Americanized 'Office'

If you like the sensation of fingernails on a blackboard, you’ll love The Office (now on NBC).

An adaptation of the hit British sitcom The Office, this mockumentary purports to tell the story of the Scranton, Pa., branch office of Dunder Mifflin Paper Products, a workplace populated by assorted lunkheads, proles, doormats—and one seriously obnoxious boss.

Michael Scot (Steve Carell) is the kind of boss you hope never to work for. He’s pompous, stupid and clueless. He's the kind of man who can insult and sexually harass his receptionist (Jenna Fischer) in the course of a single sentence. And rather than put out a smoldering feud between his two childish salesmen, Jim and Dwight (John Krasinski and Rainn Wilson), he joins in on an office prank against one of them. He engages in inappropriate joking and sexual innuendo with both subordinates and superiors, and he uses demeaning racial jargon. He’s a hypocrite and a sleaze.

Deliberately Ignoring the Writing on the Wall
The precipitating event in The Office is a visit by a vice president from corporate headquarters, who tells Michael that, due to budget cutbacks, either his branch office or a rival one will be closed, with layoffs to follow. So does that spur Michael into whipping his office into shape? No, he simply assumes that his workplace family—dysfunctional as they may be—will be the natural winners of such a contest. (I did mention he’s clueless, right?)

The show’s forte is sending up the over-the-top political correctness that infects a lot of workplaces today. For instance, all the employees must attend a Diversity Day seminar, but in truth Michael himself is the reason corporate headquarters felt the need to send a “diversity consultant.” (Among his crimes was an in-office rendition of a Chris Rock monologue, complete with offensive racial slang and bleeped expletives.)

Relief from that forte and from depictions of the sheer drudgery of the workplace, petty office politics, the shady ethics of several of The Office’s inhabitants and occasional mild profanities comes in the form of one poignant story line about the receptionist, Pam. She's been engaged for three years to a man who treats her like yesterday’s news. (At one point he states his fancy for another woman—in front of Pam—and says he and Pam are still just dating.) A cleverly nuanced triangle is formed by salesman Jim, who treats her as she deserves.

Nothing New Here
Anyone hoping to see a fresh take on the white-collar grind, though, is going to be disappointed. The movie Office Space, as well as the original British Office, quickly formed cult followings; this Office won’t. Early episodes are almost word-for-word rehashes of the U.K. show with a few cultural references Americanized. My British wife has always been less than “chuffed,” as the Brits would say, at the many times American TV has taken European ideas and made them worse, and she could only cringe at NBC’s version of The Office.

Of course, watching the original Office is in itself an endurance exercise. Its creator, comedian Ricky Gervais, played the office manager as pompous, stupid and clueless, too. But at least there was also a smarmy charm to him. American Steve Carell’s office manager is merely excruciating.

Add to that some of the series' negative content issues (from language to crude and abusive joking) and I'm left concluding that there’s little point in putting in much time at The Office. Even if you do like screetchy noises that send shivers down your spine.