The Office! Redux!
So, they showed the first six episodes of the US version of the Office on the BBC before Christmas. I have a friend who saw these when they were originally broadcast on British television, and she thought they were crap, but I thoroughly disagree. They were good enough that I started downloading the second series, and now I've got the whole thing so far.
They are quite definitely American. That is a big difference. It's worse than useless to pretend the divide doesn't exist. For example, Michael and Dwight. Originally, David and Gareth. Originally, they were cheery little divs that I could sympathise with. But I don't recognise the new versions at all (not least because we don't have Sheriffs in Europe, let alone volunteer Deputies.) Rather than thinking, "Aw, sweetheart, Gareth, you're never going to be as cool as you keep trying to be if you keep acting like you're Anglo-Indian and saying "laters" as if you have some actual claim to being ethnic, you IDIOT, Gareth!" I just look at Michael and Dwight and go "...Wow! ...What utter assholes!" Because The Office is an intimate show, and (leaving aside the entire premise) the humour doesn't work if you can't look at a certain character and identify a certain subset of idiot. Having to spend your life compensating for a certain subset of incompetent is the premise of The Office.
So, I know people think the adaptation doesn't work because Roy is so much more obviously wrong for Pam than Lee was for Dawn, but as a European, I'm perfectly content to assign that to cultural differences, because I so enjoy the programme, as someone who has only the most basic knowledge of American workplaces. I appreciate that Americans who're familiar with the British version don't like the changes, but I also understand why Americans new to the show would prefer the adaptation to the original, because the series is founded on tiny, everyday itches, and that helpless twitchiness is going to change if you switch entire continents! It's nearly a whole new thing.
And I'm very nearly as invested in Pam and Jim as I was in Tim and Dawn, and as they were my Very Serious OTP, I think that means the adaptation is quality, and I hope they're getting the viewers so that we'll get, like, three more series, and I'll get fiftyish more episodes of delicious sexual tension. ...definitely foreign food, but nice and tasty with it.
...Although, apparently, I'm a clueless European and American office-workers disagree. *shrug* I am totally Euro, so I'm not about to start complaining:D! I freely admit US television is, like, my fourth language.
They are quite definitely American. That is a big difference. It's worse than useless to pretend the divide doesn't exist. For example, Michael and Dwight. Originally, David and Gareth. Originally, they were cheery little divs that I could sympathise with. But I don't recognise the new versions at all (not least because we don't have Sheriffs in Europe, let alone volunteer Deputies.) Rather than thinking, "Aw, sweetheart, Gareth, you're never going to be as cool as you keep trying to be if you keep acting like you're Anglo-Indian and saying "laters" as if you have some actual claim to being ethnic, you IDIOT, Gareth!" I just look at Michael and Dwight and go "...Wow! ...What utter assholes!" Because The Office is an intimate show, and (leaving aside the entire premise) the humour doesn't work if you can't look at a certain character and identify a certain subset of idiot. Having to spend your life compensating for a certain subset of incompetent is the premise of The Office.
So, I know people think the adaptation doesn't work because Roy is so much more obviously wrong for Pam than Lee was for Dawn, but as a European, I'm perfectly content to assign that to cultural differences, because I so enjoy the programme, as someone who has only the most basic knowledge of American workplaces. I appreciate that Americans who're familiar with the British version don't like the changes, but I also understand why Americans new to the show would prefer the adaptation to the original, because the series is founded on tiny, everyday itches, and that helpless twitchiness is going to change if you switch entire continents! It's nearly a whole new thing.
And I'm very nearly as invested in Pam and Jim as I was in Tim and Dawn, and as they were my Very Serious OTP, I think that means the adaptation is quality, and I hope they're getting the viewers so that we'll get, like, three more series, and I'll get fiftyish more episodes of delicious sexual tension. ...definitely foreign food, but nice and tasty with it.
...Although, apparently, I'm a clueless European and American office-workers disagree. *shrug* I am totally Euro, so I'm not about to start complaining:D! I freely admit US television is, like, my fourth language.