Anyone else think that new show on NBC "The Office" looks good?

[LynneSin]

I know, it's a remake of the BBC version of "The Office" (which I've never seen), but I was looking at the cast and they have Arthur from "Six Feet Under" on it and that guy is good (and a little creepy).

I rarely watch TV anymore and outside of "THe Iron Chef" and "Pimp My Ride" there are no shows on TV I watch on a regular basis. But I'm thinking of checking this one out.

Anyone else know anything about this show?

[latteromden]

1. One thing to say: Steve Carell.

One of my favorite (former) Daily Show correspondents.

Yeah, I'm excited.

[thebigidea]

2. I saw the pilot via uknova and it stinks on ice

then again, i'm not particularly a fan of the Gervaisian to begin with... so a remake of this isn't as blasphemous as the trillion Fawlty Towers remakes.

They should just bring over a buncha recent uk shows and not bother remaking em... Ideal, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, Nathan Barley, etc... not only recent shows, as it seems that we didn't get much 90s uk comedy here - instead we got more goddamn "Are You Being Served?"

Completely baffling to me as to why Day Today/Brass Eye/Jam/I'm Alan Partridge/etcetcetc isn't shown at 1am on Comedy Central or something. Comedy fans would eat that stuff up.

(confused by these program titles? get thee to amazon.co.uk and import away! cheap bastards might want to peer at grey market bittorrent aps instead.)

[terrya]

5. Thank you!

What kind of idiot mindset is it that somehow we Americans can't watch a British television series AS IT WAS CREATED. In its original (British) creation. No...they have to "Americanize" it...to make somehow more palatable for American audiences. That's just crap...and well, in the case of the American remakes of "Fawlty Towers", crap so unbelievably offensive, so puerile, so breathtakingly idiotic and unfunny that one wonders why the fuck they even bothered.

I have no interest in seeing NBC's version of "The Office" because I know it's going to be crap. I'm tired of this gung ho "American culture is BEST...except in the case of other countries' culture, in which case we'll just steal their series and put an American facade on it" mindset which is frankly xenophobic.

[Demonaut]

11. they have to remake it, 1, to dumb it down. 2, to remove the racy parts

unfortunately it'll go the way of Coupling

[vi5]

3. The original is phenomenal IMHO......

Honestly if you have a dvd player you should pick up the dvd's and watch them. The deadpan humor and uncomfortability of the show is just brilliant. I don't typically "get" english humor but the characters and writing on that show will ring true for anyone who has worked in an office with idiots.

I think the American version will be o.k. but because I recognize the actors from other things (unlike the british version for me) I'll have trouble enjoying it as thoroughly. With the british version I believed those people were actually those characters since I had never seen them before. I know Steve Carrell from too much other stuff.

[sybylla]

6. I agree totally

The UK version will be impossible to top. The one thing that made it work so well for me is that I could believe I was actually a fly on the wall of a real office. Knowing the cast will ruin that effect and, imho, will keep the US version from even approaching the "phenomenal" stage.

I have to add that I have serious reservations about Steve C. I thought his stuff on the Daily Show was a bit overdone and fake. The whole premise of The Office was to feel real. I think the network has flubbed this one.

But I plan to watch and am crossing my fingers that it will work. No one does TV like the BBC and of all the shows we have stolen from them, I have yet to see one work. Maybe this will be the first.

[El Fuego]

4. I can't wait to see it

I've been reading for a while about the how great the British show is, but I don't have BBC America.

Sometimes Brit humor doesn't translate well into American, but in the reviews I've read about the new American version, they said the new show pulls it off and is very good. So I will definitely be watching.

[mark414]

7. if it's even a tenth as good as the original

it'll be a decent show

[peekaloo]

8. The previews don't seem very funny.

NBC has one very funny show that has been compared favorably to British sitcoms and it is called 'Scrubs'. I'm amazed more people don't watch this show.

[fluffernutter]

12. i love scrubs too.

but i think this one could be funny as well ... we'll see.

[Bouncy Ball]

9. See, I've seen EVERY episode of the original BBC series.

Which means I'm BOUND to not like the re-make. It never fails.

And the original is sooooooooooooooo good. It's weird, I rarely ever laugh out loud when watching the original, but I LOVED watching it. Especially those horribly painful embarrassing moments of David's. I wouldn't last two minutes with him as my boss, but I loved watching it nevertheless.

If you've never seen the BBC one, you'll probably like this series. But I'm with the others, why not just import the original?

[YankeyMCC]

10. I've never seen the BBC version

But the clips and reviews I've heard have been great, just the sort of thing I would like.

So I will give the American version a shot (since I'm loosing two other shows from my self limited line up I have room to add).

But I fear it may end up to altered. I too wish they would just broadcast British shows as is.