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.
Tonight's two-hour special episode of "The Office" on BBC America is as wickedly, painfully funny as the first two seasons and, in tiny, fleeting doses, as delicately tender.
Gervais and Merchant's series disguise themselves as comedies of cruelty, but after a while, they reveal themselves to be comedies of dignity, series that are about people who continue to be crushed by the world but finally rise above their circumstances.
The Christmas Special was one of the most depressing comedies I have ever watched. David Brent (Gervais) gets his happy ending but only after being put through the wringer for over an hour.
It integrates the boredom, self-delusion, dashed hopes and struggle for power into something bigger, and potentially better, and functions not only as a continuation of the story but a convincing conclusion.
The Office didn't need to be quite as wincemakingly hilarious, deliciously touching and, ultimately, as perfectly emotionally pitched as it turned out to be.
The first half of their post-series Christmas special was among the most challenging hours of television ever produced. The second half half, however, offered the small moment of joy that the show had been fighting for the entire show.
