Ricky Martin Video:

		List Price: $29.98		Label: BBC Video Salesrank: 9265 Released: October 7, 2003
		Our Price: $13.94
		Used Price: $11.48
		MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
Welcome to Wernham Hogg a suburban paper company where "life is stationery." Critics and fans alike have lauded this hilarious biting look at everyday office life told in the mockumentary style of cult comedy classics such as This is Spinal Tap and The Larry Sanders Show. The show revolves around David Brent (an instant classic character widely compared to Basil Fawlt of Fawlty Towers) the oblivious general manager who instigates petty office rivalries. The wince-worthy Brent still considers himself "a friend first and a boss second...probably an entertainer third." Work is hell...but one man's misery is another man's hilarious home video hit. Welcome to The Office.Running Time: 210 min.System Requirements:Run Time: 180 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 794051181527 Manufacturer No: E1815

Description of The Office - The Complete First Series (BBC Edition):
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 Office - The Complete First Series (BBC Edition) Reviews:
Awful
2008-08-22 - I don't even know where to begin, so I'll just say, it's not funny at all. It is nowhere near the genius of the American version. The British cast was terrible except for Tim who is the only good one. The episodes were too long and I think they should have made the American version 40 minutes and the British version 20 minutes. What kind of name is Wernham Hogg? At first, I thought Dunder Mifflin was weird, but compared to that, HOLY CRAP! I bought this thinking it was going to be as good or better than the American version but was sadly disappointed.

In conclusion, I think this is just a terrible waste of time and money and would not recommend it to anyone. The American version is awesome and RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The American version is a TOTAL rip-off!
2008-02-23 - I've been a huge fan of the American version of the office for years now, so I figured I should give the original a go. I was SHOCKED to learn that the American office is identical to it's British predecessor... down to the exact same jokes and exact same plot lines! It was upsetting because I felt like I had already seen all of these episodes already, just without the accents! As I kept watching though, the two diverged a bit, and it became more enjoyable. I was disappointed with this show, but it was only because it felt like Deja Vu. But I'm giving it 5 stars because it really is hilarious and original, and if I wasn't such a fan of the American version already, I wouldn't have been so bothered.

Uncomfortable, but hilarious
2007-12-15 - This brilliant comedy about the relationships and office politics of a paper company is one of the funniest shows I've ever seen. It's laughs don't come from gags, but rather from its darkly honest take on human nature. Co-creator Ricky Gervais shines in the role of office manager David Brent, who fancies himself a comedian and a cool boss beloved by his workers, when he is actually a socially maladjusted annoyance who commits a long string of cringe-inducing faux pas in every episode. You may wince as often as you laugh, but Gervais and the rest of the able cast make this show a real winner.

Never squirmed so much in my life; also, multiple orgasmic laughs...
2007-09-12 - There's no use comparing the American and British versions--it's best to look at them as separate entities. While Carrell plays the regional manager as bafoonish and innocent, Gervais is bafoonish and despicable in his innocence. This version holds the awkward pauses longer, and has many moments where I truly wanted to pause just for relief from the discomfort it's realism brings forth; and yet, I laughed. Episode Four is probably the best in this series (season). The main characters are given much more attention and the secondary characters much less than in the American version, but the actors make you realize why--they are incredibly brillant. A reviewer commented that this is very raunchy; it definitely has its moments. Scenes that would never have flown in the American version stand proudly in the original, scenes that no one would have believed in America because of our more stringent sexual harassment clauses. But, then, it's British humor, and I get and can appreciate it. Anyway, give it a shot, whether you like the American version (which I do) or not. It's a bit more depressing, but that's only because it's a bit more real.

The hilarious apotheosis of "cringe" humor
2007-06-22 - It's a curious thing, "The Office". After watching the entire first series, I had to ask myself why I had laughed so much. There are no traditional punchlines, catch phrases, "wacky" situations or unrealistically outrageous characters and, if the viewer would willingly suspend his disbelief, it could very well be the thing it purports to be: a documentary of an actual, ordinary office environment, with all its ugly-to-mediocre looking people and their ludicrous banalities, foibles and petty dramas. Any person who has ever worked in an office, or has been in any human grouping for that matter, will recognize the characters and situations of "The Office" as entirely true to life and not comedic exaggerations, and I guess that's what makes this show so funny: real life can be pretty bloody hilarious. Ordinary people saying and doing stupid and awkward things...you can't beat it. (btw, episode 4 has got to be one of the classic episodes in the history of TV- absolutely perfect).