Employing the now tiresome mockumentary format, The Office untied the sitcom genre from its traditional 3 camera, in front of a live audience mooring, giving the breath of life to what was a sickly patient. We are all the better for it. Don’t think so? Try sitting through an old school sitcom like Two and a Half Men, Gary Unmarried or The Big Bang Theory. That’s what I’m talking about.
It’s not like The Office was a barrel of laughs, or at least, not the kind of guffaws we here in the colonies would consider normal or healthy. It was all the cringe-inducing, I-can’t-believe-he’s-going-to-do-that type humour that the Brits excel at. Co-creator and star Ricky Gervais is my 2nd favourite practitioner of the art of uncomfortable laughter (after Steve Coogan) where it’s never about being likeable or even hitting your funny bone. If the viewer feels like they need to have a shower after watching an episode, Gervais has done his job.
In truth, his next outing, Extras, was probably funnier but The Office was more influential. It even survived an Americanization which is nothing to sneeze at if you consider other abortive attempts at trans-Atlantic adaptation. (Men Behaving Badly anyone? Life on Mars!!) Of course so the British The Office begat an American The Office and the American The Office begat Parks and Recreation leaving the British The Office with some `splaining to do but we can’t blame the parent entirely for the wretchedness of their offspring. Take the bad with the good and, in this case, the goodness The Office wrought is immeasurable.
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