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Brent, played by Gervais, is the inept, egotistical, hypocritical,
lying, two-faced boss of the branch who constantly courts
disaster and makes enormous faux pas. Brent, conscious of
the omnipresent TV cameras, struggles to present a New Man
image but is often caught in unguarded moments or saying the
wrong thing to camera, some of the best moments are when he
is trying to dig himself out of a hole after saying something
enormously un-PC.
Subordinate to him is junior manager Gareth, once a Territorial
Army slogger and now a stupid and pedantic company man loyal
to his boss and mainly concerned with his position in the
firm. Gareth sits opposite Tim, a witty, down-to-earth rep
who is exasperated by and constantly at loggerheads with Gareth
- the pair often squabble like children. Tim has an obvious
crush on the quietly-spoken receptionist Dawn but her boyfriend
stops him pursuing his feelings. There and many other background
characters too such as slow Keith and appalling Finchy.
Brent's staff face the constant threat of redundancy and/or
a merger with the company's Swindon branch, and at the end
of the first series this becomes a reality. Despite his obvious
inadequacies, Brent is kept on, though many of his staff are
not so fortunate. He breaks the news to them in typically
crass fashion...
'I've got some good news and some bad news.
The bad news is that a
lot of you have been made redundant, the good news is that
I've been promoted.'
His happiness is short lived however: the second series
finds Brent at loggerheads with Neil Godwin, the Swindon boss
who, as Brent puts it, is now 'technically' his boss; moreover,
Godwin seems to possess all the attributes (wit, likeability,
efficiency) that Brent himself lacks, even if he thinks otherwise.
Tim continues to have feelings for Dawn but because she is
engaged to the boorish Lee he hooks up instead with the brassy
Rachel. In the final episode of series
2 Wernham Hogg's management seem to have finally realised
Brent isn't the right man and he is told to leave, this breaks
his heart as the office was his life and sole love. Two Christmas
specials followed which tied up all the loose ends, they explained
what Brent did after being sacked and showed the office getting
on as normal.
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The nature of this sitcom is unlike most others in that there
are no obvious jokes, there is no laugh track and, as the
creators wanted to present it as a spoof fly-on-the-wall BBC
documentary, the filming style is very "modern".
There are jerky camera moments, quick zooms and characters
talk directly to camera. This all adds up to make the show
more believable and thus even more embarrassing to watch.
"The Office" has seen major award success, most
notably winning a number of BAFTAs and beating the top American
sitcoms at the 2004 Golden Globes. Much of the credit must
go to Ricky Gervais, his performance was excellent and his
decision to end the show so early (much like "Fawlty
Towers") has ensured that it ends with nothing but
good memories.
Our only criticism is that the 2003 Christmas
specials were not quite as good as we were hoping for.
This is probably mainly due to the insane levels of hype they
had to live up to but we still feel they were not as good
as the previous episodes. Thinking about it, the fact Brent
had left the confines of the office (and thus broken from
the central situation) meant the comedy wasn't quite as sharp
as it could have been, also personally we have preferred a sadder
ending rather than the sickly sweet Dawn-Tim romance and
happy Brent ending.
Overall though "The Office" will go down in sitcom
history as one of the best British comedies for many years
and clips such as the never-to-be-forgotten "David Brent
dance" (mini clip below) will keep people laughing for years to come. Quite
simply this is a sitcom you must experience!
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