Season 1, Episode 1, Part 2: "I'm a Sales Rep

The scene cuts to a Tim interview – a Timterview. Tim and Dawn are generally the only ones who don't embarrass themselves in these interviews. Sadly, we don't have very many Dawnterviews this season. Tim starts to describe his job as a sales rep, which includes talking to clients about quantity and price of paper. He's talking slowly, sounding really tired, and then admits he's boring himself just talking about it. Poor Tim. He deserves a better job.

David comes to Tim and Gareth's desk and shouts, “Whazzuup!” at Tim. “Whazzuup, I love that,” Tim says benevolently, even if we know he's just sucking up. David points at Gareth: “You're fired Keenan! Drunkard! -Hypocrite warning!” he points at himself. He laughs and looks at Tim for a response. “Hypocrite warning” is one of the most laughable – and not in a good way – David jokes. It pretends to be self-deprecating, but the real meaning of it is to show off and make him look cool. I think he just really wants to show Tim what a popular guy he is, going out with his employees. He laughs awkwardly, because even Gareth doesn't laugh, just smiles at it. “What's he been saying? It's all true! Guilty as charged!” He rubs Gareth's shoulders a bit, which looks weird. Mackenzie Crook, who plays Gareth, mentioned in a documentary how he likes to touch and it can be a bit disturbing. I wonder if that was one of those moments. David launches into a story about how he went out with Gareth and his mates and Gareth had warned him his buddies can get a bit rowdy after drinking, “I was worst in the end, they just left didn't they!” He laughs loud and boyishly and this time it sounds close to Ricky Gervais' real laughter. David says Gareth had to admit this nutjob is his boss. Leave it to David to think it's somehow a good sign if people actually leave because you annoy them so badly.

Tim looks weirded out, but he gets even more confused when David says in a hoarse voice, “Dissolve!!” and laughs. As he's leaving, he turns and says, “What?” Hee, my brother used to do that too when he told a bad joke. At, like, the age of 6. “Nothing,” says Tim. He has a little book in his hand that looks like a traveller's dictionary. He's been leafing through it the whole time. It's the equivalent of Dawn's computer that she kept checking while David was talking. David plays with his tie. He must have touched it about twenty times already. He leaves rather awkwardly, as if he'd like to stay but can't think of anything more to say, since Tim isn't responding to his jokes. Doesn't he have work to do?

Copier copying papers. Fitting for a paper company. We hear Jennifer's voice before we see her. She tells Dawn to call maintenance, because there's a nasty smell in the lift. A nice line that isn't trying to be funny, just a normal part of office life, documentary-like. Dawn's desk is seen from the side and we can see a picture of her and Lee. Cute. Except that Lee sucks, but besides that, it seems believable she'd have a picture like that. David voice-overs that the head office doesn't interfere with him at all (which might explain why he still has his job). He says Jennifer might drop by. “Jennifer Taylor Clarke – I call her Camilla Parker Bowles. Not to her face. Not cos I'm scared of her.” I love how he always has to add an explanation like that, even when everyone must know he's joking.

As David sits down with Jennifer, he tells her Nobby Burton came down with a briefcase, “Two for a tenner, so – yes please! Four!” He's showing his tie. Jennifer laughs, and since I just saw the documentary, I know they did this take many times, and Ricky Gervais was always changing the line: “Wally Burton” turned into “Nobby Burton”, then “deaf Nobby Burton”, and someone always burst out laughing. It's especially funny because it's not even the point of the scene. It's just the idea that David has to come up with something self-absorbed to say when Jennifer comes to visit. Something that has absolutely nothing to do with work. Anyhow, Dawn sits down and they start the meeting, and of course David has to mug for the camera: “OK, meeting with Jennifer Taylor Clarke. Present...” Jennifer cuts him off and asks if he wants to add anything to the agenda. David says, “Did noo get an agenda.” I don't know who he's doing here. Jennifer doesn't understand. “Did not get an agenda, noo.” She said she faxed it, and David turns to Dawn, indignant that he wasn't given the fax: “Because a company runs on the efficiency of communication.” He smiles at Jennifer, obviously thinking he said something really deep and professional again. “You put it in the bin, that was your special filing cabinet..?” she shyly replies. “As a joke, yeah,” says David, still smirking. He says it's not even his joke, but I don't catch whose joke he says it is. “It's meant for bills, doesn't really work with faxes.” Jennifer isn't too amused, but as usual, she goes straight down to business and shows David her copy. I like Jennifer. She seems firm and smart, but not too aggressive. Just a really professional person, the opposite of David.

