This starts layer this week here in Australia and I was wondering if it was any good.
Did they just re-do every episode off the British one or is it a little different?

I like the show.its funny
I dont think the shows are the same as the British episodes. It's a little different

ThreadCula said:

Well...one person watches it in the US. Sounds like a hit.

althom said:

The idea is taken from the British version but they are completely diffrent stories/characters.

I've heard that it's shithouse, as you would expect.

The British series is an alltime classic!

I might watch it and give it a go....see if it's any good.

althom said:

I'm sure it will have funny parts in it.

oh yeah...I only saw 2 1/2 episodes

ThreadCula said:

They've started to show the US version here in Britain and I thought it was really strange. The David Brent character appears to do the same things he does in the British show, as does the Receptionist but the other characters seem quite different at times. I just found it "odd".

why redo it when the original is so amazing?

why?

US does that to almost every good british tv
show.

is it because they can't understand when the
brits start hauling verbal abuse


"you wanka"

"tithead"

"look at yerself, ya brummy twat"

"yer man's a fookin buftie"

"says you? ya slapper, six months up the duff
with yer fella porkin a prozzie"

i watched the first episode last week with an admittedly cynical approach...

and i don't know if this is replicated in other episodes, but the key problem for me is that it imitated the original precisely. Only one or two new pieces of dialogue, which were very US-specific, for obvious reasons.

They should never have done that - it ended up being a pale imitation - even though the actors are good & clearly very funny in their own right. Steve Carell is a very funny guy.

But...but...the original lines of Brent were written for Ricky Gervais (or he made most of them up) - and they sat perfectly with him. Carell ain't Gervais, and it was a little painful watching him even raise an eyebrow at the same time as Gervais. When he did try to do something differently (like his reaction in the final scene to the terrible 'fake firing' of the receptionist - Gervais' reaction was utterly pathetic, whereas Carell tried to laugh it off) it wasn't as good.

so i was a little disappointed. I'll give it another go, but if every episode turns out to be another carbon copy of the episode from the original series with different actors, then - well, it's not working for me.

I steer clear off any US remake of UK comedy (or drama, at that).

It is always a bleak copy of the original. The Office is impossible to recreate better. It's British-nes is what makes it great.

Can't wait for the American Monty Phyton!

althom said:

If ThreadCula watches it. it IS a hit.

I have no intention of ever watching this. I hate it when they try to remake British comedies with an American cast. It's never as funny.

IstenSzek said:

rocknrolldave said:

minneapolisgenius said:

unless it's Sanford and Son.

I've only seen parts of a couple of episodes, but I'd have to agree with most of the people here in saying it doesn't compare with the original. It's ok though. If u'd never seen the original you'd think it was mediocre/quite amusing. I'm sure they're trying their best though.

SpareSenik said:

i was wondering if they were going to continue using the exact same script, because it didn't work at all.

i'll definitely check out a couple of the other episodes then.