The Office: The Complete BBC Collection (First and Second Series Plus Special)
by Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant
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DVD details
Actor: Lucy Davis (II), Mackenzie Crook, Martin Freeman, Ricky GervaisDirector: Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant
Brand: Warner Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 450 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-10-20
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: E2085
Studio: BBC Worldwide
DVD Reviews of The Office: The Complete BBC Collection (First and Second Series Plus Special)
DVD Review: A Psychological Probe into Self Aggrandizement and Delusion - And the Crown of British Humor!
Summary: 5 Stars
Meet David Brent. Manager of a small branch of a paper company in Slough, England, Brent keeps a stash of beer in his office for emergencies, fancies himself as a comedian - constantly bombarding his employees with racist, sexist jokes and generally rude behavior - and, overall, struggles with the fact that he is a jumped-up mediocrity quickly aging into marginalized obsoleteness. Delusional and detestable, Brent masks his profound insecurities with a buffoonish persona that's "still rock n' roll," his need to be the center of attention eventually pulling him into a downward spiral that is both hilarious and incredibly painful to observe. The man is a trainwreck in motion, and woe to anyone that dares obstruct his progress to the Dark Ends of human petulance.
*The Office*, a BBC series that ran for two seasons with a wrap-up Christmas Special, is now being hailed as one of the greatest situational comedies to emerge from the far side of the Atlantic - and rightly so. Unique from the dross of the mainstream networks, there is no laugh track, no slapstick gags or dull stereotype roles, no happy resolution at the end of each episode. Laughs come from the dead silences that follow one of Brent's jokes, from character reactions and snide comments, from incredibly awkward moments the like of which have never graced television before. Built around the clever idea of portraying an average office environment in documentary form, the camera both allows the viewer to be seduced into the "real" of its characters and conflict, all the while suggesting the core opportunist streak of David Brent, who shamelessly mugs for this chance at fame, ratcheting up the comedian shtick to an appalling level, alternatively whining about his troubles and using the medium as an aphorism-mirror, building himself up to be a Great Man among the needy proles. The amount of self-delusion that emerges from these candid glimpses into Brent's fragile state give credit to both the sharp, acerbic writing and the truly astonishing acting ability of co-creator Ricky Gervaise, who fashions a character so life-like and empathetically awful that the audience cannot help but see him as the template for any ambitious idiot somehow maneuvered into a station beyond his abilities.
SEASON ONE starts rather casually, with office clown Tim enacting petty prank jokes on the sycophantic Gareth, receptionist Dawn flirting with Tim in what seems a compatible (but unrequited) match, and the employees lazing about, occasionally doing work in the "chilled out" atmosphere David Brent has cultivated. As for Brent, he wanders about with a wan smile and a sort of shallow confidence that hints at the dysfunction beneath, never really working, always keeping an eye out for the camera so he can perform. He tells awful jokes and laughs loudly in the silence, brags about his drinking ability, baldface lies to his boss, hijacks a training session so he can muse on the good ol' days with his rock n' roll band, fires long-term employees due to redundancies yet hires a pretty PA at the drop of a hat; and constantly, constantly says the wrong thing at the wrong moment, leaving atomic blasts of embarrassment wherever he goes. It can accurately be stated that The Office is all about laughing at rather than laughing with, all about the ugliness of the human situation and the catharsis resultant in seeing it in such a condensed form.
SEASON TWO is where things get nasty. The paper company merges two offices together and suddenly Brent has a bunch of new employees and a new boss to try and impress and eventually contend with. The previous season established the characters and a rather lowkey conflict ratio, with the threat of redundancies and Brent himself as major antagonists but most of the humor centered around office gags and reactions to lowbrow antics, coming off very funny yet (relatively) harmless. In the second season the gloves are off, and the writers methodically strip back the layers of illusion Brent has surrounded himself in, painting a man hell-bent on ingratiating himself into an awkward situation and in turn making everything and everyone miserable.
By far more painful than the first season - in that form of "watching the screen with your hands over your eyes", croaking laughter at the display of raw brutality - year 2 is also the more psychologically dense. The new employees from the merger react with disgust to the jokes and bad behavior, chafe at the "chilled out" environment Brent tries so strenuously to maintain, smirk at his attempts to appear younger (a make-over that reaches a horrifying peak in the Motivational Speech episode) and gradually come to ignore him completely. Job threatened and his delusions dangerously breached, Brent breaks down and shows the true colors of his spite, almost oblivious to the omniscient camera except to use it as a platform for his tirades against the "boring" new employees and the dashing new Boss. The CHRISTMAS SPECIAL wraps up the loose threads from Season Two in a moving, if still occasionally cringe-worthy, finale.
I've only really touched the main threads that make this series such a marvel: throw in the tragic affection between likable everyman Tim and office secretary Dawn, the tyrannical behavior and general clueless nature of lowbrow brownnoser Gareth, the smarmy, sleazy note-perfect 'hustler sales rep' Chris Finch, and you have a show that rivals Faulty Towers for the crown of British comedy. David Brent even enacts Basil Faulty's most atrocious lapse of bad taste ('The Germans' infamous moustache-and-highkick) to the unamused consternation of his employees, giving both tribute and contrast, for whereas Basil is completely exaggerated and thus relatively safe, a cartoon to laugh at, Brent is borderline crazy and very, very frightening therein.
The Office is a fascinating, harrowing exercise in psychological black humor, a catharsis for anyone that has had to work in a stifling corporate environment, and/or dealt with the sort of people the series so keenly depicts. Five stars.
More The Office: The Complete BBC Collection (First and Second Series Plus Special) reviews:
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Description of The Office: The Complete BBC Collection (First and Second Series Plus Special)
Welcome to The Office, a place of petty rivalry, bad flirting, and easily-bruised egos. Filmed in documentary-style, this sharply observed and highly acclaimed comedy exposes the excruciating truth about the world of nine-to-five. Complete collection includes all twelve episodes plus the special.Bestsellers in DVD
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