BBC's The Office v. NBC's The Office

[melidasaur]

In a discussion at work today, we decided that in the BBC version, the characters seemed like real people, like they weren't playing anyone - Ricky Gervais is David Brent. In the American version, the characters seem more like actors playing these characters, it seems forced and unnatural.

[Happy Monkey]

I only get that from the Brent and Gareth equivalent characters. Of course, those are the only actors I'd seen before, so I'm not sure what the cause is.

[melidasaur]

Whenever I see Martin Freeman (British Tim) in other movies, like Love Actually, he is so Tim to me. It's going to be interesting when hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy comes out... will I be able to separate Tim from Arthur Dent.

[wolf]

Speaking of Britcoms ... I saw the Kumars at No. 42 for the first time over the weekend on BBCAmerica. What a lovely, lovely thing. I must see more of this.

[BrianR]

Speaking of the Hitchhikers' Guide, it's slated for US theatres April 29th.

Who's up for a Cellar Movie Watchers' GTG?

[Happy Monkey]

Episode 3



I think I'll upgrade my prognosis from 'guarded' to 'moderately enthusiastic'.

[melidasaur]

I missed it this week - just caught the end of it.... what happened?

[Happy Monkey]

I've got a horrible memory for details, especially if I've only seen it once, but the general plot was this:

(Spoilers)

The boss has to pick a health care plan. The object is to cut costs, but since he desperately wants to be liked, he doesn't want to pick a bad one. So he delegates to Dwight (Gareth), who gets to convert the conference room into his office (technicallly, temporary workspace). His first draft covers almost nothing. Everyone complains, so he has them all fill out surveys of diseases they have and want to be covered. Of course, Tim and Dawn (American names unknown) fill out joke surveys, so Dwight reads all of the forms aloud, and has people raise their hands if it's a real condition.

In the meantime, the boss is hiding in his office. He's ambushed outside the bathroom, and distracts everyone by saying there'll be a surprise at the end of the day. He ends up with ice cream bars, but is shamed into saying that's not the real surprise. At the end of the day, with everyone gathered around him, he hems and haws until everyone gives up waiting, in disgust.