The Office: this Australian remake could be mistaken for a lost series of the US show

Given how beloved both Ricky Gervais and Steve Carell’s versions are, why would you remake the cringe-com? To be just about passable, apparently …

In June 2005 I used methods I do not wish to disclose to watch the first few US episodes of The Office on a choppy internet connection. It was a bizarrely jarring experience: I was such a fanboy of the original British version (and still am: in fact I am still quite annoyed I have to specify the British version when talking about it) that I could recite entire scenes word for word.

Seeing American actors – Steve Carell from Anchorman, Mindy Kaling from The 40-Year-Old Virgin, John Krasinski from absolutely nothing – doing exactly the same was unnerving. And wrong. The British beats of the show fell incorrectly out of their mouths, the interpretation of The Office as “cringe = that’s all it is!” felt like a fundamental misread, the whole thing smacked of folly. I went to university, I had sex, I got over it, and after a shaky start the US version found its stride to become arguably the biggest and most beloved sitcom that has ever existed. So … why is Australia making it again?

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