much happens in the way of a plot in this series...we follow the lives of normal people working in a paper manufacturing office, in a fly-on-the-wall documentary style. No laughter track, no exotic scenery no expensive hairstyles or lighting effects...just fantastically tragic comedy.

The head manager of the office, David Brent (played to perfection by Gervais himself), is the slimeball we've all met. Greasier than a chipshop full of Mark Lamarrs, he likes to think he's the perfect boss - everybody's mate, but still well respected..."basically, I'm a chilled out entertainer"...whereas in reality he's a pervy, creepy, sad little man. His scenes one-on-one with the camera are great, peppered with business jargon and tired old clichés...you'll be cowering behind the sofa in glee.

There are three other main characters: Tim, the desperate character wasting away beside losers who bores himself just talking about his position; Dawn, the curvaceous, flirtatious secretary that never seems to get any work done but always manages to find time to get lusted over by Brent; and finally, my favourite character, Gareth. In the new series, Gareth is described to a tee by Tim as "the divvy at school who got to be milk monitor just so he thought he had an important job". He is Team Leader, and takes great pride in his work, meticulous in his organisation. This could perhaps be attributed to his stint in the TA, mentioned many times over the series, be it directly, or hinted at when Gareth starts a speech on the best way to shoot an old person. The way these three interact is always a joy to behold, be it idle chatter degenerating into vicious gossip between Dawn and Tim, or Gareth having his stapler put in jelly. Even when it seems like noth
ing at all is going on, you're left quietly laughing at the whole situation. David, always keen to maintain his image as one of the lads, can barely go fifteen minutes without mentioning marathon drinking sessions with Gareth...and on the flip side of the coin, he talks about how everyone respects his authority (which they don't), and how good a job he does (which he doesn't).

There are a few other fringe characters, including one or two select members of the rest of the office's keyboard-tapping hordes, and David Brent's best friend's cameos, no matter how brief, always steal the show. As I said before, there's no laughter track, which means that Gervais' cheesy jokes and awful innuendos are greeted not with spectacular guffaws, but rather deafening laughter. It helps to add a hideously cringe-inducing atmosphere for which The Office has now grown famous.

As far as extras go, The Office is far from up there with the DVD elite such as Lord of The Rings or Shrek, only managing a forty-odd minute documentary with Ricky Gervais talking about creating this bizarre universe...but really, that's the only fault I can find in this package. This minor shortcoming is more than made up for with the tiny price which means that for just a bit more than your average DVD like Blade II, you can get the whole first series of this gem of a show.

You may spend some times holding a pillow over your eyes as David laughs at his own bad jokes, or Gareth goes into the intricate details of territorial army life...but it's definitely worth enduring. Often you'll smile, sometimes you'll cry, but you'll always be thoroughly entertained. The Office DVD is an essential purchase...find out what all the fuss is about, and order it!

Summary: