Oh how I love Ricky Gervais. This guy is awesome, and The Office is awesome too. It's another show that's just made by the presence of a single character, and in this case, it's David. Goddamn. Brent. Oh my god, what can you even say about this guy? He's not just a comic goldmine, he's what really makes this show work. See, The Office hinges on this great comic pessimism, and uses terribly cringe inducing and awkward humour to deliver it's jokes, and nothing embodies that idea as much as Brent. He makes already awkward situations nearly unbearable to watch. The Office is a show that has fun with its cringe worthy moments. It's bleak, but it makes that funny.
It uses its mockumentary style to heighten it's comic realism. As I said, this show makes great use of awkward humour, and because it's shot like it's real, it has this wonderfully natural feel to it. Everything feels real in The Office. When a situation is hard to watch, it's hard to watch because it feels like it's actually happening. You believe the situations in this show, because they feel like real people being real people, which is to say awkward, weird and occasionally unlikeable. Gervais' Brent works because he's recognisable. He's somebody that everyone has come across at some point, and that makes the show all the funnier. Everyone in the show feels familiar to be honest. This is a show that mines it's humour from the mundanity and tedium of its real situation. They emulate the documentary style perfectly, and it feels like you are watching a documentary on the most dysfunctional workplace ever. It feels like a realistic worst case scenario, and it's just incredible.
The Office is a true cult classic, and it stands apart from most other Britcoms because it has this really distinct flavour. It's not like anything else. And it takes this powerful uniqueness and runs with it. Every episode harnesses that wonderful awkardness. And better yet, it invites the viewer to do the same. It's a bleak show, and is fairly pessimistic, but the comedy comes from the sheer strength of its bleakness. With its style and weird charisma, it's a truly fantastic show. It's hilariously painful to watch, and it's gone down in legend because of that. What can you say? Its The Office. Everyone loves it, and for damn good reason.
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