My last post was about me and stuff

[trinityvixen]

So this post has to be about something frivolous. Let's talk TV!

For the record, I feel like I've been defeated by the movie/show if I can't get through it. I can count on my one hand the number of movies/shows I've given up on entirely. Skipped some episodes (Smallville season four, ::shudder::), haven't finished the series (Farscape!), watched it in bits and pieces and probably have seen the whole thing but haven't seen it start-to-finish (Silence of the Lambs, and, bizarrely, Casablanca). But I usually finish the damned thing. There are three exceptions I've made on Netflix that I can think of off the top of my head: one was a truly D-level "comedy" that wanted to be American Pie (I got it because the premise and the cast--Heather Matarazzo--inferred it was of higher quality); another was A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, which, Robert Downey Jr. or no RDJ, I couldn't be arsed to get on with, especially not when Channing Tatum showed up.

The last was the UK version of The Office. I managed to get through Extras because, despite the cringingly awful parts that made me want to die of embarrassment for abso-fucking-lutely everybody, there were a lot of brilliant bits, too. And the mocking of the film industry was hilarious, especially when Kate Winslet and Patrick Stewart were doing it. I've also seen Ricky Gervais' one movie to date, Ghost Town, in which he played a differently costumed version of the same asshole he always plays. I hope the man is a lovely human being in real life, because if he's even remotely like any of those characters he plays, dear God...

So, the UK Office thoroughly defeated me. I wanted to like it! I wanted to because I love Martin Freeman and he was playing an adorable scallywag. But Ricky Gervais...he's just so small and mean as the boss, I couldn't laugh at him. He's just nasty, nasty, nasty all the goddamned time. It's so hard to pinpoint what it is, exactly, about him that makes him so unlikable, but if I had to sum it up, I'd say it's everything. He's a grasping idiot with a vicious mean streak, no self awareness, an inflated ego, and absolutely no courage.

I tossed The Office back in the mail after one and a half episodes. I hate doing that. Despite this wretched experience, I was convinced, from a love of Steve Carell and the recommendations of viridian, hslayer, and H, my high school friend, that I could maybe make it through the US version of The Office. I watched the first episode, and it was a carbon copy, minus the accents, of the first episode of the UK version. I switched it off, ready to concede defeat there, too.

But then I got bored at work--my boss was working on a paper the whole time, I was the only one in the lab with too little to do, and I had a new computer on which I could stream my Watch It Now Netflix queue. As it turns out, sitcoms are the best things to watch at work because they're tiny and contained. They fill the twenty minute gaps I have between duties and play nicely as background noise while I'm using the computer to update my billion spreadsheets.

I only have about two or three sitcoms on my queue because I do not like sitcoms as a general rule. Recent exceptions have been 30 Rock and My Name Is Earl, but the former I'm watching with my roommates and the latter is not available on Watch It Now. So, for the past month, I have been watching The Office. As I was promised by viridian and H, the first season is absolutely deadly, but the show steadily improved to the point where the embarrassment humor was tolerable, even funny. I find just about everyone on the show pretty interesting, though I admit to being biased in favor of Jim and Dwight. Pam's awesome, too, as is Andy (whom I never expected to like at all, but whose a capella stylings get more fun as time goes on).

If this got better, I reasoned, surely the UK version did, too? It was available on Watch It Now, so I did. I struggled to get through the entire thing, but did manage. It never got there. It was just six hours (plus the Christmas special!) of awkwardness that made me want to die. I love Martin Freeman still, but I'm going to have to start seriously screening his work from now on. The UK version of The Office made the interesting choice to have the cameras be interactive--I mean, they're sort of taken for granted as an isolated entity in the US version, but no one seems to see the footage, whereas the UK version makes it explicit that this documentary aired and all the people in it have to deal with the fallout from that. It's more realistic, it's a shame it couldn't have been used to better effect. So I was not defeated by The Office-UK, but I was pretty battered by it all the same.

I chalk this all up to Steve Carell's ability to be incredibly charming despite his character and Ricky Gervais' being very similar. Steve Carell's Michael Scott is a doofus, but he's a desperate striver who just wants to be liked and to never be the bad guy. (Which is why he doesn't climb over anyone to get at an upper echelon position.) Aside from the one HR guy he abuses, he's never really mean to anyone. It's sweetly endearing, in its way, even when he's being so tastelessly embarrassing I can't look at the screen. Ricky Gervais plays David Brent as similarly unconscious of his offensiveness but also deliberate in it, which makes all the difference--Michael thinks he's being funny and is being offensive; David is offensive on purpose and expects people to forgive it because it's "a joke." David is equally desperate to be the life of the party, but he constantly hurts people on purpose and loses his temper. More, he's a fame-seeker, not a friend-seeker. He believes he's owed fame, fortune, and (pardon my language) pussy. Steve Carell's character wants things that are unbearably mundane and wonderful--friendship, love, children, a legacy. He assumes they're in his future, not that he's entitled to them.

When it comes down to it, Steve Carell is like a really adorable puppy. Even when he defecates on your blind date's shoes, he's still so cute you feel worse about wanting to smack him to say nothing of actually doing it. No matter how much he embarrasses his coworkers, he still inspires them to some form of loyalty. No one, not even the toady underling, likes Ricky Gervais' character that much.

I think the fact that the US version has so many well developed secondary characters helps it, too. Like I said, I love me some Martin Freeman, but his character (Tim) isn't nearly as witty about his pranks as Jim is in the US version. He doesn't have any worthy adversaries, for one, and the way he chooses to goose his desk-mate basically involves conning him into saying things that could be construed as gay. That's not funny, it's homophobic. The fact that this is virtually the only interaction that Tim has with the receptionist/love interest, Dawn makes their great UST really blah. Certainly, it doesn't sparkle with the humor or the obviousness of mutual attraction that Pam and Jim manage with expressions alone.

Then you have the toady underling character. In the UK, he's actually semi-competant and not really crazy. But crazy is much more interesting, which is why Dwight is awesome. He's so specifically characterized, too. It's not just "Wacky Guy" craziness, it's a thought-out bit of choice insanity that came from a certain background. That it can be so consistently funny and rarely derivative is impressive. After that, I sort of love everyone else equally, though if Kelly were to be hit by a bus, I couldn't care less. (I'm take it/leave it on Ryan most days.)

I wonder if it's just that there's been more time for the US version to flesh out its characters? I can't quite work it out. Anyway, that's how I've spent my August.

Whew. I had far too much to say there. I suspect this is going to be one of those posts only I read ever. :)

Comments

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I'm saving that to read for later :)