David interviews: “Sure, she says she's the boss, but there should be .. no.. ego.. when you're pulling together.. to do something good. Yeah?” Yeah. And there's definitely no ego in David's behaviour. When he talks this slowly, it always sounds like he's making it up while he's going along, which he probably is. When I was a kid, my best friend would always try to lie to me and she'd do this exact thing. “We got a new kid in the class today... her name was... Jane... Cr..Croissant...” He says i'ts like Comic Relief, i.e. British charity work. He makes a really inappropriate comparison between being in Africa with the “flies and starvation” and Jennifer being in the studio counting the money, “Good luck to them but their hands are clean.” So are his! He never does any work! “While I'm down here in the office with little starving kids.” Hee! He always makes his metaphors way too literal, so they get ludicrous. This is just one example of David using charity to show what a good person he is, and failing miserably. He looks away from the camera, apparently at the interviewer, intensely as if he wants them to think of the little starving kids. He's doing it all for the children.

Back in the meeting, Jennifer tells David that one of the branches has to be downsized, either this one in Slough or Neil's branch in Swindon. David is listening to Jennifer intensely, with a ridiculously fake-looking pose, his index finger on his brow. As he hears about one branch being closed down, David starts muttering, “This is it.. alarm bells...should be good..” Jennifer needs to reassure him at this point to just keep listening. Well, he did listen to her for a whole sentence without interrupting. Now he keeps cutting her off with completely unnecessary interjections. “Don't panic, we haven't..” “I don't panic, but..” “We haven't made any decisions..” “Good.”

Jennifer said there will be redundancies. David takes this opportunity to showcase how much he cares about his staff and doesn't wish redundancies on Neil's “men”, or his “men.. or women.. present company excepted.” So he does wish it for Jennifer and Dawn? He asks if Neil is worried about redundancies. Jennifer says he is. David says good, but I think he's really just trying to say he cares MORE about redundancies than Neil, when he starts going on about how he hates letting people go, even if he knows “as a businessman” - hee! - that they are necessary. Jennifer cuts him off, because he's really just babbling to the camera. David says smugly that they have to talk about it sooner or later. Jennifer says what they have to decide now is whether Slough takes the Swindon people, or Swindon takes the Slough people. David thinks it's his decision and says, “We take on them.” Jennifer says, “No, you and I don't decide. I decide once you've made your case.” I love Jennifer. She doesn't take any of David's bullshit. David says, “based on facts”, as if he needs to finish Jennifer's sentences, because he's always one step ahead of her in thinking of the business stuff.

They're cut off by David's phone ringing and he lets it go to his answering machine, even if that turns out to be a mistake. David's answering machine is predictably very lame: “Hi mate, not around at the moment, so please leave a MASSAGE.” David grins at Jennifer like it's a very witty message. Who has a message like that in their WORK phone? -David Brent. No one else would even think it's appropriate. Jennifer looks like she's going to laugh, and again, I think it's the actress, not Jennifer who finds it funny. It's Finchy, who's using his work time on leaving a seedy message for his drinking buddy. “Chris Finch, bloody good rep,” says David to Jennifer. “Hear you got a hangover, you big puff”, says Finch. “That's derogatory, that's a shame,” says David, because Jennifer and the camera are there. Sadly, Finch starts talking about Jennifer: “Give her one for me. And stop looking up her skirt!” Jennifer says sternly, “David!” and David replies guiltily, “I wasn't looking up your skirt!” Hee! The camera is a bit below them, so you can see Jennifer's legs and her rather short skirt, which I imagine David has mentioned to Finchy. Jennifer, ever the professional boss, acts like she didn't hear the business about her skirt and just tells David to keep a lid on it. David says “under this regime” this will not leave his office. And of course we cut to anonymous workers discussing what redundancy means and being very worried. Keith would leave, and he asks “'dyou?” which I decipher as “would you?” when the woman next to him – a small, slim woman who looks like the opposite of big Keith – says “I dunno.”

