British Expatriate Network

Lookie here!



Debs x :)

Given the American natural talent for satire and subtle humour, it should be a mash hit.

I think it looks pretty good. Obviously not as good as the original. I hope its a success - I wish the UK version had done more series. Steve Carrell was a good choice, he was good on the Daily Show and seems like the same type of person as Ricky Gervais.

I'd like to think it will be good, but won't be here to see it and suspect it will be a huge flop and get taken off after only a few weeks.........it is often hard to improve on originals, wherever they may come from.....

I'd watch an episode before passing such scathing judgement, Steve Carrell is actually a pretty funny guy.

Sounds fair enough VRB.

Then, when you get off the fence and join the rest of us doubting Thomas-es, we can dance around you in our "Told You So" party hats wink

Americans are great at many things but reinventing the wheel and subtle comedy are not ones I would ever list.

Steve Carrell really is a funny guy. I'll give it a shot, but I know that I will have to do a lot of work making myself NOT compare it to the UK version. Carrell's character is clearly going to be different from Gervase's.

Well, premieres tonight at 930 ET. The pilot episode looks like a direct copy of one of the British ones. After that, I think they are all originals.

I saw an advert for this last night. Wothisname - the US Gervais character - says to the camera about the receptionist - "Oh our receptionist is wonderful. But you should have seen her when she first started - butt ugly". Or words to that effect...
It would have sounded funnier as, "Oooh she's lovely, is our receptionist but you should have seen her when she first started - ugly as sin, she was".

I dunno. I will probably try to watch the premiere tonight but I just don't know...

"Oooh she's lovely, is our receptionist but you should have seen her when she first started - ugly as sin, she was".




It's dead funny with a Dudley accent! lol

Not sure how a Pennsylvania accent would cut it tho' -?

Debs x )

I saw it. I liked it. Made me laugh.

I thought it was pretty good. The guy who plays the equivalent of Tim seems just like the original - mannerisms and all.

Not sure about the American 'Gareth Keenan' though.

Really interested to see if this show captures 'main-stream America'
the way the UK Office caught on in the UK..


ODDS ARE ABOUT 1000-1?

The Tim, Dawn and Jennifer characters were all played well, ie, in that they appeared to be "real" people. I though the David Brent and Gareth actors were too "actor-y".

It'll be interesting to see the new scripts though, and I shall keep watching.

Don't much care for the title music.

Debs x )

I wanted to see this. The Observer last Sunday in a feature article gave it a really good review and apparently they worked very closely with Gervais and co.

Apparently in a later episode there's an anti-racist day seminar and the US Gervais-style character is asked why the subject of Arab-Americans isn't being brought up to which he apparently replies "Oh that would be too explosive." lol

That's pretty strong stuff for prime time US network TV. I'll definitely try to catch it next week.