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List Price: $39.98 | | Label: BBC Warner
Salesrank: 1439
Released: November 16, 2004 |
| Our Price: $29.98 |
| Used Price: $24.95 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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| Features:
Box set Closed-captioned Color DVD NTSC | |
Editorial Review:
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.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 794051208521 Manufacturer No: E2085
Description of The Office - The Complete Collection BBC Edition (First And Second Series Plus Special):
It feels both inaccurate and inadequate to describe The Office as a comedy. On a superficial level, it disdains all the conventions of television sitcoms: there are no punch lines, no jokes, no laugh tracks, and no cute happy endings. More profoundly, it's not what we're used to thinking of as funny. Most of the fervently devoted fan base watched with a discomfortingly thrilling combination of identification and mortification. The paradox is that its best moments are almost physically unwatchable. Set in the offices of a fictional British paper merchant, The Office is filmed in the style of a reality television show. The writing is subtle and deft, the acting wonderful, and the characters beautifully drawn: the cadaverous team leader Gareth (Mackenzie Crook); the monstrous sales rep, Chris Finch (Ralph Ineson); and the decent but long-suffering everyman Tim (Martin Freeman), whose ambition and imagination have been crushed out of him by the banality of ! the life he dreams uselessly of escaping. The show is stolen, as it was intended to be, by insufferable office manager David Brent, played by codirector-cowriter Ricky Gervais. Brent will become a name as emblematic for a particular kind of British grotesque as Basil Fawlty, but he is a deeper character. Fawlty is an exaggeration of reality, and therefore a safely comic figure. Brent is as appalling as only reality can be. --Andrew Mueller
The second series exceeded even the sky-high standards of the first. Indeed, it ventured beyond caricature and satire, touching on the very edge of darkness. Ricky Gervais is once again excruciatingly superb as David Brent, but in this series, Brent's to-the-camera assertions concerning his management qualities and executive capabilities are seriously challenged when the Slough and Swindon branches are merged and his former Swindon equivalent Neil (Patrick Baladi) takes over as area manager. To compensate, Brent cultivates his pathologically mistaken image of himself as an entertainer-motivator-comedian whose stage happens to be the workplace. Meanwhile, Tim, who can only maintain his sanity by teasing the priggish Gareth, continues to wrestle with his yearning for receptionist Dawn Tinsley (Lucy Davis), a sympathetic character persisting in a relationship with a man about whom she still maintains unspoken reservations. As ever, it's the awkward, reality TV-style pauses and silences, the furtive, meaningful and unmet glances across the emotional gulf of the open-plan office, that say it all here. As for Brent, his own breakdown is prefaced by a moment of hideous hilarity--an impromptu office dance, a mixture of "Flashdance and MC Hammer" as Brent describes it, but in reality bad beyond description. Then, when his fate is sealed, he at last reveals himself in a memorable finale to perhaps the greatest British sitcom, besides Fawlty Towers, ever made. --David Stubbs
The brilliant and devastating comedy of The Office is brought to a satisfying conclusion in The Office Special, originally a two-part Christmas special on the BBC, set three years after the end of the faux-documentary's second season. The former office manager David (Ricky Gervais) now ekes out a desperate existence as an oblivious quasi-celebrity, making awkward, humiliating visits back to the office staff he still believes loves him. Gawky Gareth (Mackenzie Crook) has risen to manager and become a petty tyrant, while the sweet but snide Tim (Martin Freeman) continues to pine for former receptionist Dawn (Lucy Davis), who fled to Florida with her fiance. When the documentary crew pays for Dawn to return for the holiday party, an unpredictable reunion looms ahead. The Office fuses scathing humor and genuine empathy, turning excruciating social discomfort into inspired satire. Fans will find this special rewarding in all respects. --Bret Fetzer
The Office - The Complete Collection BBC Edition (First And Second Series Plus Special) Reviews:
Hilarious! 
2009-08-22 - I've seen this version and the American version and I have to say that I love my country very much but the British version is funnier and very clever. Rickey Gervais makes the show and all of the other characters are very rich and funny in their own right. Bravo!
Disappointed! 
2009-06-04 - Normally, I love British shows. And I love the American version of "The Office". So, I expected to love this show even more. It starts out with funny bits, but soon becomes painful to watch. The characters, especially Ricky Gervais' David, are fairly unlikeable. By the end there is no one to root for, only a feeling of voyerism... like watching someone in a very uncomfortable and embarrassing personal situation. You feel sorry for them and almost hopeless. I am sorry I bought this set.
It's Quality
2009-05-04 - This is awesome. Way better than the copy cat US series! Fantastic, a great look at British humor. Not all Americans will get this though. Fantastic!!! 5 Stars
Great Deal...One of the funniest and most original shows I've seen.
2009-04-13 - I love comedy T.V. shows. Not really "sitcom" funny but more naturalistic shows like: Arrested Development, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Flight of the Conchords, etc. This show surpasses it's U.S. counterpart by a milestone. Ricky Gervais is hilarious in his character of David Brent. The cast is fantastic and the story is impeccable. However, nothing compares to the dramatic special that concludes the story. If you have a funny bone in your body, I suggest that you give this series a chance.
the original office
2009-03-30 - The original British version of the Office is brilliant. I hear that it's nearing what the end of this 4th season of the American Office is like...uncomfortable at times. A must purchase for any true fan of the Office.
