It's amazing to me how well episodes of The Office hold up to repeated viewings. The funny moments are just as funny, and the uncomfortable moments are just as cringe-inducing, as they were the first time around. That notion was brought home to me last night during NBC's Office marathon.The network decided to air five "HR nightmare" episodes of the show (and one very funny episode of Andy Barker, P.I.), with new wraparounds featuring Toby the HR rep and a few of the secondary characers. All three seasons were represented, including the second episode that ever aired, "Diversity Day." The consistency of the humor from the first, little-watched season to now is pretty remarkable: Michael is inappropriate and uncomfortable, Dwight is an unrepentant suck-up, Pam is sweet with a bit of a snarky streak, and Jim is Jim. But what is really apparent when you look at the three seasons of the show mashed together is how many little things have changed.
The first thing that you notice is Steve Carell's characterization of Michael Scott has evolved. In the first season, he was a little heavier, and he had this odd-looking slicked-back hairstyle. He also had no problem walking around the office with his coat off and his sleeves rolled up, a la his British counterpart David Brent. But, as Mindy Kaling told me when I interviewed her last year, she and the other writers decided to soften Michael up a little bit, especially after seeing him in The 40 Year Old Virgin. "I think we've found that Steve has a lot of warmth to him that people love," she told me. But they've also made Michael more serious at the same time; he rarely takes his coat off in the office, and every so often they actually show the flashes of competence that explain why he still has his job.
Other changes are well-documented but are still shocking to see when you see the seasons compressed like last night. The office set itself is brighter and cheerier in the second and third seasons than it was in the first season; that may be because the first season was shot in an actual office instead of a soundstage like it is now. But it's also a concerted effort on the writers to not make everyone's lives seem as bleak as they did during the first season (which had the same dark tone as the British version). Americans don't like bleakness; that's why, despite Michael's ineptitude, he's also managed to bag attractive and seemingly together women like Jan and Carol.
The third major change, which is also well-documented, is the increased visibility of the secondary characters. When we saw Kelly slap an extremely offensive Michael in "Diversity Day," little did we know that she was going to become the clingy chatterbox that she is now. When we saw Meredith in those first few episodes, we didn't envision her ever licking a blob of hand sanitizer just to get a hit of alcohol. And when we saw Kevin we... well, Kevin's about the same. And Michael demonstrated an inexplicable hate for the meek Toby since those early episodes. But we never knew about how twisted Creed was, how much Michael abused poor Phyllis, how much of a dry wit Stanley had, and how tight-assed Angela was during that first season. And the show is so much better now that we do know all that stuff.
I usually don't buy DVDs of TV shows (I don't even have discs of my other favorite show, Scrubs), but I think I have to go and buy discs of The Office. I just get the feeling that syndicated reruns aren't going to do this show justice.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-30-2007 @ 1:43PM
Brian said...
The big improvement the show made isn't merely in character development, it's in writing. In the first season, much of the humor came from the awkwardness of how Michael acted as boss. But the writing itself often wasn't that funny. Sure, Diversity Day had some good lines (the "is there a less offensive term than Mexican?"), but a lot of it's only funny because you have an upper-level manager acting like a complete jackass.
Take the episode in which they celebrate Meredith's birthday. Michael's "line" is only funny because it's offensive; in another context, what he said wouldn't be funny at all. In later seasons, they updated the writing so that it had more stand-alone value. You could repeat the quotes, out of context, and get laughs. You couldn't do that as much in season one (again, with a few exceptions).
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3-30-2007 @ 1:52PM
Guy said...
Actually, I think it's the exact opposite. Although still funny, The Office has lost its edge, lost its meaning, and lost most of the things that had made it good in the first place. Just wrote about it myself: http://hatchling.blogspot.com/2007/03/defanging-office-or-is-ricky-gervais.html
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3-30-2007 @ 2:16PM
Brian said...
I don't necessarily disagree with you, but I don't think that's really a good way to criticize.
Take Seinfeld. Most fans would agree that the show didn't truly get going till about the third season, but the first season actually has the most "realistic" storylines and humor. Things like "breaking up" with a male friend or freaking out about a stock going down are far more "real" than being asked to where a puffy shirt on national television. But, the latter worked better, largely because the humor began resting on the characters more than the plot itself.
