The Office

Meh…

Don’t say “meh” without a spoiler alert!!! Now I do not know if I want to watch it on TiVo. :wink:

Oh and who got booted out of A.I.? The whole mix up through the results show into a day that is reserved for some other reality show to TiVo for my wife. :)

I never watched the British version of the office, but was unimpressed with this effort. Just not very funny, and pretty mean-spirited. Not fun to watch.

I never watched the British version either. Well, maybe it is meanspirited in a way that I will find funny, but your comments do not bode well. Not that it matters, me and the other 14 people that watched the now cancelled Point Pleasant are getting together for beers in which we can cry into anyway.

I am watching the NBC Office now off Tivo. Just to say I have. I found it to be slightly more watchable than the BBC Office but both are painful to watch. Both of them remind me of a reality TV show except you know its scripted.

This show is so not going to last on NBC. If News Radio couldn’t survive, this show has no chance. It works for the Dilbert set, but I just don’t see that as being NBC’s main demographic by far.

The documentary-style is just too “slow” for NBC’s audience, I imagine. The ones who need laugh tracks to know when to laugh.

Too bad, because the receptionist is tres cute.

Mikala got booted. And not a moment too soon.

I’d agree with the “Meh” assessment. I’ll leave my TiVo season pass active for a while longer, but I’m not optimistic. Seems like a real waste of Steve Correl. His character could be funny if he could tone it down a bit and the writers didn’t insist on in beating us over the head with what a dork the character is.

I was hoping to see the “sorry…it must be the other one…the other what? paki? that’s racist” bit using a japanese worker. But they did throw in some ebonics, so perhaps they dropped that scene for a reason other than trying to avoid jokes about racism.

If by “Meh”, you meant “It was painful to watch” or “It sucked ass”, well then I agree.

NBC, I want that 30 minutes of my life back.

I definitely got some laughs here and there from the pilot (have never seen the original), but it seemed like Steve was trying waaaayyyy too hard. And it almost seems the show was requiring him to carry the episode. This show could have potential, but it definitely has some work to do.

When people are saying “painful to watch”, do you mean because it’s shit, or because of the cringe factor a la Curb Your Enthusiasm?

I haven’t seen this US version but I have seen and enjoyed all of the originals so I’m curious to see how the ‘Britishness’ has been adapted or translated.

I haven’t seen the US version, but in the original the main characters primary flaw is that he tries too hard. He thinks if everyone likes him everyone will respect him. So that may not be a bad thing. If you expect sitcom laughs, the Office will not be good. I hear they only kept the script the same for the first episode, so that bodes pretty well.

I had never seen the original (although I immediately rectified that after seeing last night’s episode), but I really enjoyed it. I liked how they used a lot of the same jokes from the British version but dragged them out longer to really let all the discomfort sink in.

I haven’t seen the US version, but in the original the main characters primary flaw is that he tries too hard. He thinks if everyone likes him everyone will respect him. So that may not be a bad thing. If you expect sitcom laughs, the Office will not be good. I hear they only kept the script the same for the first episode, so that bodes pretty well.[/quote]

In this version, he’s an aggressive jerk, who thinks the others nonetheless like him.

For me, it’s somewhat ‘painful to watch’, in that the main character and most of the sidekicks are so aggressively unlikeable, and that the show just isn’t that funny. In Seinfeld, by contrast, the characters were flawed, but basically likeable, and the show was much funnier (better pacing, I think)

I’ve never seen the Brit version, so I can’t comment on it. All I can tell you is that I watched the entire episode and I didn’t laugh once. I did cringe a few times from the sheer ineptness of the boss (when he pretends to let the secretary go), but I never laughed. Maybe I just don’t “get it”, but I tend to think that there’s nothing to get in the first place :D

You people who haven’t seen the Brit version need to get your butts down to the videostore and plan to rectify your ignorance this weekend. It’s wondefully disturbing, and distubingly wonderful.

I didn’t mean that the character was trying way too hard (the character was and I got that), I meant Steve was trying way too hard to be funny and quirky.

It’s strange how similar the US version is, and yet manages to miss the mark.

It’s strange how similar the US version is, and yet manages to miss the mark.[/quote]

I likened the American version to watching your favourite play as performed by a high school.