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Well, despite better judgement I sat through the Office again tonight, to give it a second shot. It's actually been altered a bit from the first version of the (US) pilot I saw a few months back, some new material added, some other small stuff changed.
Things start off badly with the new title sequence - rather than the wonderful opening of the BBC version with the camera panning across dreary Slough to "Handbags and Gladrags," we get a few brief shots of similarly dreary Scranton, Ohio, a similar plinky piano tune...which then immediately gives way to a fast-edit montage of all the cast, set to an up-tempo pop-punk guitar RAWK track just to underscore how awesome and American and totally antiestablishment it's all gonna be, yo. Christ.
Steve Carrell's Brent-a-like Michael Scott has nowhere near the depth and nuance that Gervaise gave Brent. Brent was a sad, lonely failure of a man, desperately trying to compensate for his insignificance by being "popular" and "funny." It was obvious that the documentary was the greatest thing to ever happen to him, and he was terrified of having the one shot at recognition and approval pass him by. Gervaise played him brilliantly, and one of his most consistently funny and revealing behavioural tics were his shifty glances to the camera, assuring himself that he was still the centre of attention, or frantically seeking assistance after some spectacular faux pas. He was ignorant, and obnoxious, but you still couldn't help but feel sorry for him.
Michael Scott, on the other hand, is just a jerk, and there's not much more to him than that. Carrell's performance is so broad and showy and overtly theatrical, and entirely unsympathetic.
The lack of subtlety extends right across the board - the unspoken attraction between Jim and Pam (the Tim and Dawn clones) is underlined in big red marker for those too slow to pick up on it - right off the bat, in Jim's first talking-head segment, he mentions how he knows that Pam's favourite flavour of yogurt is mixed berry, which is immediately followed by Pam's giggly, smiley schoolgirl reaction. Then after the introduction of Pam's fiancee we see Jim being asked if he thinks he'll be invited to the wedding, to which he answers by just glumly staring off into space.
I'm not ashamed to admit that I wept openly at the finale of the original series, because the writing, character development, and performances were all so engaging and true that they effortlessly managed the shift from comedy to drama. There's nothing in this dim remake to draw in the viewer to the same degree. It's like seeing a terrible performance of a good play - you're familiar with the script but you know you've seen it done much better elsewhere. |
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