mackenzie crook-related stories
Posted Jun 26th 2007 3:38PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: TV Royalty, OpEd, Celebrities, The Office (BBC)
I am so incredibly giddy about this news, I don't even know where to begin. As a hardcore fan of the original
The Office, my heart fills with glee whenever I see a mention of the show or one of the cast members. It's not that I want a third series, I just still need little things to guide me through this four year case of withdrawal. Heck, I spent the entirety of the
Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy being the only girl who wasn't swooning over Johnny Depp or Orlando Bloom because I was so happy to see gangly, wooden-eyed Mackenzie Crook onscreen.
Well, good news for anyone else who is still in need of some
Office love. July 1st's
Concert for Diana in London will feature a multitude of stars to celebrate Princess Diana's life. Among those stars will be
Office stars Ricky Gervais and Mackenzie Crook, performing "Free Love Freeway" before introducing Sir Elton John.
Continue reading The Office's free love freeway lives on - VIDEO
Posted Aug 15th 2006 9:44PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, BBC, Retro Squad, The Office (BBC)
(S02E06) I think this episode features one of Ricky Gervais' best dramatic performances. Yeah. Dramatic. As David begged to Neil and Jennifer to not make him redundant, his eyes glazed over with tears and his voice gently cracked. It was subtle and heart-breaking and, in that one instant, my views of David completely turned around. It also reminded me of how tragic this entire series is. I don't think I've ever seen a comedy series with such emotionally-realistic characters.
Continue reading The Office: Episode 12
Posted Aug 9th 2006 5:21PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, BBC, Retro Squad, The Office (BBC)
(S02E05) I always refer to this episode as "the one where Tim and Gareth kiss" or "the one where Tim and Dawn kiss". However, everyone else does a lot of "um"-ing and "uh"-ing until I mention David's infamous dance. Yes, yes. It's "the one where David dances", but, gosh, so much more happens. All the events in this episode prepare us for the season finale, when feelings are sure to be hurt, hearts are sure to be broken, and fools are sure to be... uh... made... out of.
Continue reading The Office: Episode 11
Posted Aug 1st 2006 11:58PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, BBC, Retro Squad, The Office (BBC)
(S02E04) Although I still obnoxiously quote it all the time, this episode kind of bugs me. I mean, it's hysterical in every way, but I've always thought that it stepped a little too far from reality. The beauty of
The Office has always been the fact that all actions, all words, all awkward looks to the camera are realistically justified. David's ego is just larger than life in this episode. It got a little too sitcom-y with his training seminar storyline. Eh. Maybe it was just me.
Continue reading The Office: Episode 10
Posted Jul 26th 2006 10:27AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, BBC, Retro Squad, The Office (BBC)
(S02E03) This episode focused mostly on David's growing disgust/jealousy toward Neil and the near-breakdown of Tim and Dawn's friendship. The constant jokes about David's heeled boots were great because I really do see men wearing those around... It was just the right amount of ridiculous. Wearing a knock-off version of Neil's jacket was the icing on the cake. We learned that David's idea of being bad-ass is slightly different from the rest of the world's...
David: You know that old thing... "Live fast, die young"? Not my way. Live fast, sure. Live too bloody fast sometimes! But... die young?
[shakes his head] Die old. That's the way I -- I'm not orthodox. I don't live by "the rules".
Continue reading The Office: Episode 9
Posted Jul 18th 2006 1:03PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, BBC, Retro Squad, The Office (BBC)
(S02E02) There was major development in the Tim/Dawn relationship (or lack thereof), thanks to a budding romance between Tim and one of the new girls. David's seething jealousy towards Neil also hit a new high. Plus, Keith's appraisal is in this episode. In other words, this episode is jam-packed with
awesome.
Continue reading The Office (BBC): Episode 8
Posted Jul 11th 2006 10:55PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, BBC, Retro Squad, The Office (BBC)
(S02E01) First of all, everyone that loves Mackenzie Crook (Gareth) needs to see
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. It is a tremendously fun film, with loads of face-time for Mackenzie Crook (he plays the guy with the wooden eye). Seriously, go see it. Okay, okay. On to the episode!
The second season started with a really strange/adorable moment. Gareth, David, and another employee enthusiastically hummed the Mah Nà Mah Nà song rom
The Muppet Show (watch the Muppet version
here, the
Office version
here) as Tim silently looked on, completely confused. The way that David pops out of his office and starts chiming in gets me every time.
Continue reading The Office (BBC): Episode 7
Posted Jul 4th 2006 10:09PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, BBC, Retro Squad, The Office (BBC)
(S01E06) The episode started with David firing the same guy that he hired at the beginning of the first episode. The forklift-operator being fired, Alex, was furious with the news and asked David if firing him instead of Anton, the 3' 4" midget working in the warehouse, was just positive discrimination. David defended himself, explaining that being short isn't a disability (in fact, many children are short). And then some guy working on David's computer(?) popped out from behind the desk and Gareth showed up next to the window. Haha, it was really unexpected. Everyone kept asking Alex the definition of a midget and a dwarf... and then an elf. When asked how he knew so much about midgets, Alex sighed, "It's called an education" and left. As the scene changed, we briefly saw a many with some paper rolls walk through a door and silently glare at the camera (see picture). Fun Fact: That's co-creator Stephen Merchant's dad.
