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"The Office - US Version"

[URL]http://www.nbc.com/nbc/The_Office/[/URL]

Watch the clips. Oh dear oh dear.
Brent has gone from being an agonisingly unaware person into a sqwauking, zany comedian.
Except he's not called Brent. He's Michael Scott. And Tim is Jim and Dawn is Pam. Oh, and Gareth is Dwight.
It's just typical YEAH!WOW!COOL! American overacting instead of being a window into your life and my life.

I thought so too but apparently not.

Somebody summed it up below - The English, original Brent was a sad, lonely man with no self-confidence or self-belief who could only justify himself by other people thinking he was funny. A desperate, needy individual that sought friendship and somebody to just like him.
Which is why, in the xmas special, he grew up when that blind-date liked him for who he was and not of rubbish jokes.
He found the validation he sought, hence telling Finchy to %&*# off and not acting stupidly when she went off in the cab.

The US version is a snappy, "Hey yeah wow!" type of guy. There's no sense of that loneliness and melancholy, those fleeting looks at camera where he bears his teeth and looks pained.
[URL]http://www.british-sitcom.co.uk/the_office/graphics/char_brent.jpg[/URL]
There are none of those faces, when he realises he's lept over the line and just thinks "..."

Just American Boss being wacky and witty.
Totally missed the point

You just don't get any sense that they hate him at all. There's no awkwardness there, it's just him blatantly lying and messing about.


I thought the US version had been canned, anyway?

Very_Metal wrote:

> i really like red dwarf so i think i'll follow your advice on this
> one.
> same resaon i didn't buy seasons 7 or 8, they'd swapped good writing
> for more CG. bah!


yea i didn't like the last couple of series.

I think the American version only got as far as the pilot. Such inspired decisions as casting Cat as a woman and Lister as a white guy didn't exactly help :-D

Kawada wrote:
> Very_Metal wrote:
> i never saw any of that. was it really THAT bad??
>
> Oh it was, i'm ashamed of my countrymen who came up with that
> version. You really don't want to ever see it.

i really like red dwarf so i think i'll follow your advice on this one.
same resaon i didn't buy seasons 7 or 8, they'd swapped good writing for more CG. bah!

Geffdof wrote:
> That loks rubbish. The boss is far too vocal for a start. He looks
> confident etc. The reason the UK version was funny was because Brent
> looked like he didnt know what he was doing. He looked nervous. His
> voice was monotone and quite. He was trying to be expressive but was
> scared to be fully.
> This new guy is your normal, American, happy clappy, cheerful type of
> guy. Its just not the same type of humour.

Exactly. They've made the yank be the person Brent wanted to be.
But the whole point of the show was that he'd never be like that.

Very_Metal wrote:
> i never saw any of that. was it really THAT bad??


Oh it was, i'm ashamed of my countrymen who came up with that version. You really don't want to ever see it.

*dies*

That loks rubbish. The boss is far too vocal for a start. He looks confident etc. The reason the UK version was funny was because Brent looked like he didnt know what he was doing. He looked nervous. His voice was monotone and quite. He was trying to be expressive but was scared to be fully.
This new guy is your normal, American, happy clappy, cheerful type of guy. Its just not the same type of humour.

Kawada wrote:
> that horrible memory of the American Red Dwarf is
> still painfully etched in my memory.

i never saw any of that. was it really THAT bad??

ok, I'm going to get slated for that comment.

The simpsons were funny about 4 years ago, futurama just couldn't compete. Scrubs was good.

Friends just suck so much ass