Review by Adam Stephen Kelly
Stars Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski,
Jenna Fischer, BJ Novak, Leslie David Baker | Written by Various
UK Certification 12 | UK RRP £29.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 387 minutes | Directed by Various
The Office. I was a fan of the original BBC series, created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, but the American rehash? I'll be honest, I've never been interested in seeing it ... and then the fourth season just happened to drop through my door. One thing that's somewhat of a con of being a critic is having to review a season of a television series that not only isn't the first, but one that you've never seen before. I think the reason why is pretty self-explanatory.
So, I put the first of the four discs into my DVD player and away I went. And surprisingly, I finished the whole season in a day. There are some incredibly short episodes, which I've read was due to the WGA strike a few years back (yes, we get The Office on DVD ages after those Stateside), but they've all got laughs and a lot of heart rooted deep below the silly nature of the humour. A funny show it is indeed – not uproarious, not hilarious, but pleasingly funny, almost subtle because of the way the characters deliver the gags so calmly (most of the time), completely oblivious to their own stupidity.
If you aren't aware of the programme, The Office, subtitled An American Workplace, is all about Dunder Mifflin. Not a muffin shop nor John Holmes' rival back in the day, Dunder Mifflin is a company that sells paper to businesses. Yes, that's it, plain old paper. But what makes the company not as plain as the product it sells, or more specifically the Scranton office, is the failure of certain staff members to actually know what the hell their job is, not to mention how to think like a normal human being, and that's exactly where the fun is. The incompetence of the staff makes The Office the ultimate place not to work, unless maybe you're a fly on the wall with a sense of humour.
As you can see from my star rating, from what I've seen, and that being the fourth season obviously, I don't love The Office, but I really do like it. The cast are exceptional, especially Carell as the dimwitted Regional Manager, and Wilson as an eccentric and slightly psychopathic salesman. I'm definitely motivated to check out the first bunch of episodes. With Carell leaving the show though, I don't see how it can go on the same way. His character really is the star and most definitely has the funniest lines. Who knows what will happen, but as it currently stands it's a solid show and, being that it's very different to the British original apart from the general office and documentary concept, really quite refreshing as a comedy.
EXTRAS ★★★ A few audio commentaries for certain episodes with select members of the cast and crew, many deleted scenes, Michael Scott's full commercial from the episode “Local Ad”, a pretty funny 22-minute blooper reel, Summer Vacation Promo: a short comical vignette for the show's website, and The Office Convention: Writer's Block, which is an hour-long public panel with the writers of the fourth season.