Spend more time at 'The Office'


By Lindsey Muth
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Thursday, April 29, 2004

The imported British sitcom "The Office" is probably the best thing that's happened to depressing situation comedy since sliced bread happened to bread. What I mean to say is you can make delicious avocado sandwiches without "The Office."

But you can never really laugh at the awkwardness and pathetic ineptness of sliced bread.

"The Office," a faux documentary, centers around David Brent, played by co-writer/director Ricky Gervais. Brent is a boss at a paper manufacturing business in the city of Slough (UK). He embodies the most annoying qualities a human can possess: He's insecure, inept, inappropriate, insensitive and generally unattractive. Yet he fancies himself a terrific boss and stellar entertainer.

The premise of the second season of "The Office" is a corporate takeover in which Brent loses his position to a younger, hipper and much more likeable man. New employees come in too, and Brent's desperation to remain in control and be every employee's favorite boss leads to nothing but painfully awkward situations in the uncomfortable style of "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

It's easy to sympathize with the characters of Slough - they're stuck in boring jobs, made to deal with a ridiculous boss and with each other. There are office romances,

rivalries, shenanigans and friendships to round out the realism of the show.

The DVD for season two of "The Office" is pretty straightforward as far as content. But even if you've already seen the series on the BBC, there's still ample incentive to check out the DVD. The six-episode season is accented with 40 minutes of extras, including outtakes, deleted scenes and a behind-the-scenes video diary. Forty minutes isn't the mammoth amount of extras that come standard with many DVDs. Still, when all 40 minutes are just as involving and funny as the series itself, you've got a situation of quality over quantity. And as long as the video in question isn't porn, I say go for quality every time.

Other extras include a paper insert translating several Britishisms (aka "Slough Slang") into the American vernacular. I actually never knew that bullocks were testicles. (What if the Sex Pistols had been American, "Never Mind the Testicles ... "?)

Finally, and for the world's greater good, I know how to say testicles among other equally significant things in British slang.

Of the six episodes represented on the disc, episode five is probably my favorite due to an impromptu dance-off between Neil, the new boss, and Brent. Brent describes his dance styling as "fused 'Flashdance' with MC Hammer shit." No one in my house has been able to stop fusing "Flashdance" with MC Hammer shit since seeing this episode. Yet we all suck bullocks in comparison to the exotic/robotic moves captured forever on the DVD.

It would probably serve a viewer's best interest to go out and rent the first season before bringing this DVD home, although it is not really necessary. But once you've seen season two, you're gonna want to see season one. You might as well do it in order.