Tim and Dawn are having a hushed conversation about everyone else having hushed conversations, and Tim says he “couldn't give a shit” if he gets fired. I think he's hoping he will be. The camera moves on to Gareth who's chewing gum and spinning some of it in his fingers grossly – until he notices the camera, puts away the gum, and tries to act dignified again. He acts like he's really focusing on something on his computer screen. Hee! Gareth's skinny face and eye bags always make me feel sorry for him, even if he's kind of a creep.

Ricky the Temp is waiting for David to come up, looking around him. I don't think he's very impressed by what he's seeing. Ricky introduces himself to David, who looks confused until Ricky tells him he's from the temp agency. “Good. Temporary.. staff... only...” David says. His tone implies it's somehow amusing, but Dawn just looks confused. David asks Ricky if Dawn told him how mad he is. “Yeah she said you had a nervous breakdown,” jokes Ricky, but David gets defensive again: “I haven't had a nervous breakdown!” Dawn looks up from her book, alarmed. Ricky hastily explains that was just a joke, “she said you're a good laugh and..” yeah, I'm sure that's what she said. I think it might have been something like, “When he jokes you'd better laugh”, but it's close enough. David calms down, realizing he hasn't been bashed behind his back after all, and says they all are laughs: “Part of my job description, unofficially..” then he promises to show Ricky around. “Into the frey!” he shouts and laughs. He's really annoying. He's what I imagine my Dad is like at work. He jokes just like this and he's a boss at his job, so I can just hear the fake laughs from the embarrassed employees.

David interviews: “What upsets me about the job? Umm..” He takes a moment to think about how to turn the question around so that he can praise himself some more and then says: “Wasted.. talent. Yeah?” By which he means that people could come to him and ask “[blabla jargon about running a team]”. “But they don't. That's the tragedy.” And a smug look at the camera. I love how he does that, just looking at the interviewer off camera, then closing his eyes, and when he opens them they're looking into the camera. His lips pursed smugly. He thinks he's coming off so smart.

Season 1, Episode 1, Part 1: "The Boss"

I'm going to try some Television Without Pity type recaps of The Office. I've done most of ep 1 now, but I realize it's a lot of text, so I'm going to divide it into five parts according to the chapters on the dvd menu. This is the first one where we are introduced to David Brent.

The dvd menu can be annoying. It's authentic office noises. Like the phone ringing and people moving stacks of papers and copy machines going. It's very annoying after a while. I'd rather hear a song. But yeah, it does work as a part of the show, like the static of working that goes on between the scenes. Each menu opens with outlines being drawn and then it completes into a real photo. Like a desk is outlined first and then you see a real desk. There are no people in the menus. It's kind of a cool effect, only the noises annoy me.

Off to Gosford station and Car Park, where the very understated and British title sequence plays. This is really just a part of the drab life in the office: driving to work through a grey morning, watching grey buildings. It's almost depressing, as it should be. The song is nice, because it somehow captures that feeling. I can imagine lyrics going, “Life is sad, but it's no better for anyone else.”

We open on a very typical David Brent smile, as he is clicking a pen and clearly preparing to say something “wise”or “funny”. He tilts his head back and looks up, as if he doesn't know what to say, but as he starts talking, it really sounds like he rehearsed the speech at home, in front of a mirror. “I don't give shitty jobs. If a good man..” Cue the finger-pointing gesture, which also looks like he rehearsed it at home... “comes to me and says, thank you David for the opportunity and continued support in the work-related arena...” Every time David says something that complex, it sounds like he doesn't know what he's saying exactly, but he wants it to sound so complicated that it takes a while to think it over, and by the time people figure out it meant absolutely nothing, he's already on to something else that makes more sense. Basically, his point is that if someone wants to move on in their career, he can make it happen. Except that he expresses it in a more “fancy” way: “I can make it come true, too – a.k.a, to you”, running his hands through his hair and then pointing at him again, lifting his eyebrows gleefully. I don't think he knows what “a.k.a.” means. And he manages to continue with another cliché and poorly placed Latin phrase, “You talk the talk, you don't walk the walk, vis-a-vis, you've not yet passed your forklift driver's test.” Without letting the other guy speak, he tells him happily that the supervisor at the warehouse “IS a personal friend of mine” and gets on the phone. Yeah, I bet they're all personal friends of David's. The whole company is one big happy family, and he's like the Dad. Only he doesn't realize it's more like Full House and he's Joey.

