There's hardly a television series funnier than The Office, a BBC2 series which aired from 2001 to 2003. Created by then-unknowns Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the series became a modern television classic, spawning off plenty of remakes (including the American Office, which still airs on NBC). It's been ten years since The Office first premiered, and on November 22, BBC DVD released a ten-year anniversary special edition set of the series.
The Office is a mockumentary that follows the lives of workers in the Slough branch of the Wernham Hogg Paper Company. The star of the show is undoubtedly David Brent (Gervais), the Regional Manager who believes he is well-liked when in reality, his self-absorbed nature and attention-seeking behavior generally make him to be a pitiable figure. The presence of the documentary cameras in the office only fuel Brent's desperation for attention.
Also present in the office is Brent's assistant Gareth (played by Pirates of the Caribbean's Mackenzie Crook), who is similarly self-deluded -- though in his case, he fancies himself as a tough military man while in reality he looks like a newly hatched baby bird. Gareth's office nemesis is the ultimately likable Tim Canterbury (Martin Freeman, Sherlock, The Hobbit), a normal thirty-year-old who is unhappy with where his life has taken him. Tim harbors a not-so-secret crush on the receptionist Dawn Tinsley (Lucy Davis), an aspiring illustrator who enjoys his advances but is trapped in an unhealthy relationship with insensitive warehouse worker Lee (Joel Beckett). These characters all interact in a hilarious way, giving both humor and heart to the show's uniquely awkward brand of comedy.
The special edition DVD set includes plenty of special features that weren't present on the original 2004 DVD release. Interviews with Gervais, Merchant, and special guests Matthew Perry, Ben Stiller, Richard Curtis, Hugh Jackman, and others -- all of whom are hilarious as they discuss The Office. There's a "Comedy Connections" documentary that documents the history of the series, giving a new look at how exactly it was conceived and how Gervais and Merchant, two unknowns at the BBC, were given the creative freedom to craft one of the most starkly unique shows of all time.
Perhaps the highlight of the set is the show's original pilot, a low-quality shoot that was used to convince network executives to pick up the show. While a lot of this pilot would later be re-used for the show's first episode, there are other interesting elements: Merchant is a much bigger presence, providing a voice-over and even asking questions during the talking-head segments of the episode, for instance. There's also one scene which puts Brent in a much more negative light -- that is, when he tries on a new employee's lipstick when she's out of the room. Of course, the pilot is entirely inferior to the finished series, but it's an interesting time capsule and an interesting look at what might have been.
The special edition set might not be essential enough to consider buying if you already have a copy of the show on DVD, unless you're like me and have seen the entire series several times through. Newcomers to the series should pick up the set four-disc set, though, simply because The Office is perhaps one of the funniest shows ever made. You can order it on Amazon.
Check out some clips from the series below.
