On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 12:07 PM, Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 3:41 AM, Trevor Trevor <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> Working stiffs
>> Is it time to close The Office?
>
When the producers
> signed on to make a US version of the show, they did so knowing that
> their goal was to stay on the air for 100 episodes, not replicate the
> genius of the short BBC series. And by that standard, the series is a
> success.
>
> I agree with Dean that the series is getting creatively played out. (SNIP)
> Then there is secret information like the last
> episode of last season where Phyllis accidentally discovers Dwight and
> Angela together. Only it's not just Phyllis, it's Phyllis and the
> cameraman, yet at the beginning of the new season the sense is that
> only Phyllis knows and there's no filmed evidence.
I am going to go with "No - it is not time to close The Office". I
know there is some kind of union rule that television writers have to
take turns writing negative pieces about popular shows, but I don't
think this one is ready yet for a serious obituary.
This is still the best comedy on US television. For people who never
saw the original then I guess it would be true that the documentary
device was at first fresh and is now old - but for those who saw the
original, the device, while a bit different, was already old or at
least not Fresh. The device simply serves to justify the tone and
voice of the show. It's implausibility is no greater than MASH being
on the air for 10 and half years even though the Korean War only
lasted 3 years, or Norm spending all that time on that bar stool, or
Kramer hardly ever having a visible means of support.
The US Office actually started out rather weak, and needed time to get
better - we would have missed a lot of good television if they had
arbitrarily ended it after 18 or 24 episodes or whatever they do in
Great Britain. I think the producers have done a great job of keeping
the show fresh and interesting - I even liked the Holly arc, which I
heard a lot of fans did not.
I am also going to disagree with Tom's more limited point about
Phyllis and her secret information, and the supposed inconsistency
over Phyllis knowing something that the camera crew knows last season,
but then only she knows this season. In episode 5 of the current
season ("Crime Aid") Phylis reaches out to Dwight to comfort him about
Angela having set a date for her wedding. She says something like "Do
you want to talk about it?" to which Dwight responds "about what" and
she says "You know I know [pause, she turns to the camera and says]
you know *they* know [clearly indicating the documentary crew]".
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