AgentWood wrote:
Taboo # 7 wrote:
AgentWood wrote:
Taboo # 7 wrote:
Never seen the UK "Office" (apart from a few of the clips on the official website), but I love the US version.
i've never watched the american version--it just doesn't appeal to me. i can't see how they could improve on the original and i don't watch sitcoms anymore (at least ones starring actual humans). plus, steve carell was my least favourite daily show correspondent, so i have no burning desire to watch a show based around him.
get your hands on a copy of the UK original and do a comparison, tabsy.
and to connect this with the 'six feet under' thread from the other week (RIP) rainn wilson, who is on the american 'office,' was on 'six feet under' for a season or so, as the very odd mortician-in-training who lived in the fisher house.
Don't get me wrong, I have every intention of trying to see the original, but I think it's unfair to expect the new one to be "just like" the Brit original. Steptoe and Son found new life over here as Sanford and Son, so it's not impossible for a show based on a foreign original to emerge in its own right. Do I want American TV to get so lazy that it has to start importing sitcoms like it did reality shows, from the UK? No, but in my humble opinion the US "Office" succeeds in being something of its own. As someone said earlier, it's all a matter of taste. 
Let's not forget, we have the Brits to thank for "American Idol"...that's a declaration of war if I ever saw one 
and survivor, and big brother.... as for who wants to marry my dad, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
but...without rab c. nesbitt we wouldn't have all in the family. i never liked that show, but it did introduce the world to meathead himself: rob reiner. thank christ for that.
i don't expect the american office to be exactly like the original, but the british show was so perfectly banal that it made the humour that much more real. i haven't seen the american series, but most american sitcoms don't allow the audience to discover the jokes for themselves--i keep waiting for a ticker to come across the screen which reads: this joke references X and the punchline means Y. i often find the best humour comes from 'dramatic' shows, such as CSI, six feet under, and especially buffy the vampire slayer (surprise, surprise). the american office might be funny, but i have such a difficult time with sitcoms that it's flown under my radar. maybe i'll give it a look-see next season to compare...we'll see. but only if you promise to rent six feet under, season 1. ;)
There's a lot of British sensibility to the American Office, I don't know how much in spirit it is to the original but there is a very dry sense of humor at work. Also, Carell is over-the-top but in a good way, and it's funny to watch the reactions others have to him. Hey, I was banging the drum for "Arrested Development" when it was a blip on most people's radar, so I'm used to being the lone voice of reason :p
I make no promises. Actually, I do, but like all good Germans I break them when I see the chance to invade France via Belgium and still have time to hold off a Russian assault on East Prussia (sorry, I'm reading a book about WWI and it's invading my more unfocused posts). I have seen episodes from "Six Feet", but it's another of those HBO shows that I can appreciate but don't necessarily "embrace". I can appreciate the genius of the Sopranos, but I'm not going to make it "appointment television". I like what I like, and that's that...but I *might* rent the first season if the local video place has it. If........