weeeeeird
Recently, a fellow copy editor called out across the newsroom, "Hey Laura, is 'The Office' on tonight?"
"Yes it is!" I exclaimed. "And it's an hourlong Christmas special. I can't wait."
"So have you seen the British version?" he asked. And, as always, I had to answer in the negative. It's been a source of embarrassment for me, given my terminal Anglophilia and my perpetual adoration of the American version. How could I have gone so long without at least renting the British show?
But my coworker came to my rescue: He lent me his complete set of DVDs, including not just the first and second seasons but the reunion special -- which, he pointed out, is a Christmas episode, "so it's timely."
I'm up to the fifth episode of Season Two so far, and I have this to say ... It's so weird. The British sets look so very much like the American sets, and the writing style is very much the same -- the pilot episode is actually nearly word-for-word the same in both versions -- and I know all this has been done on purpose by Greg Daniels and the American crew out of love for the British series.
It's the alternate-universe -- actually, the orignal-universe -- version of the American "Office," and it's every bit as good as the show I've dubbed second-best on TV.
American Jim is so much like British Tim, in both appearance and mannerisms, that it's obvious actor John Krasinski was a fan of the British series before the U.S. copy was ever dreamed up. The resemblance is so uncanny I'd have known that even if Krasinski hadn't said so in the Season Two DVD commentaries.
I do have to say that, so far, the U.K. Tim-Dawn secret-love storyline feels, to me, much less compelling than its U.S. Jim-Pam counterpart. The chemistry between Brits Martin Freeman and Lucy Davis feels weaker than between Americans Krasinski and Jenna Fischer. Maybe that will change in the next few episodes; maybe not. Even if not, it's still sweet and funny, and the series as a whole is utterly deserving of all the accolades it earned during its run, and since.
And Ricky Gervais as the insensitive wannabe-comedian boss is brilliant, in every sense of the word. Of course, I think the same of American Steve Carell.
But I think a trip to the video store is in order, and soon, because I'm sure I'll want to watch the British "Office" again once I give the discs back to my coworker.
Unless, of course, I just don't give them back ...