Before I watched either version of "The Office," I heard time and time again that I needed to watch the U.K. version because it was far better. However, I ended up watching the American version first and absolutely loved it. Then I got an assignment for one of my classes to watch a British comedy show, so since I had heard so many great things, I volunteered to do the first series of the U.K. version (series=season, FYI). So I went home, pulled it up on Netflix, and looked forward to finding out what all of the hype was about.
My first red flag probably should have been the fact that there are only two series, totaling 14 episodes, including the two part Christmas special. But I put that first episode on and dove in with high hopes. Now if you don't know and/or don't care to watch to find out, the story of the first series of the U.K. version is a story that is also in the American version. The company needs to downsize so they need to close down one of two branches and combine the closed branch into the branch that did not close. In the end, (I feel like I don't really need to put a spoiler warning for this because, you know, there's that second series), the branch that the show is focused around does not close.
So that's as far as I had to watch, and I thank my lucky stars for that. I feel like I need to go back and shake all of the people that tried to tell me that the U.K. version was "so much better" than the American version and ask them what would possess them to say such a thing. The humor was dry, which I expected, but I was still disappointed. What was interesting, though, was that the jokes were just about the same as the ones on the American version, but for whatever reason, the delivery—maybe the laughter—just wasn't there for me. In fact, the pilot episode is just about the exact same in both versions, but right off the bat, I felt myself slowly but surely dreading ever volunteering to watch this show.
I also felt like I did not get to know any of the characters in the way that I did in the American version. For example, in the American version, I could tell you about any given person's love life, personality, or any other odd trait from the wide range of random things you learn about them in the show. However in the U.K. version, I didn't even learn the names of everyone in the office. Granted I only watched the first series, but I still feel like in the first six episodes of the American series I could at least tell who they sat by if not their names.
So if you should find yourself needing to pick a British comedy to watch for a class, I would very much recommend finding something else other than "The Office" to watch. If someone can make an argument to me in favor of the British version, I would be glad to listen, but I would also be glad to give you lengthy examples of why Jim+Pam > Tim+Dawn.
