So apparently The Office has been overhyped by virtually everyone in UK for the past several years, and I still hadn’t even seen a single episode. Until last week that is. I haven’t yet seen the US version, or for that matter the german version (Stromberg), so the thoughts here are purely about the UK version.
From what I have heard and been told by other people, it’s one of those things that you either love or hate. And it’s mostly about either liking or not liking Ricky Gervais (plays the boss, David Brent). Because if you don’t like him, you won’t like the whole show, even if Tim (Martin Freeman) and Gareth (Mackenzie Crook) are great characters on their own.
The humour is another thing of course, as a lot of people say that the UK version is very dry and typical English humour. Though personally I find it quite good, and don’t see what’s so dry about it, especially since it is meant to be more of a mockumentary anyway.
Once I have seen the US version as well, I’ll be able to give a proper commentary on the differences, though I suspect that the US version will certainly skip quite a few jokes that the UK version had (hiding the dildo in Brent’s office comes to mind).