The Office Special

The Office hit me hard, much to the dismay of my coworkers who had to listen to my analysis of the series ad nauseum. Lots of people have reviewed this series, and I don't think another summary is necessary. But I wanted to offer a slightly different take on why this thing "got in amongst me" as much as it did.For starters, I never thought of this series as a comedy. Yes, it has some very funny moments. (OK, it has some hilarious moments.) But they're not what define this series.At its core, I think it's about David Brent and Tim Canterbury, two people who are really two sides of a single coin. Superficially, they couldn't be more different. One demands attention, the other shuns it. One is a juvenile and utterly self-deluded egomaniac, while the other is principled and sensitive. But both are finding it impossible to get what they want out of life. They're insecure and frightened, and they wear their dysfunctional personalities like suits of armor. Unfortunately, this comes at a high price. They are being dishonest with themselves and with the other people in their lives. In retaliation, life periodically dishes out humiliation, sort of like the shock the rat gets when he takes the wrong turn in the maze. We're on the wrong path, and Zap, we're not going to be allowed to get away with it.The other (wonderful) characters in the series exist mainly to put David and Tim in situations that reveal who they are. We find out that neither Tim nor David seem to respect themselves. Tim sells out his dream to return to college by staying on the job for a paltry promotion. He eventually refuses a high position, allowing his bizarre desk mate Garreth to get the job instead. David is consumed by jealousy as he sees others (especially his new boss, Neal) getting the respect and success that elude him. But he prances sycophantically around the abusive and hateful Finch, whom he considers a friend.In each episode David and Tim have failures and crises that seem to happen in parallel. As David embarrasses himself with his guitar during the staff training day, Tim acts out and ultimately humiliates himself by asking Dawn out at the wrong time. In the incredible episode in which David gives his horrifically embarrassing comedy welcome to the "Swindon lot," Tim is literally stuck against the wall by Dawn's jealous boyfriend.Tim wants a relationship, and David wants ego-gratification, and by the final episode Tim has a (great) girlfriend in Rachel, and David has a gig as a motivational speaker. Both manage to bring these potential successes crashing down.In this final episode Tim and David each have their one honest moment, but it's too little, too late. Tim, defined by his fear of taking chances, takes the ultimate chance with Dawn. Although the sound is off, we suspect he says those Three Little Words. David, having been scathingly sarcastic and insubordinate to Neal, must beg the man for his job. Sad ironies abound. There are no happy endings.Now it's Christmas, three years later. Dawn is living in the States with her odious, soul-crushing fiancé Lee, who is content to sponge off of his sister and her husband. Tim, having refused David's job, is under the boot of Garreth, and has an even more foul desk mate (Anne) than Garreth was. David sells cleaning supplies, and supplements his income with "celebrity" appearances so humiliating that even he can sense it.Situations develop that threaten to propel David and Tim even deeper into irredeemable despair. David must find a date to bring to the Christmas party, challenged to do so by the recently engaged Neal. Dawn visits the Office for Christmas. Tim must not only face her, but must watch as the last vestiges of her hope for a future in Illustrating are destroyed by Lee.But it's Christmas, dammit, a time for giving and receiving gifts. David receives a gift from a woman that he has clearly never gotten in his life. Finch notices the change immediately. Tim gives a gift to Dawn in the form of Three Other Little Words. They mean so much to her that they instantly change her life, and, presumably, his.In these twelve half-hours, Gervais and Merchant demonstrate the consequences of failing to be honest with ourselves. The Christmas special brings it around full circle, and we are shown the path to redemption.Watch this wonderful series. You could learn something important.

Nancy Franklin wrote a review of "The Office Special" in the New Yorker's October 25th issue, the first sentence of which reads,"Nobody who has seen the BBC series "The Office" has anything bad to say about it, and there's a reason for that: it's perfect."I couldn't agree more with her on that count; the first two seasons constitute the best sitcom ever made. However, proceeds to damn "The Special" through faint praise, calling it "less satisfying" and saying that Gervais and Merchant "bowed under the pressure" to give fans a happy ending. She concludes the review by saying,"Still, one can't help wishing that Gervais and Merchant had left well enough...alone. We needed a sequel to "The Office" as much as we need a sequel to "Pride and Prejudice."Franklin is completely wrong in her analysis here, and here's why. "The Office Special" can't be viewed as a "sequel" to the original series; it's more of a corollary.The half-hour episodes of the original series were so compelling because no other work (sidebar: I believe the lofty word "work" applies to this stuff) has captured the awful, crushing, dingy mundanity of our lives like "The Office." Enough has been written on that count which doesn't need to be rehashed here."The Special," on the other hand, accepts those facts, but appends them with this: our real triumps in life come in the face of that very mundanity, and they are the very few, very small moments of joy we manage wrench away from Our Office every now and again. That sounds sappy in print, but I think it's important to keep in mind as you view (and invariably re-view) "The Special."So what we have here is NOT a sequel, and don't feel guilty about the happy endings. "The Office" as a whole wouldn't be as true to life if it didn't exhibit the little redeeming moments that other reviewers have pointed out here. The brilliance of "The Office Special" is that it shows just how incredible a moment of "connect" (a la D.H. Lawrence) can be. Watch the last ten minutes of "The Special," again and again, as it shows and says all this in a manner that I can't.P.S. -- Amazon, we need a six-star option.

I recently started to watch the original series. I thought I was done. But found out there was a series 2 and a Christmas special series 3 technically 2 parts .I did some research and found it used on this seller. The package was shipped quick and showed up just as described .Happy with having a complete british office series .Good value .I would use this seller again

Excellent!

Serie splendida, praticamente sconosciuta in italia ma da riscoprire.E' un umorismo molto amaro, con i suoi impiegati tristi e alle prese con un lavoro noioso.Peccato duri solo due stagioni + questo christmas special, ma almeno hanno fatto un lavoro eccezionale.Putroppo trovare la seconda stagione e' quasi impossibile.

I finally got around to playing this dvd. It wouldn’t play all the way through. It just stopped. Rather disappointing, it won’t even make a good book mark!

Per la consegna, tutto ok come di consueto. Relativamente al contenuto, la degna conclusione delle vicende delle prime due serie... Un must, inedito in Italia, per chi ha seguito The Office!

Not that funny if you are used to seeing the American version