The story of an office that faces closure when the company decides to downsize its branches. A documentary film crew follow staff and the manager David Brent as they continue their daily lives.
"The Office" isn't a place anyone in his or her right mind would want to work, but shadowing these characters for a half-hour is entertainment at its most brilliantly nuanced.
A half-hour of the first season still works like an anti-emetic after the all-you-can-eat binge-fest of the recent sweeps week. After the full 40 minutes, I'm as good as new.
There is no laugh track, no frenetic action, no too-clever sex jokes, no cute daydreams, no outsize office kooks... The Office is perfect as it is, a sharp, ill-tempered slice of life.
Even though some thought it wasn't funny at all, due to its cringe-worthy humour and awkward characters, it's certainly an achievement to take all of these terribly unlikeable people and make us fall in love with them.
Gervais is also goofily spot-on in what he doesn't say; the show, shot in documentary style, has him continually directing self-consciously insecure sideways glances at the camera, always to amusing effect.
