Starring Ricky Gervais, Martin Freeman, Mackenzie Crook, Lucy Davis, Patrick Baladi, Stirling Gallacher
Written By: Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant
Directed By: Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant
Studio: BBC Home Video
Buy on Amazon.com

The more and more I watch The Office, the more I realize how brilliant it is. Anyone who’s ever worked in an office space or corporate setting before would relate to this series.

The Office is a mock reality show/ mockumentary about the paper company, Wernham-Hogg- Slough branch. The main character is David Brent, a royal ass of a man who tries to be funny, and shows off in front of the camera, plus he acts like a prick to the staff. His character is played brilliantly by Ricky Gervais who won a Golden Globe Award for his role of David Brent. He’s the boss of the Slough Branch but passed on a promotion to save others from the chopping block. So now the Swindon branch closed down and merges with the Slough branch.

Now David has a boss Neil (Patrick Baladi), who pretty much had David’s job back in Swindon but after the merge, he’s higher up on the corporate ladder. Neil more likable, more fun, and is just a better man for the job and David hates that. The show also follows around “team leader” and ass kisser Gareth (Mackenzie Crook), promoted senior sales rep Tim (Martin Freeman), and quiet receptionist Dawn. David continuing tries to one up Neil, and tries to get the new employees to like him. Tim and Gareth continue to fight with each other, over anything, and usually Tim ends up being right most of the time.

I’ve seen half of the first season and all of the second season of the Office. I got the gist of the first season’s plotline so it’s not hard to follow what’s happening. This season, I found to be more funnier and better from the episodes I saw of the first season. David is just so annoying and such an ass, it’s cringy to watch at times. But while it’s cringy to watch, you can’t help but laugh at what’s going on. I laugh everytime I see David look at the camera because it’s so obvious he’s trying to impress everybody and not out to do a good job. Tim has a funny stare at the camera too, normally doing it after someone said or did something stupid because I think Tim’s the normal one out of the bunch. The Office definitely has a subtle, dry humor feel to it but I like that. I believe this was only meant to be 2 seasons long. I heard there was 2 Christmas specials on the BBC this year that give the story some closure so I hope to see those on BBC America or DVD soon. I kind of wish they continued the story though. I guess end the show on a high not instead of a low one.

There’s about 45 minutes of extras like deleted scenes, outtakes and a video diary. The deleted scenes were about 15 minutes long and they actually had a lot of funny/good things in there. It felt like watching another episode, but one with a bunch of blended scenes together. I kind of liked that. The outtakes shows that they actually do crack up nonstop on the set. I was saying to myself, how can they keep a straight face doing this? Well now I know they mess up their lines and giggle their asses off for hours it seems. The video diary is about 20 minutes long and shows behind the scenes look at the show. It shows Ricky and Stephen Merchant goofing off and writing the series, some scenes at award shows, on the set behind the scenes look and some shots in the editing room. Not too bad in the Extras department.

Definitely worth buying if you like The Office but also check it out if you are interested in this brand of humor. While the series may be short (6 episode each), it’s still worth buying Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD.

Features:
– Deleted Scenes
– Documentary Featurette: Video Diary Of the Making of Series Two
– Outtakes

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo

Video:
Widescreen 1.85:1 Color (Anamorphic)

Subtitles:

Favorite Scenes: 2, 3, 4
Rating: Rated NR
Running Time: 180 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: