The Office - The Complete Collection BBC Edition (First And Second Series Plus Special) | 
| Directors: Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant
Actors: Ricky Gervais, Martin Freeman, Mackenzie Crook, Lucy Davis (ii)
Studio: BBC Warner
Category: DVD
List Price: $59.98
Buy New: $32.89
You Save: $27.09 (45%)
New (44) Used (23) from $28.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  223 reviews
Sales Rank: 506
Format: Box Set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 4
Running Time: 450
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.6 x 1.1
MPN: DE2085D
UPC: 794051208521
EAN: 0794051208521
ASIN: B0002W4P98
Theatrical Release Date: January 23, 2003
Release Date: November 16, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/27/2005 Run time: 450 minutes
Amazon.com
It feels both inaccurate and inadequate to describe The Office as a comedy. On a superficial level, it disdains all the conventions of television sitcoms: there are no punch lines, no jokes, no laugh tracks, and no cute happy endings. More profoundly, it's not what we're used to thinking of as funny. Most of the fervently devoted fan base watched with a discomfortingly thrilling combination of identification and mortification. The paradox is that its best moments are almost physically unwatchable. Set in the offices of a fictional British paper merchant, The Office is filmed in the style of a reality television show. The writing is subtle and deft, the acting wonderful, and the characters beautifully drawn: the cadaverous team leader Gareth (Mackenzie Crook); the monstrous sales rep, Chris Finch (Ralph Ineson); and the decent but long-suffering everyman Tim (Martin Freeman), whose ambition and imagination have been crushed out of him by the banality of ! the life he dreams uselessly of escaping. The show is stolen, as it was intended to be, by insufferable office manager David Brent, played by codirector-cowriter Ricky Gervais. Brent will become a name as emblematic for a particular kind of British grotesque as Basil Fawlty, but he is a deeper character. Fawlty is an exaggeration of reality, and therefore a safely comic figure. Brent is as appalling as only reality can be. --Andrew Mueller The second series exceeded even the sky-high standards of the first. Indeed, it ventured beyond caricature and satire, touching on the very edge of darkness. Ricky Gervais is once again excruciatingly superb as David Brent, but in this series, Brent's to-the-camera assertions concerning his management qualities and executive capabilities are seriously challenged when the Slough and Swindon branches are merged and his former Swindon equivalent Neil (Patrick Baladi) takes over as area manager. To compensate, Brent cultivates his pathologically mistaken image of himself as an entertainer-motivator-comedian whose stage happens to be the workplace. Meanwhile, Tim, who can only maintain his sanity by teasing the priggish Gareth, continues to wrestle with his yearning for receptionist Dawn Tinsley (Lucy Davis), a sympathetic character persisting in a relationship with a man about whom she still maintains unspoken reservations. As ever, it's the awkward, reality TV-style pauses and silences, the furtive, meaningful and unmet glances across the emotional gulf of the open-plan office, that say it all here. As for Brent, his own breakdown is prefaced by a moment of hideous hilarity--an impromptu office dance, a mixture of "Flashdance and MC Hammer" as Brent describes it, but in reality bad beyond description. Then, when his fate is sealed, he at last reveals himself in a memorable finale to perhaps the greatest British sitcom, besides Fawlty Towers, ever made. --David Stubbs The brilliant and devastating comedy of The Office is brought to a satisfying conclusion in The Office Special, originally a two-part Christmas special on the BBC, set three years after the end of the faux-documentary's second season. The former office manager David (Ricky Gervais) now ekes out a desperate existence as an oblivious quasi-celebrity, making awkward, humiliating visits back to the office staff he still believes loves him. Gawky Gareth (Mackenzie Crook) has risen to manager and become a petty tyrant, while the sweet but snide Tim (Martin Freeman) continues to pine for former receptionist Dawn (Lucy Davis), who fled to Florida with her fiance. When the documentary crew pays for Dawn to return for the holiday party, an unpredictable reunion looms ahead. The Office fuses scathing humor and genuine empathy, turning excruciating social discomfort into inspired satire. Fans will find this special rewarding in all respects. --Bret Fetzer
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| Customer Reviews: Read 218 more reviews...
 The Office is British Tele-Comedy at Its Best. November 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When it comes to television comedy, The Office is arguably as sublime as Monty Python's Flying Circus and Seinfeld. It succeeds at being hilarious without resorting to punch lines, jokes, or laugh tracks. In a word, the series is superb. Created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the British television comedy series aired on BBC Two in 2001. Filmed in mockumentary style, it chronicles the nine-to-five lives of office employees in the Slough, Berkshire branch of the fictitious Wernham Hogg Paper Company. It was the inspiration for the American version on NBC, The Office - Season One starring Steve Carrell. The show features a theme song, "Handbags and Gladrags," made popular by Rod Stewart in the early 70s.
The Company's office is headed by regional manager, David Brent (Ricky Gervais) and his male assistant, Gareth Keenan (Mackenzie Crook). David Brent is the show's central character, who attempts to win favor with his employees, while unintentionally revealing his social shortcomings and trivial human flaws. The show also follows an office romance between Tim Canterbury (Martin Freeman) with indifferent receptionist Dawn Tinsley (Lucy Davis), who is engaged to a boorish warehousemen, Lee (Joel Beckett). The show's writing is witty and subtle, and the characters are truly a well-drawn bunch. To be sure, Ricky Gervais carries the show in his role of David Brent. When in comes to running a business, Brent thinks of himself as a management maverick, when in fact he is little more than an immature buffoon, who tells humorless jokes and gets himself in trouble whenever he opens his mouth. He is a master at saying exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time. He is an insufferable racist, sexist, and homophobe.
This four disc DVD set includes all 12 episodes from the first and second series, and both parts of the Christmas special. Bonus features include the "How I Made The Office" documentary, deleted scenes, out-takes, a video diary, a Golden Globes featurette, and a music video. Highly recommended.
G. Merritt
 Never mind the Bollards! October 21, 2008
Although I was rather familiar with the overall excellence of BBC television, having lived in England for four years, I did not realize that my favorite American sitcom "The Office" was a direct knock-off of an earlier BBC production. This boxed set explains everything, and if you look at the initial program, season one, episode one, from the BBC and US offerings, you will see that the plot lines are virtually identical. The BBC version played out after two seasons and a special, and it is all here in this one package. If you like watching Steve Carrel in NBC's "The Office" I think that you will definitely find this a worthwhile purchase. Don't forget the subtle nature of "British Humor" which is often a bit dry for US tastes (although they do get into some bits like the Royal Family playing "Twenty Questions" that would NEVER be allowed on American tv.) BBC assumes that all children/minors/those easily offended will be long gone off to bed when this comes on.
Laugh and cringe, repeat. Dark comedy done right. August 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Maybe you've watched the U.S. version on NBC and you're wondering if the original TV series is funny, too.
The BBC series is darker, more cringe-inducing and, ultimately, far better than the U.S. series. Two seasons long with a special that serves as the season finale, The Office doesn't have a weak episode. The second season steps up the darker comedy.
The U.S. series is entering its sixth season and "jumped the shark" in season three. And that's the beauty of the original series -- the show ends before it becomes fat, silly and stupid.
 BBC OFFICE Review August 23, 2008
1 out of 31 found this review helpful
The Office - The Complete Collection BBC Edition (First And Second Series Plus Special)
Terrible! The main character is virtually impossible to understand his English.
About got a headache trying to listen to his "foreign" language. Most other characters were tolerable. On a scale of one to ten, the u.S. version is a 10 and the BBC version is a 2. We watched three episodes and will not watch anymore!
Crude, Vulgar, Funny!!! August 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a very funny show. It is similar in characters to The Office US but the language and obscenity is much more common in this one. I would only recommend this show to adults as the content is not suitable for children. If you like the US version, you will probably love this one too.
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