REVIEW #77 The Office (US) (2005-2013)

This is the US adaptation of the popular sitcom The Office. Set at the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company in Scranton USA, the employees and upper management are subject to filming for 8 years, having every aspect of their lives captured on camera. It shows their working life and their personal lives whilst showing what working in an office looks like.

CAST & THE ACTING 

Steve Carrel plays the regional manager Michael Scott and it’s fair to say he is absolutely brilliant, injecting so much comedy into every scene he is in. The ultra offensive and terrible boss that ultimately just wants to be friends with his employees having been an outsider for most of his life. Rainn Wilson plays Dwight Schrute and is arguably my favourite character on the show, his quirkiness delivers so many laughs and his relationship with both Michael and Jim leads to so many hilarious scenes. Jim is actually played by John Krasinski who helps create that wonderful pairing between himself and Dwight. Less quirky but more of the prankster, constantly winding up Dwight and those pranks continue through all 9 seasons and each one is always so funny. He also helps deliver the more emotional/deeper aspects of the series with his relationship with Pam and their interesting journey from office friends to husband and wife. Pam is played by Jenna Fischer and portrays that sweet and innocent office secretary. There are so many big names who feature in this series from Will Ferrell, Ed Helms and Mindy Kaling to the English comedian Katherine Tate. I think the acting is absolutely brilliant, you have to be highly skilled to create comedy like this. They use verbal comedy and physical comedy to make every episode hilarious and that’s what surprised me the most I don’t think I’ve watched anything that has made me laugh so consistently across 9 seasons!

PLOT & THE STORYLINE 

The plot is so simple, a documentary is being made about the employees at a paper company in Scranton which captures every moment in the office. Exposing relationships, friendships and rivalries and the way it is filmed is really effective and emphasises the comedy in the series. There are certain sub plots that run through the entire series such as the relationship between Pam and Jim and their journey, Dwights ambition to be manager and Michael’s search for friendship and Love. Although they seem like deeper sub plots they really are just exploited for comedy and the quirkiness of the characters makes it even better. There is some really good character development in this series, showing really good progression over the 8 years that the office was being filmed and that perfectly represents the average office. When you spend that much time with your co workers, relationships do blossom and you do get to know each-other so well. It’s a shame Steve Carell couldn’t stay on for the final two seasons but the show done well to maintain its quality for the next two seasons. 

CINEMATOGRAPHY & SPECIAL EFFECTS 

The Office is filmed in a a strange way, the cameras are acting like a fly on the wall just capturing every moment in Dunder Mifflin and it works so well. Especially the more intimate moments where the camera is sort of peaking from behind a blind or a plant to get a sneak peak on the more sensitive conversations. This cinematography method really emphasises the comedy because it captures absolutely everything, even the facial expressions, for example Jim, he can make a scene so funny just from the camera capturing one of his iconic facial expressions. There are no special effects because it’s not needed, they’re filming a documentary within an office so there can’t be any flash CGI or special effects moments, it would ruin the series.

OVERALL (9/10)

This is one of the funniest things I’ve watched in a long time, I was laughing so much in every episode. The characters are what makes this series what it is, with my favourite being Dwight and closely followed by Michael who both are absolutely brilliant, Carrell and Wilson are comedic actors who really are masters of their craft. The Office does well to keep each season interesting, introducing new characters, sub plots and relationships to ensure it doesn’t become boring or predictable. I also want to credit the writers because they really did create comedy gold, which made this series so iconic. I must admit I am really late to watching this, i pushed it off for so long but I am glad I finally watched it because I loved it. I haven’t watched the UK version yet so I can’t really compare them but I have never heard a bad thing about the US version which speaks volumes on its quality. Definitely watch it if you haven’t already! 

Thanks for reading.

Callan