The Office, and a basketball thought
The Office
After watching Louisville make me look smart on my NCAA Final Four bracket last night, I watched the NBC remake of The Office.
And you know, I don't know exactly what to think. Maybe it's too early to make that kind of judgment, so I'll reserve most of my thoughts until I watch another episode or two. They pretty much used the same framework for this episode as they did for the first BBC episode, using even a few of the same gags. I'd like to see the direction they take the show in on their own.
And this'll be getting the positive out of the way first...I liked it enough that I'll watch it again. Scrubs has moved up high on my list of shows to watch, and The Office will be placed in that slot just behind Scrubs. I'll watch The Office again.
There was something that'll bear watching.
In the BBC series, Ricky Gervais's David Brent is a twerp, right? He's an ass. He thinks he's funnier, smarter and much more urbane than he actually is. But there's something deep down in the character and in Ricky Gervais's portrayal that makes you like David Brent, deep down. You root for David, even during his string of embarrassments that make up his downward spiral in the second season of show. There's something likeable about David Brent, so much so that you're happy for him when he manages to get a couple of things right at the series-ending special.
The American Counterpart to David Brent is Michael Scott (hey, they both have two first names), played by Steve Carell, who seems to have that ability to either make me laugh until I cry, or piss me off so much I have to change the channel.
Like I said, it might be too early to judge a character based on a single episode. But based on this one viewing, the difference between Brent, on the BBC version, and Scott in the NBC version, is that I root for Brent, on some level. I wouldn't mind at all for Michael Scott to get everything that's coming to him. I just didn't like Steve Carell's character on the same level I liked David Brent.
When something bad happened to Michael Scott (the speaker-phone conversation/"Godzillary" conversation comes to mind), I enjoyed seeing him squirm.
I think it may be a question of subtlety more than anything. There are lots of little, subtle pieces of humor in the BBC's Office that I don't know are going to show up in the American version. Steve Carell's performance, so far, lacks all the little things that made Ricky Gervais's David Brent so watchable and likeable.
I caught the tail-end of the NPR review of the show last night, and the reviewer made a good statement.
In the mockumentary style, the characters need to be as real as possible. In the BBC version, they do a great job of making everybody seem as real as possible.
In the American version, so far, everybody feels like a TV character.
And given the general use Joe America has for things subtle, I don't have much hope for the American version to have a lot of it.
Still, it made me laugh a little. Not screaming, crying guffaws, like the first BBC Office did. But I'll try to watch it again.
Back to basketball....
I finished the evening by watching Arizona destroy my bracket. I was feeling pretty punk. I'd picked Louisville for the Final 4 in the Albuquerque division, pretty much the only thing I'd manage to get write in that "suckhole" part of the bracket. I thing West Virginia should win Saturday to make it to the Final Four, just to give me one more F You from that corner of the page.
Anyway, I'm feeling pretty punk, and then I watch Oklahoma State lose to Lute Olson and his Arizona basketball team.
My strategy with my bracket, if I had one at all, was to pick against at least one of the big favorites, because I felt like everybody'd be going with them. I picked against Illinois, except that I had Oklahome State doing the bumping off honors in the Round of Eight.
What's more, I had Okie State going over Louisville in the Final Four, and eventually losing to North Carolina in the Championship. I wasn't necessarily thinking the Illini would lose. I was hoping like hell, so that I'd be alone at or near the top when the time came.
I said last weekend that I didn't think I could win the thing, because I didn't do well picking in the first couple of rounds (friggin' Albuquerque region), and while I wasn't dead yet, the leaders in the pool had picked well the first couple of rounds, and had a lot of what I had in the Final Four. If I did well, so would they.
What a bunch of crap, this basketball garbage is.
Anyway.
Let's go do the work.
After watching Louisville make me look smart on my NCAA Final Four bracket last night, I watched the NBC remake of The Office.
And you know, I don't know exactly what to think. Maybe it's too early to make that kind of judgment, so I'll reserve most of my thoughts until I watch another episode or two. They pretty much used the same framework for this episode as they did for the first BBC episode, using even a few of the same gags. I'd like to see the direction they take the show in on their own.
And this'll be getting the positive out of the way first...I liked it enough that I'll watch it again. Scrubs has moved up high on my list of shows to watch, and The Office will be placed in that slot just behind Scrubs. I'll watch The Office again.
There was something that'll bear watching.
In the BBC series, Ricky Gervais's David Brent is a twerp, right? He's an ass. He thinks he's funnier, smarter and much more urbane than he actually is. But there's something deep down in the character and in Ricky Gervais's portrayal that makes you like David Brent, deep down. You root for David, even during his string of embarrassments that make up his downward spiral in the second season of show. There's something likeable about David Brent, so much so that you're happy for him when he manages to get a couple of things right at the series-ending special.
The American Counterpart to David Brent is Michael Scott (hey, they both have two first names), played by Steve Carell, who seems to have that ability to either make me laugh until I cry, or piss me off so much I have to change the channel.
Like I said, it might be too early to judge a character based on a single episode. But based on this one viewing, the difference between Brent, on the BBC version, and Scott in the NBC version, is that I root for Brent, on some level. I wouldn't mind at all for Michael Scott to get everything that's coming to him. I just didn't like Steve Carell's character on the same level I liked David Brent.
When something bad happened to Michael Scott (the speaker-phone conversation/"Godzillary" conversation comes to mind), I enjoyed seeing him squirm.
I think it may be a question of subtlety more than anything. There are lots of little, subtle pieces of humor in the BBC's Office that I don't know are going to show up in the American version. Steve Carell's performance, so far, lacks all the little things that made Ricky Gervais's David Brent so watchable and likeable.
I caught the tail-end of the NPR review of the show last night, and the reviewer made a good statement.
In the mockumentary style, the characters need to be as real as possible. In the BBC version, they do a great job of making everybody seem as real as possible.
In the American version, so far, everybody feels like a TV character.
And given the general use Joe America has for things subtle, I don't have much hope for the American version to have a lot of it.
Still, it made me laugh a little. Not screaming, crying guffaws, like the first BBC Office did. But I'll try to watch it again.
Back to basketball....
I finished the evening by watching Arizona destroy my bracket. I was feeling pretty punk. I'd picked Louisville for the Final 4 in the Albuquerque division, pretty much the only thing I'd manage to get write in that "suckhole" part of the bracket. I thing West Virginia should win Saturday to make it to the Final Four, just to give me one more F You from that corner of the page.
Anyway, I'm feeling pretty punk, and then I watch Oklahoma State lose to Lute Olson and his Arizona basketball team.
My strategy with my bracket, if I had one at all, was to pick against at least one of the big favorites, because I felt like everybody'd be going with them. I picked against Illinois, except that I had Oklahome State doing the bumping off honors in the Round of Eight.
What's more, I had Okie State going over Louisville in the Final Four, and eventually losing to North Carolina in the Championship. I wasn't necessarily thinking the Illini would lose. I was hoping like hell, so that I'd be alone at or near the top when the time came.
I said last weekend that I didn't think I could win the thing, because I didn't do well picking in the first couple of rounds (friggin' Albuquerque region), and while I wasn't dead yet, the leaders in the pool had picked well the first couple of rounds, and had a lot of what I had in the Final Four. If I did well, so would they.
What a bunch of crap, this basketball garbage is.
Anyway.
Let's go do the work.
posted by Tommy at
06:15
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