The Office is one of those series that I can watch over and over in any kind of mood and will still find funny after the umpteenth time I've seen it. It's kind of my comfort series now, like, I can watch it while I'm bed-ridden sick with flu and not feeling like meeting people outside of my room. Some episodes I know the words by heart (especially that last one where everyone meet again and Steve Carell's back only to say the punchline "That's what she said!" at Dwight's wedding day and it brought me to a river of tears) and some other, I decided to be kept as something precious and shall only be opened on rainy days (I'm talking about that one where Michael proposed to Holly and actually made it rain in the office). I think this series is amazing, and it's going to be one those things that I'll brag about to my grandkids and introduce as my generation's finest.
What I didn't know until very recently is that the original version, where Ricky Gervais is the critical person responsible for the creative part and the acting part of the series, is something of a legendary work of art by itself! The British version is more bleak and dreary, much like the weather's like in England, but also, it's far more acerbic and cynical than the American version. If you are more familiar with American movies, you'll probably find it weird that the British version of Jim (brilliantly portrayed by my favorite John Watson, Martin Freeman) isn't 6'3" and Dawn (British Pam, obviously) has curves for days (and, oh God, is even more reluctant to help herself find her happiness! God help her!). The American version also has far more characters, it's so hard to choose which one actually made the story on each episodes, because they're all great, and even though Steve Carrell's Michael Scott is supposed to be the center of the universe, they actually share almost equal parts of making the show interesting---which is probably why I find the show so interesting. On a side note, the British version does not shy away from sexual innuendos and generally conversations about sex. It even played with carrying around a pink dildo around the office once, and that's exhilarating to see on TV. I haven't seen any recent British TV other than Sherlock (which third season plots and dialogues I know by heart) so there's a lot of getting used to. It's nothing compared to older shows like The Inbetweeners and Skins, though.
The best part about both versions? Well, you know I love Jim and Pam from the American version, and my love for them will hardly ever change, but what drives me toward it was all the supporting characters, in which the British version was lacking. But the Brit one was rather short in only 12 episodes and 2 Christmas Specials, so of course it had to be simple. And yet, David Brent is surprisingly a very eloquent man who often quotes from literature and Tim is far, far wiser than Jim ever was, so points for them. Anyway, my favorite bit from the original version has got to be Tim's last monologue in the second part of the Christmas Special. He may not closed it, but he did hit close to home.
"The people you work with are just people you're thrown together with. I mean, you don't know them, it wasn't your choice, and yet you spend more time with them than you do your friends or your family, but probably all you've got in common is the fact that you walk around on the same bit of carpet for eight hours a day. And so, obviously, when someone comes in who you have a connection with, yeah.
And Dawn was a ray of sunshine in my life, and it meant a lot, but if I'm really being honest, I really never thought it would have a happy ending.I don't know what a happy ending is. Life isn't about endings, is it? It's a series of moments and it's like, y'know, if you turn the camera off, it's not an ending, is it? I'm still here, my life is not over. Come back in ten years, see how I'm doing then, cause I could be married with kids, you don't know. Life just goes on. "
- Tim Canterbury, The Office UK
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