-- The Office - series 2

[Andrew Sherlock-CF <andrew.sherlock@xxxxxxxxx>]

I thought last night's episode was pretty impressive overall.

Brent's character has been made more extreme and the other characters have
been pushed forward a little bit. The subtle tensions that these small (but
significant) developments of character cause have been nicely observed
(especially in the Tim's case).

Many of the scenes seem a little staged and the documentary format doesn't
ring true for me anymore. In-fact it often makes situations feel less 'real'
(Brent being repeatedly told off for offensive jokes was one aspect of
last-night's episode that didn't quite fit). I couldn't think of a better
way of presenting the action however and the medium does suit this type of
humour.

The juxtaposition of subtle tensions and very extreme comedy of
embarrassment left me pleased with the show and even if I have some
misgivings about the style the performances are great and helped the program
transcend the stand-offish documentary format.

The show was indeed very funny - and even if Brent's character is
reminiscent of Alan Partridge  his embarrassing faux pars are still often
funny thanks to the quality of the acting and pace of the show.

I hope that after this blunderbuss of a first show the series settles down
into something a bit less brash - however I can see that for the first
episode of a new series the writers will want to create an impression  ;)

I found myself laughing out loud a few times and laughed inwardly in that
special way that makes your stomach muscles ache for virtually the whole
show so it must have been pretty good.

It's certainly lots better than the new series of The League of Gentlemen
which I thought felt very tired indeed. I get the impression that the TLOG
team are trapped inside their characters and are beginning to *like* them a
little too much.


 Bemli: weeks or months away from nuclear capability

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