6. The Office (U.K.) Season 2 - When I first heard reports about a British comedy show that was supposedly funnier than anything on television at the time in the U.S., I assumed that it was just another sitcom that wouldn't be worth my time. I enjoy the likes of
Monty Python,
Black Adder, and
Mr. Bean, but I never found them as funny as similar shows on this side of the Atlantic. Yet, the early 2000s was a dry period for American comedies so I caught up with
The Office on DVD and my mind was thereafter blown. This was not a sitcom - not in the traditional sense anyway. It is shot in the style of a documentary, but I am hesitant to call it a "mockumentary."
The Office attains a level of realism that Christopher Guest would kill for and that makes it ten times more brilliant. This is not embarrassment humor. This is can't-watch-because-it's-so-fucking-awful humor. There is no winking to the audience. There is nothing to let us know that they can relax, that everything will be OK for the characters. It won't be OK. The employees of Wernham-Hogg paper company are doomed to suffer just like the rest of us. But the writing and acting on display here milks as many laughs and, surprisingly, as much pathos from the material as humanly possible. Choosing a favorite season of
The Office is a bit silly because there were only twelve (amazingly consistent) half-hour episodes in the entire run of the series, capped off by an outstanding two-part Christmas special. Yet, with my back against the wall, I chose the second season because of the dynamic between ineffectual manager David Brent (Ricky Gervais) and the new members of his sales team.