That's the big difference in season 2/3 of The Office versus season one (I don't know why you did 1/2 vs. 3; seasons 2 and 3 are far more similar). Season one gave you realistic plotlines for offices (healthcare, downsizing, the office basketball team, etc) but it primarily milked those events themselves for laughs. Dwight was funny in the healthcare episode, but he was funny because he was being a douche, not because there was something inherent about the character that got laughs. Aside from MAYBE Jim and Kevin, no actor really "found" his character until season two. The Michael Scott of the first season is completely different from the one of the second and third; the latter one is far better.
The show's become far more character-driven, and that's why it's better. There's no real enjoyment in watching office storylines recreated if interesting characters aren't spliced into those situations. Without the interesting characters, we might as well just be at work.
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3-30-2007 @ 3:02PM
RSL said...
I love them both [the first and latter seasons] and just wanted to chime in to say that the DVD sets are completely worth it for all the extra features they pile on there. Seriously, deleted scenes and commentary galore! And for the record, my favorite episode still has to be the Office Olympics, though Diversity Day is a close second.
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3-30-2007 @ 3:10PM
beanspants said...
i thought the early season episodes weren't as good re: michael.
in the health plan episode, he really lets everyone down (no big surprise) with no resolution - later michael would have given them *something*.
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3-30-2007 @ 4:11PM
Melissa said...
Someone on TVS wrote an article a little while ago about how the office has gone from "mockumentary" to a sitcom filmed with hand-held cameras, and that's exactly how I feel. The office is different now because of the extra places the camera takes us, and the dialogue we wouldn't normally hear. It's become unrealistic. BBC OFFICE 4-LIFE!
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3-30-2007 @ 4:13PM
Amy said...
I just LOVED last night's marathon! Like with Arrested Development, I caught so much more on the second (in some cases, third) viewings. The first time around, I totally missed that it was Mr. "Brown" leading the exact same Diversity seminar (H.E.R.O.) in the Stanford branch.
Is that the same guy who is the Senior Black Correspondent on The Daily Show??
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3-30-2007 @ 4:28PM
Beth Gaston Moon said...
The first season of "Friends" is, relatively speaking, HORRIBLE. The actors are stilted with one another, the dialogue forced, the conflicts uninteresting and/or unbelievable. And as we were watching it upon first airing, in the sorority house in which I lived, I became increasingly bitter, because my time-slot vote, some little thing called "My So-Called Life," was continually overruled.
That said, "The Office" is great. The end.
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3-30-2007 @ 5:55PM
Bash said...
Oh my GOD beth you cannot be serious. Just because season 2 and 3 were THAT good you can absolutely NOT say that the first season was horrible. No way. You can compare season 1 of "Friends" to any other Sitcom and it would beat the living cr*p out of every single one of them.
And I don't say that just because I saw those episodes about ten times.
I'll admit that season one is _different_ from the later seasons but it in no way is worse. Different doesn't always mean worse.
Oh and they should've ended Friends after season nine. Everything from the kiss on the balcony in season 9 just to lenghten the whole series by another 18 episodes made me totally sick even though we got a couple of nice episodes out of it. This way the whole ending felt totally prolonged and not perfect in any way *sigh* It was just over and Ross and Rachel got back together after a year of "whatever".
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3-31-2007 @ 3:50PM
J-Day said...
I agree with you! Don't get me wrong... season 1 was FUNNY, but it just seems lacking in that razzle dazzle in comparison to seasons 2 and 3. Season 1 of the NBC version is almost verbatim the BBC version, and I don't think it's as funny. Michael's character is MUCH better now, and I absolutely love that the other characters have become more three dimensional. And to the person who said that the BBC version is funnier than the NBC version, I'm sorry, but you are totally wrong. I watched the BBC version of The Office before the NBC version came out, and I did not think it was THAT funny. The humor was TOO dry and the characters (besides David Brent) seemed static. However, NBC has exceeded my wildest dreams for The Office, and for that I am thankful. The writers are absolutely brilliant, I feel like I know each character. So kudos to NBC and the cast of The Office for making a great show and here's to many seasons to come!
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