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There are probably lots of threads about this here... but... I prefer the American version. Watching the English version, I feel sympathy for the manager, a bit, and even more to the 'assistant to the regional manager', and find myself disliking the main character, and girl, they seem sort of bullying. I don't know the American version just seems kinder... less smarmy

The manager character sort of reminds me of my dad.

Welcome to America, with our teeming masses of plebes.

Wow... one reply... apparently this is my worst thread ever :_(

2 hours, gee your pushy for posts...

I prefer the UK version because it is more creepy/smarmy.
The US boss is more the loud idiot version whilst the UK has the ultimate backstabbing, cover my tracks to cover my incompetence type A personality.

I laugh at both, but they are different styles for different audiences.

namegoeshere wrote:Wow... one reply... apparently this is my worst thread ever :_(

most people are asleep. I'll be the one spamming for now D:

The whole point of The Office is that the Boss and Gareth mainly just play up to the Cameras, whereas the others just try to get on with things as best they can.

The final episode is actually quite touching I felt. Remember, David Brent is not meant to be hated, or felt pity for. He is a Homer like character. He might constantly stuff things up, but he does try and his heart is in the right place.

I thought the audience were supposed to hate the manager, my wife says occasionally 'my god Rod says that' (Rod being her manager)

My only experience with office workers is the people I've played D&D with who are in the IT field. They scare me.

The British version was much more a critique on the banality of office work and the ridiculous notion that you end up spending most of your life with people you don't even care for because you work with them.

The British version had frequent quiet shots of the office at work to help emphasize the feeling of boredom that permeates office work. Ricky Gervais also played the boss character in a much more needy and creepy manner, while Steve Carrell tends to steer more towards the goofy realm.

But the biggest difference between the two in terms of tone has to come from the person who is pretty much the 'protaganist', that being Jim/Tim. In the British version Tim is essentially a loser who has no friends, lives at home, never dates and hates his job. All of these things makes the fact that he sticks with this terrible job and boss all the more painful. These people he hates are basically his only friends in the world. While he certainly thinks he is 'better' than his job, we as viewers tend to see him as someone who really isn't 'better' than his job and that fact makes the whole thing all the more painful (in a good way).

OTOH, Jim in the American version has friends, lives on his own and goes on dates. We do (at least I do) feel like he is 'better' than his job but its pretty clear that the main reason he keeps working at the job is because of his feelings for Pam, a cause that is much more admirable than sticking to a terrible job because he's got nothing better in his life to look forward to (as is the case with Tim). And that's really the crux of the difference in tone between the two series.


(British) Tim = loser who stays at his terrible job because he's got nothing better to do with his life despite what he thinks.
(American) Jim = cool guy who sticks with his terrible job because he's secretly in love with the receptionist despite the fact that he can (and does) date other women.



At least that's my take. . .

That is a very nice summary I think more of the essential differences between Uk and USA humour in general rather than just in the Office.

Over here the perception is rather more-- to me anyway-- that Tim is better than his job and just needs..well deserves a break, but that won't happen to him.Ever. British humour is often really quite bleak like that.

The establishing shots do help show the tediousness of of office work/life and is also used to help show the docudrama side of the show as well, which is soething the USA version seems to ignore or drop into and out of from (the little) I've seen.

My girlfriend bought me the office dvd board game thinking it was for the movie, and we had seen maybe 5 episodes between the two of us, so I went and bought seasons 1 and two and we were hooked. Ended up going and buying the other two seasons at Walmart in the middle of the night.

I love Steve in this role even though I despise everything else he has done. We share a lot of the same when it comes to humor, hehe.

I also watched some of the British version, and I agree it loses a lot because of how vomit-inducing pathetic everyone is. In the American version everyone is pathetic but they are also all lovable. Without the Jim/Pam thing it is also half what the show means to me.

Just my opinions though!

The UK version had a lot more pathos. The show was unrelentingly in how ridiculous and sad these people's lives were, but it also kept reminding you they were people. Mad Doc Grotsnik likened David Brent to Homer, but I'm not sure that's really how it worked. You're supposed to revel in Homer's childishness and live through him, nothing really bad ever comes of Homer's whackiness. But David Brent's childishness, pettiness and inept management has immediate negative returns, the series is full of long silences as Brent is left standing in the middle of another of his screw ups. But every so often they'd turn this a little on its head and you make see Brent as a person that hurts like the rest of us. He was a terrible boss, but his job was all he really had, so when he's fired and pleads for his job, it is tragic even though we know he needs to be fired. Maybe its more tragic because we know.


The US version doesn't include that. Instead it's looking for a more straight up comedy. The boss is a clueless dork, the workers are weirdos that Jim makes fun of. It is very funny and has its own share of classic moments. There's also a lot more of it than the UK version. But it is just a comedy series, while the UK version managed a little more than that.

make see Brent as a person that hurts like the rest of us. He was a terrible boss, but his job was all he really had, so when he's fired and pleads for his job, it is tragic even though we know he needs to be fired. Maybe its more tragic because we know.

God yes ! That's why the series works, the docu drama format emphasises the voyeur aspect and makes you suddenly realise that what you're laughing at is in fact these people's lives, which could so easily be yours.

when he pleads for his job...oohh man...it's also a pretty exact replication of what it is like when people are made redundant.

I agree with what people are saying, but am I the only one who sees the main protagonist in the English version, as being a bit of a bully, in the American version Dwight deserves what he gets, but less so the blonde skinny Somerset English dwight.