Goodbye to 'The Office'

[Collie]

I hope you all watched the final 2 special episodes of the BBC comedy 'The Office'. If you did, or you didn't, here's my completely unimportant commentary...

First episode - mostly unfunny, but entertaining. It's set 2 years after the last series, with the documentary makers catching up with the cast - mainly the still-deluded Brent (who was fired) and also Dawn who moved to America and is having a crap time of it. Setting the show outside of the office and following around David Brent wasn't what the entire series had been about up to now, and the new cast members were crap. I thought for a moment it was going to turn into a wet blanket like the Only Fools and Horses specials.

But then, there was the final episode, and it was brilliant. Funny, clever and best of all, it capped off an excellent and ground-breaking comedy series. All the loose ends were tied: Brent's continual slide into deluded, disliked, loser-ville was halted when he finally met someone who liked him, and he told Finchy to 'fuck off' (possibly the funniest moment); and Dawn and Tim got together....at last. Quality.

When you get a good thing, you never want it to end, but in the case of The Office - it has to end forever with that last episode. I salute Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant for taking the bold step and ending it there when so many others have just churned out more and more series, each one becoming worse and worse (Teachers, and any American sitcom springs to mind, and of course OFAH). The Office is up for 2 Golden Globe awards (best sitcom/comedy? and best comedy actor for Ricky, and although it's unlikely to beat American crap such as 'Will and Grace' (less funny than 'You've Been Framed'), and Sex in the City (yawn) it's good it's been recognised for its merits outside of Britain.

Expect to see the American remake of The Office being a pile of unfunny crap that lasts all of about 5 episodes before being canned for another 'Sitcom-By-Numbers-starring-shit-American-actors'.

[doctorvee]

Yeah, everybody seems to think that the first episode was a load of old tosh. I thought it was pretty bad aswell - epecially the pop video. It was like they'd filmed it as an extra for the DVD and put it in the programme by mistake. But the blind date bit was funny.
The second episode was brilliant, the best way it could have ended. It was nice to see Brent finally able to get his act together.

It's great that they've decided to end The Office where it is.. But I can't help thinking that they've deliberately left some loose ends deliberately untied, such as the woman who fancied the black guy.. They'd BETTER NOT go back to it. Unless it's actually funny. But it won't be, because they never are.

[gargoyle]

They're going to make an American version of it?

[wedge69]

Yerah, just like they did with "Coupling". Enough said.

[Mike]

Taken from today's copy of The Sun:

TV Boss from hell David Brent is making his last on-screen appearence in a training film for computer firm Microsoft. The Office's creator Ricky Gervais will play his star character for staff at the IT giant's UK base in Reading. But Microsoft say fans will never see their video after Ricky said the show's Christmas special was it's finale.

Fuckers!