Very smugly, Brent calls the warehouse supervisor. He does that thing where you're talking on the phone, but you're also showing off to the person next to you, so you make stupid jokes and generally act like an idiot. Of course, Brent is also mugging for the camera and trying to impress the person on the phone with his wittiness, so it's more like a triple act. He opens with, “Sammy, you old SLAG! It's Brentmeister general.” He winks at the guy sitting in the office. He tells Sammy he has the guy for the forklift driver's job. “Has he passed the test? He gives the tests!” He does a Pinocchio's nose gesture, obviously thinking it's hilarious. “He's first-aid trained, yeah.” He makes a cross over his chest. It's both funny and sad how unprofessional he is. He promises a CV this afternoon, gesturing to his right and making typing gestures. The guy seems confused and looks to Brent's right, not really knowing if he should go type it right now. Pretty nonsensically, Brent says, “I'm seeing you Sunday then? For my sins..” Huh? So it's like..confession? Or a punishment? I didn't get it. He concludes with, “How is Elaine? Has she dumped you yet?” His smile freezes and turns into a kind of grimace as he ends the call and tells the guy, “She has dumped him, I forgot about that” and looks nervously into the camera. Hee! It's just one of those awkward moments. This time we don't see Sammy's reaction, so it's just a throwaway line in a way, but it serves to introduce us to David and his idiotic humor.

We see people working at their desks. These moments are easy to ignore, but they really serve to make the show look more like a real documentary and less like a rehearsed and scripted sitcom. David picks up the phone and the camera shoots him from outside his office. I wonder for a moment why they show him just saying, “David Brent!” but of course – this is the first episode, so they must introduce him to the viewers. I mean, those viewers who aren't watching this on their dvds for the hundredth time and analyzing every second of it. David voice-overs that he's been in the paper industry for 12 years, and at Wernham Hogg for 8 of them. The camera follows David as he tells us he'll introduce his team to us. First up is Dawn Tinsley, receptionist. Dawn looks younger and a bit thinner than in season 2. Her hair is in a ponytail. It always looks a bit weird to me when Dawn has her hair tied – cute, but weird, as she usually has it hanging open in a kind of unkempt look. It resembles my hair in that way. David can't resist a stupid joke about how all guys in the office have “worked at the crack of dawn”. He laughs childishly. Dawn is understandably pissed and says, “What?!” David doesn't know how to defend his joke, so he simply looks down in embarrassment for a moment. There's just this silent moment, very typical for the Office. Most shows cut out these moments, and it's a shame, because it's really comedy at its finest.

“Any MAIL?” David asks, and he makes “mail” sound like it's an imitation of some British comic, but I don't know them well enough to be sure. Dawn gives him a fax, which is from the head office. David says he's told Dawn before there's a “special filing cabinet” for these. “Called the waste paper basket!” yells David, crumpling the paper and throwing it at a confused Dawn. She tries hard to laugh at the lame joke, and David points to her and laughs, “Look at her face!” What he doesn't do: ask her for the fax back and actually read it.

David interview. “People say I'm the best boss.” I love how he's often talking about what people say about him, but we never hear people say that. Has anyone actually told him this? He claims that people tell him he motivates people and he's “a laugh”. Mock-modestly, he says, “I go, c'est la vie.. if that's true.. excellent.” He turns to the camera with a very smug smile on his face, nodding. Also - “c'est la vie”? That's the third poorly placed foreign phrase he's used.

