Starring Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, B.J. Novak
Written By: Ricky Gervais, Stephen Marchant, B.J. Novak, Greg Daniels
Directed By: Greg Daniels, Bryan Gordon
Studio: Universal
Buy on Amazon.com link

I loved the UK series so I was a bit skeptical about NBC re-making the Office for Americans. Either I was skeptical that the show was going to turn out crappy or it was going to be great and get canceled because there wasn’t a laugh track on the show. After seeing the first episode, I was pleased with it and was just hoping NBC didn’t cancel it. The show is coming back this fall for all new episodes so I hope there’s more insanity to be had because this show is quite funny!

The Office was originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Marchant and was an absolute hit over in the UK and only went on for 2 seasons and 2 Christmas specials. Now the show takes place over in dung heap of a town, Scranton PA, and trust me, I went to school over there. Talk about a downer! Haha. Always seemed like a dark cloud hover over PA|. The show is filmed in a mockumentary style and focuses on a boring paper company called Dunder Mufflin. The lead character is the dimwitted, complete jerk of a man, Mike Scott (Steve Carell) who tries to be funny or be everyone’s friend and he ends up making a complete ass out of himself. Also in the company is: Dwight (Rainn Wilson), the assistant TO the regional manager, who’s the suck up, and nerdy Mr. Know it all. There’s Jim (John Krasinski), the guy who doesn’t care if he gets fired or not. He’s bored at the job, but likes hanging out with the secretary, Pam (Jenna Fischer). But she is engaged for three years to some ass who’s not very nice to her. Isn’t that always the case??? Those really are the main characters of the show, but there is also a wide variety of people that are supporting and have some good moments as well. Some of the episodes are about a new temp coming to the company, down-sizing, diversity training, picking a new insurance plan, a basketball ball game during lunch between the sales team and the warehouse workers.

There’s only 6 episodes to the show since it premiered late in the TV season and I guess NBC wanted to test it out first before acquiring more episodes. But then again, over in Britain, the original series only had 6 episodes for each season. After watching the first episode when it premiered, I knew I was going to like the US version just as much as the UK one. The first episode is the same as the original series pilot episode, but afterwards there are original episodes. I love Steve Carell and think he’s a brilliant comedic actor. I was happy when I heard he was going to be on the show because it gave me some hope that the show was going to be good. Rainn Wilson, who plays Dwight on the show, is the a key ingredient to the series I think. Steve Carell is hilarious but so is Rainn. He’s so much better than Gareth on the original series. Mackenzie Crook is funny but Rainn Wilson is different. The stuff he says is hysterical, and Carell and him work well off each other. John Krasinski isn’t as good as Martin Freeman from the original series but he still does a fine job as the cynical worker. There’s something about Jenna Fischer, but I think she’s really cute, in a girl next door kind of way. I sort of can relate with Jim on the show, liking girls with boyfriends and always getting screwed in that department. Though, thankfully I like my job so I’m not similar to him in that regards.

If you ever worked an office job, you should find this show funny because they have a lot of stuff that deals with that type of job. Which is pretty much what the show is about haha. They pick a paper company because, who the fuck wants to work for a paper company!? Oh wait, I think my uncle does haha. I certainly wouldn’t, even if they paid me good money. I can relate to the show since I work in an office, and can find bits and pieces of the show that I can relate to. Thankfully I don’t have a boss like Michael Scott haha. That would just be a nightmare. I really hope viewers give the series a chance. There can be so much more the show can make fun with office jobs and really interested to see what happens with the other characters in season 2.

The extras on the DVD include audio commentary, which with most DVDs I have to review, I haven’t listened to yet. The other extras are the deleted scenes which span about an hour. Each episode has it;s own share of deleted scenes. That’s a lot of deleted scenes and the good thing is, a lot of it is just as funny as the episodes! I watched about half of it so far and cracked up for the stuff that was left out. They probably could have done another 2 episodes with all the stuff left out. But I guess you need substance and not just extra footage for an episode.

The Office DVD is still worth buying, even though there are only 6 episodes in the season. The show is slightly different than the original UK series, in that it’s not as dry in humor. The US version is really funny and worth watching in my opinion. So if you haven’t seen the show yet and you are curious about it, why not check out a few episodes and see if it’s for you.

Features:
Deleted Scenes
Commentary

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo CC

Video:
Widescreen 1.78:1 Color (Anamorphic)

Subtitles:
Spanish

Favorite Scenes: Diversity Class, Basketball Game
Rating: NR
Running Time: 135 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: