Watch The Office. Just do it (maybe).

Ricky Gervias as David Brent

In my Movie Awards I put the BBC show The Office at the number one position for "Comedy". It's that funny.

For those who don't know, The Office is mockumentary TV show in the style of Spinal Tap, Best In Show, Etc. Only it's better than those. (Something I'd have to see for myself to believe.) It consisted of twelve episodes and a final Christmas Special.

The series is written and directed by two amateurs, Ricky Gervias and Stephan Merchant. If you watch the behind-the-scenes documentaries on the series you start to realize that these aren't your usual self-important dry screenwriter/director types. In fact it's hard to tell where the characters they portray end and the real people begin. Instead of droning on and on about the production as those documentaries usually do they go off on wild tangents talking about bizarre stuff and insulting eachother. Gervias is especially weird, with a laugh like Mozart in Amadeus. You can see where his character comes from.


Merchant & Gervias.

Moving on to the series, the set-up is basic: There's a lousy annoying boss David Brent (Gervias) who thinks he's hilarious. David's lone fan is the waifish Gareth who's also obsessed with being a soldier. The emotional heart of the series is the sad relationship between sales-rep Tim and receptionist Dawn. Just about the only two decent people in the office.


Tim & Dawn

As the series progresses you can see that Dawn and Tim aren't just flirtatious friends but there's a genuine affection and caring for eachother. As Tim says:

The people you work with, are people you were just thrown together with. You don't know them, it wasn't your choice. And yet you spend more time with them then you do your friends or your family, but probably all you've got in common, is the fact that you walk around on the same bit of carpet for eight hours a day. And so, obviously, when someone comes in, who you, you have a connection with-yeah. And Dawn was a ray of sunshine in my life.

Tim and Dawn find each other in the middle of the doldrums and almost torturous environment of the office. But there's just one problem: Dawn is engaged to a rough jerk named Lee, who also works at The Office (in the packaging plant). It's an odd place to find a "forbidden love" plot but I don't think I've ever seen a better one.

The amount of emotion this series achieves is amazing given the format. After all, it's a "documentary" so you can only see what a documentary would normally show you. And the actors can only do what a person would do if they knew they were being filmed. And that's what impresses me so much. The emotions between Dawn and Tim are never stated outright. Everything is revealed in glances, subtext and the looks on the actor’s faces. At one particularly personal moment between Tim and Dawn, Tim pulls Dawn away from the camera and takes his mic off, so there's only silence for over a minute leaving the conversation to your imagination. It works amazingly well. After watching the entire series, I have to say that The Office is also in the top ten of my most romantic films.

And it's also hilarious. In a painful sort of way though. Watching David and Co. repeatedly make fools of themselves is more and more like watching a train wreck as the series progresses. This is a sad story. David Brent who could've been painted as your average jerk-boss is shown over the series as a very venerable, innocent character who just wants to make people laugh and have friends, but he's destroying any chances for that by his amount of trying. In the end don't laugh at his mishaps because you just want him to stop and realize that he's destroying himself. The end of series two, when it all comes down for David, will break your heart.

So just watch it. Forget about the American NBC version. I've seen it and it's a pale imitation. Stuff like The Office only comes around once and it doesn't happen twice. There's not one misstep in the entire series, not one wrong note (except for maybe the first episode). It's an achievement. Just watch it. I can say no more.

After all this adoration I have to offer a word of warning: There's quite a bit of crude humor (if you see the character "Finchy", just turn down the volume). The crude humor is sort-of necessary to the plot in the way that it makes the office a bleaker environment but more than once it goes over the edge. There's one or two episodes that I didn't even watch because of the humor. In other words, this is not a series for kids or some adults. But after finishing the series I'm so blown-over that I can't withhold my recommendation.

And whatever you do, finish with The Christmas Special. Don't skip it. It's essential to the story.

To whet your appetite, click here for a clip of David Brent's now famous dance.