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More on The Office

So, The Office: Season 2. It’s hard to articulate why I find it so disappointing, but I feel I must. I so completely adored the first season that it could be a case of too-high expectations. But I don’t think so. The main problem for me is that it’s just not funny when David gets called on his bullshit. And in the second season, David gets called on everything. Everything. Episode by episode he gets methodically stripped of all dignity until it’s painful to watch. And that’s just not funny.


It wasn’t total shit though. There were still some very funny bits. The wheelchair bit, as Paul noted. Also the scene where David finds out the new staff has been making fat jokes about him, and David demands to know why they don’t pick on the fat accountant instead. (And he even pokes the guy’s belly fat to demonstrate. Oh my god.) But none of this is as good as most of the first season. I just had very high expectations. The scene from season one where David slowly takes over the training session until he and the hired speaker are literally speaking on top of each other is a brilliant symphony of comic acting. And then there are the quotables… “Women … are … dirty.”  “No one should be punished for having big breasts. If anything, they should be rewarded.” (And in fact there’s a weak and bastardized version of that one in Season 2–stealing jokes from Season 1, bad sign.)


There was nothing that great in the second season. Oh, except this:



(That’s for Guy)

5 Responses to “More on The Office”

  1. guy
    May 14th, 2004 | 1:27 am

    may i just say: too pale and too young for a midlife crisis?

  2. cynthia rockwell
    May 14th, 2004 | 11:19 am

    hey i got no problems with pale. and i can’t fault him for having a midlife crisis in that job. plus, he fancies dawn, who’s got some pudge on her. gotta respect that.

  3. Filmbrain
    May 14th, 2004 | 12:36 pm

    I thought the second season was brilliant, albeit much more difficult to watch. Perhaps a bit too cringe inducing, but hysterical nonetheless. (The dance-off on Red Nose day was brutal.)

    The two additional episodes they did for Christmas last year were perfect. An absolutely perfect ending to the series. Anybody want to know what happened. . .?

  4. cynthia rockwell
    May 14th, 2004 | 12:57 pm

    the dance-off was brutal. and funny. but i definitely wouldn’t call the second season brilliant. i didn’t get to see the christmas episodes–are they on a separate DVD?

  5. Filmbrain
    May 14th, 2004 | 4:39 pm

    Not yet, sadly. They were aired in the UK over Christmas, and a dear friend burned them to DVD for me.