Continue reading The Office (BBC): Episode 6
Posted Jun 27th 2006 11:04PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, BBC, Retro Squad, The Office (BBC)
(S01E05) Although this episode had its share of funny moments, the amount of character development cannot be ignored. This half-hour took Brent's desperation, Tim's exhaustion, Dawn's confusion, Finch's perversion, everyone's everything to a higher level. Plus, we got to see some of Slough's rocking night-life. Sweet.
Continue reading The Office (BBC): Episode 5
Posted Jun 20th 2006 10:45PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, BBC, Retro Squad, The Office (BBC)
(S01E04) Not counting the Christmas specials, this episode is my hands-down favorite. There are so many glorious (and musical) moments that perfectly capture the spirit of
The Office, I find hard to believe it's all contained in less than half an hour. This is why I always choose to show Episode 4 when I am attempting to drag another ignorant innocent into a state rabid fandom. It'd be wrong for me to paraphrase the really good moments because every single word is important for the joke. So, I'm going to be doing
a lot of quoting. Consider this fair warning.
Continue reading The Office (BBC): Episode 4
Posted Jun 14th 2006 9:01AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, BBC, Retro Squad, The Office (BBC)
(S01E03) The thing I really like about this episode is how all the events leave a terrible taste in my mouth. It's bitter and frustrating and everything good that happens dies a slow and painful death. Brilliant.
The episode starts off with Tim explaining to the camera that it's his 30th birthday and his mother woke him up (I love that he lives with his parents) to give him his present, HatFM, a radio to wear on the head! Meanwhile, David's all excited for the annual pub quiz (it's like Trivial Pursuit with a lot of people... at a bar) and calls up his quiz buddy, Chris Finch (the guy that indirectly made an appearance in the last episode). Finch tells him a joke over the phone, which Brent simultaneously repeats for the cameras. "What's black and slides down
Nelson's Column?" Brent repeats, before pausing for an answer. "Winnie Mandela?..."
Continue reading The Office (BBC): Episode 3
Posted Jun 6th 2006 11:38PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, BBC, Retro Squad, The Office (BBC)
Do not adjust your web browser. You are now entering the Retro Squad, where we are reviewing past episodes of your favorite shows, in order, every week.
(S01E02) In the very beginning of this episode, we saw David Brent showing a hot, new, female employee (whom we'd later know as Donna) around his office. To work his humor, he pretended to throw his office answering machine out the window, jokingly frustrated with all the messages. As he started to set it back down, the machine slipped out of his hand and fell on the floor, clattering next to the trash can. The sheer seamlessness of this brief moment (and Brent's frantic mumbling) still throws me into hysterics. I love it when a moment looks so organic that I can't tell if it was improvised, accidental, or geniusly scripted.
Continue reading The Office (BBC): Episode 2
Posted May 30th 2006 10:09PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, BBC, Retro Squad, The Office (BBC)
Do not adjust your web browser. You are now entering the Retro Squad, where we are reviewing past episodes of your favorite shows, in order, every week.
(S01E01) In the beginning, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant decided to create a mockumentary comedy about the painful emptiness of office life. And it was good.
The Office debuted in England in 2001 and later aired on BBC America, where I promptly fell in love with the show. I think I was watching
Monty Python's Flying Circus on BBCA when a commercial popped up, promoting the premiere of
The Office. It featured a scrawny fellow named Gareth (played by Mackenzie Crook, who would later be the wood-eyed pirate from
Pirates of the Caribbean) talking about office relationships. He had a horrible bowl haircut and dark circles under his eyes, and yet I thought he was the most hilariously adorable thing I had ever seen. At that moment, I promised myself to watch. Little did I know I would soon have a new favorite show.
I suggest you American-version fans rent or
buy the DVDs and watch along. You might even notice that this episode bears a striking similarity to the American pilot. That's because a large portion of the US script was pulled out from this episode word-for-word (save for a few Americanizations, like changing "Camilla Parker-Bowles" to "Hillary Rodham-Clinton").
Continue reading The Office: Episode 1
Posted May 5th 2006 4:10PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, HBO, TV Royalty, Talent, BBC, Celebrities
Ricky Gervais is already hard at work on the upcoming second season of
Extras. The 2006 British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards (or BAFTAs) will be presented on Sunday and Gervais plans to attend the ceremony as his
Extras character Andy Millman. He and co-creator Stephen Merchant (who plays Andy's agent) will be armed with cameras in case any A-list celebrity does something stupid enough to be worthy to go on the show. So, all the stars will have to be on guard if they don't want to show up on
Extras adjusting their bra or making an off-color remark. I'm lookin' at you, Dench!
Posted Apr 4th 2006 8:59AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Cable, Late Night, OpEd, The Daily Show
Al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui
has been deemed
eligible for the death penalty. Jon
couldn't help but wonder if the jury really even needed to step aside to deliberate, especially after Moussaoui took
the stand and admitted to planning to crash into the Towers (bad move, defense). "Eh, we don't need to talk about
it. Let's just kill the guy."
Continue reading The Daily Show: April 3, 2006
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