The Office: The Complete First Series

The only downside to the 2-disc DVD is the lack of episodes (there are only 6) but its still worth buying since The Office is a comedy series of unusually high quality and wit. Every episiode is a gem, and I can't wait for the season 2 DVD.

"The Office" shows us the day-to-day lives of the employees of Wernham Hogg paper company, led by the insufferable boss David Brent (Ricky Gervais, the shows co-writer and co-creator). While David is usually the focus of each episode, the show contains a very deep supporting cast, including Gareth, the military-trained assistant-to-the-manager, Tim, the anti-Gareth, who he's constantly warring with, and his in-office romantic interest Dawn, the everyday-pretty secretary.

If you are familiar with the films of Christopher Guest - Waiting For Guffman, Spinal Tap, Best In Show, A Mighty Wind - then you'll be right at home with "The Office." It's filmed in the simplistic and usually funny "mockumentary" style. For reasons never named in the show, there are cameramen throughout the Wernham Hogg offices filming the daily activities of all the employees, as well as conducting frequent and insightful interviews with the characters.

Enough of that - here's why the show is brilliant: You know everyone in the cast. At one time or another, you have met David Brent. Maybe he was your own boss once. Gareth was that psycho kid in study hall that always read Guns and Ammo and always insisted on showing you some Judo throw he'd recently learned. Tim is the nice guy that the pretty girls always took advantage of. You'll even see aspects of yourself in all the characters.

And it's the characters that make this show such a success. When you watch the first episode, you'll laugh a few times, a chuckle here and there. Then the second episode will yield more laughs as you get to know the quirks of the characters a little more. By episode three, everything becomes funny. It's this fact that makes it difficult to introduce the show to people, since it contains a great deal of humor that is only funny once you're familiar with the characters.

The runaway star of the show is Gervais as David Brent. He has a world-class ability to always say the wrong thing at the right time. More than anything he is proud of his comedic ability and cherishes this as the highest virtue of corporate bosses. The problem? He's not funny. Not intentionally anyway. Every joke is carried too far and in the course of trying to be England's most politically correct man, he manages to insult practically every race and every woman in the office.

Lastly, this DVD is worth buying not only for the repeat watching value, but also for the behind-the-scenes look at the show, which is almost funnier than the episodes themselves. Both Gervais and co-director Stephen Merchant are hilarious throughout it and you realize that Gervais can't not be funny. You get interviews with all the important cast, and you'll see several minutes of brilliant outtakes where the actors can't get three lines into the scene before losing it.

The only negative reviews of the show speak to the similarity of the episodes and that they are hard to distinguish between one another. This might be valid, but I don't necessarily think it's a negative factor. In the DVD itself, the episodes are not separated but are listed as a sequence of scenes, six per episode. This says it more clearly than I ever could - the shows are all meant to be taken as one continuing episode, much like the monotonous days of office labor. I think it's one of the more reality based shows I've seen, unlike another recent reviewer who thought Seinfeld was more realistic. That's too stupid a comment to even defend here. The bottom line - if you work in an office, you'll instantly recognize the humor in your own day to day life. If you don't, then after watching "The Office," you'll thank God for it.

The cast is led by Ricky Gervais (who also co-writes) as regional manager David Brent, an ultimately sleazy boss who spends more time trying to be witty than he does managing his staff. His battles with political correctness are hilarious, as he is very aware that a camera is following him. His right hand man is Gareth (Mackenzie Crook), a former army lieutenant who believes he has more company power than his assistant regional manager (I mean, assistant TO the regional manager) position truly entitles. Gareth spends most of his day pestering Tim (Martin Freeman), an obviously bored sales associate who always has a witty comment to add to any conversation. Dawn (Lucy Davis), a receptionist engaged to marry a warehouse worker, is the object of Tim's affection and the victim of one of Mr. Brent's cruelest practical jokes in the pilot.

Each cast member is some sort of caricature of a person you might see in your own workplace. The situations they come across could happen to anyone (lay-offs, sexual harassment, jokes via company e-mail, romances, et cetera). This show is kind of like "Spinal Tap": it fools you for a second to believe that this office could exist. And there's no whining, no drama for the camera's sake, no huge mansions for seven people to argue in. It's just these people, going about their days, doing their jobs. And it couldn't be more brilliant or side-splittingly funny.

This DVD features every episode from the first series, which is great if you only get to sporadically catch episodes or moments on BBC America. There are also funny deleted scenes, with explanations from the writers as to why they were cut, and a 30-minute featurette.

If you have not yet discover this delightful British import, I strongly recommend you check it out. If you loved the movie "Office Space" (or at least sort of identified with it), you will laugh at loud at "The Office." Enjoy it now before some American television writers enlist their own sub-par remake.