The Office: Season 1 (American Version)

Some television shows take us on fanciful flights of imagination to times and places where could never visit. From the high life shown in Dynasty, the old west in Deadwood or the deepest reaches of space in any of the Star Trek incarnations, TV takes us out of the ordinary. Then there are those series that focus on what is all too familiar to us, our won middle class life. These shows at their best often speak the thoughts we have had in secret; on such show is the American incarnation of The Office. In order to understand this series you need to met a certain criteria, you have to have worked in an office somewhere with an over baring boss and strange co-workers. Since that encompasses almost everyone this show immediately has an appeal that few series can rival. The premise is simple but brilliant, a documentary crew arrives at the offices of Dunder Mifflin in order to gauge modern management techniques and observe the interaction of the employees. Regional Manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell) is to put it lightly an idiot. His only goal in life is to success in the eyes of his corporate bosses while pushing is own strange philosophy on his employees. Sharing the office space with Michael is a motley crew of people. There is Pam Beesley (Jenna Fischer) the receptionist who is engaged and actually has a life outside the office. Constantly lusting after Pam is the sleazy Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) who while not in his futile pursuit of Pam is out to constantly annoy his cube-mate Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson). Jim does everything possible to make Dwight’s time at work as unpleasant as possible. The unblinking eye of the documentary cameras chronicle the work day lives of these people as they desperately try to make it to another five o’clock.

In the pilot episode we get an introduction to the inhabitants of this little office. Michael tries to play to the documentary camera, always putting on the happy face, self assured that he is the best boss in the world. Actually, he can barely manage anything. As Michael tries in vain to garner the respect and friendship of his employees all he seems to get are weird looks and a lot of eye rolling behind his back. Everyone there knows he is the worse boss since the pointy hair boss in Dilbert but they need their jobs. At the start of the work day Michael is told by Pam that there was a fax from head office. In attempt to seem one of the guys he orders her to file the memo in the special file reserved for correspondence from corporate, the trash can. Later, when a representative of his boss, comes in for a meeting Pam not only lets slip what happened to the fax but Michael’s derogatory pet name for the person is revealed. The reason for the meeting is head office has decided to downsize and the cuts will be made either at Michael’s office or one across town. Michael and the staff scurry to make sure they get to keep their jobs. While this is a source of humor many of us can identify with some of the gags are just exaggerations of things that probably do happen in an office like this. For example, in order to aggravate Dwight as much as possible Jim encases Dwight’s stapler in a block of Jell-O. Since Dwight is extremely territorial Jim forms a fence out of pencils to demark the line between their desks. Dwight’s problems at work go far beyond Jim. Dwight likes to refer to his position as the Assistant Regional Manager always to be corrected by Michael, ‘you are the assistant to the regional Manager’. This tiny different may seem inconsequential but in the corporate world title can be everything.

He cast works in this vehicle better than I could have imagined. Steve Carell may be best known as a ‘correspondent’ on Comedy Central’s Daily show but lately he has been making a name for himself in films. He has the combination of a dry wit and over the top performances that carry his presentation of Michael. He gives a character that is completely clueless as to the realities of his life and position at work. Rainn Wilson is an actor that fully capitalizes on his odd look. He could either be the harmless eccentric next door or a serial killer. Here he plays Dwight in a fashion similar to his role on Six Feet Under, a man dedicated to his work to the point of obsession. Wilson invokes some of the series’ best laughs with a look or a slight movement; he is a master of underplayed physical comedy. Jenna Fischer is simply perfect as Pam. She may appear as the mousey receptionist but she has a full life outside the walls of Dunder Mifflin. She is just marking time until she can get married, work is simply that, work not her life. Sure, she needs the job and puts up with a lot as a result but work is not everything to her.

Series creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant had a difficult task in bringing this show to the United States. Since the Office was a very popular and extremely well done series in England there was a lot of expectations with the American incarnation. Since the show was on the heels of another attempted transoceanic transplant, Couples that failed immediately here in the States, many felt this formula would not fly over here. While many of the stories where taken almost directly form episodes in Britain it fairs well in its Americanization. The reason for this is the plight of the office worker is almost universal. Now matter what country you are in the corporate mentality fosters people like Michael and Jim. The Office in England may have been a bit or urban and dry but this version holds up as quality television.

Universal has done well in bringing this short season to DVD. As a mid season replacement there where only six episodes in this season, rather than wait for the usual Universal multi-season set they decided the demand for the series was sufficient to warrant a single season release. This was the first non HDTV series that NBC ever presented in letterbox. The original 1.78:1 aspect ratio was preserved in the video here. The color balance is great, sometimes the camera movement is a bit jerky to remind us this is supposed to be a single camera documentary. The Dolby stereo audio is clean and rather well balanced between the speakers. You might want to get the original English series as a comparison but in any case this one does stand on its own. After a hard day at work you can sit back and be thankful your boss can’t be as bad as Michael.

Posted 8/19/05