More banter with Dawn, who looks like she's trying to do her job and humor her annoying boss at the same time. I think we all know the feeling. “Be gentle with me today, Dawn,” says David, kind of inappropriately. Dawn asks why, because she has to, really. David says he was out with Chris Finch last night, and “El vino did flow!” He makes a ridiculous drinking gesture. He stutters about being “blow..bladdered... blottered” or something. It's too British for me, and I'm not sure if he's trying to pretend to be drunk or just generally stuttering. What he is doing is making a fool of himself. He really seems to think it makes him cool and interesting when he talks about drinking. “Don't ever go out with me and Finchy,” he says as a joke. “No, I won't,” says Dawn and totally means it. Her body language is pretty effective here: she talks in a low voice and keeps looking away from David, completely straight-faced as David is joking and laughing. David, of course, doesn't get the hint, and starts talking about his favourite topic: himself. “There's guys my age and they look 50.” He asks how old Dawn thinks he looks, and Dawn starts, “Thirtys..” “Thirty, yeah,” David interrupts. This must be self-irony from Ricky Gervais. He actually looks a lot younger when he's not doing Brent. It's the goatee and slick-back hair, I think.

David is already leaving Dawn's desk, as he says he has to slow down and he's drinking too much - “if every single night of the week is too much”. “And every lunchtime,” returns Dawn. Of course, David can't handle someone else making a joke at his expense, and starts asking how much Dawn thinks he's drunk this week, if she's counting. “You seem to know a lot about my drinking – does it offend you?” he says. Dawn is shocked he took it seriously. It's scenes like these that really imply David isn't as big-headed as he acts. Maybe he's just really really insecure and has to be popular. David says Dawn is getting personal, and he could do the same with her, “say something really witty and biting, like you're a bit...but I won't.” I wonder if he actually had something to fill in that sentence but thought better of it, or if he really couldn't think of anything to say. Knowing David's wit and the fact that Dawn has no immediate physical flaws, it's probably the latter. In a very typical Brent moment, David says, “Cos I'm a professional. And professionalism is...” He makes a small hand gesture and stares at it for a moment, not knowing how to continue. “And that is what I want, OK? That's all.” Hee! Every time he tries to define something, he just can't think of what to say. He acts like he said something really wise and professional. He signals that by adjusting his tie and making a little smirk at the camera. I bet he thought that would look awesome on the show. David leaves, saying “That's a shame.” Dawn can only be quiet and swallow her anger yet again. To her credit, she doesn't grimace after David or flip him, but if the camera weren't there, she just might.

A shot of the office that makes it look like it's almost completely empty. It's early in the morning. We see Gareth walk in, and in the first Tim/Gareth moment of the series, Gareth slaps Tim from the back with his paper and goes, “Whazzuup!” Tim is not amused and yells, “Don't do that!” He mutters something. I think I discerned the word “Jesus”. Gareth sits down, still staring at Tim, and says stupidly, “What, is it the time of the month?” If he were saying that at a woman, it would be really annoying, but here it's even dumber. He really doesn't understand that he is annoying to other people. Very much like David in that way. Just like David, he immediately starts begging for Tim's attention by bragging with his big night out: “Just the eight pints for me last night then...that's all..” Tim, like Dawn earlier, tries to avoid eye contact. The difference is that Gareth isn't his boss, so he doesn't even have to pretend he cares. Gareth laughs nervously in this stilted fake-laugh way. He opens his tabloid and goes, “Oh no. Oh god. 'Boss and Team Leader in Drunken Night Out Shock Horror.'” That always cracks me up – it's such a pathetic attempt at being funny and getting a reaction out of Tim. Why would they call him “team leader” in the headline even if they did write about it? I always found that a very Gareth detail. Nice touch. Tim stares off into space looking sad, and Gareth continues his sad little monologue: he's going out with Oggy, “another quiet night at the library.. Not! I don't think!” More nervous laughter and absolutely no reaction from Tim.

Ricky and Stephen

This blog is going to be my commentary and analysis on The Office UK, and possibly also Extras and anything else Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant do. I'm gonna start with this very biased observation: These guys are brilliant. They are geniuses. I kiss their feet in open admiration. OK, maybe that sounds a bit smarmy, but I really think The Office UK is the best sitcom ever and possibly the best TV show ever, in terms of quality and subtle yet very effective humor.

I was watching the 1st season DVD yesterday, with the long documentary "How I Made The Office by Ricky Gervais". There were several interesting facets about it, but I'll start with a brief account of observations on the show creators, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

In the beginning of the documentary, Merchant says: "The thing about Ricky is that he's... um.. the most irritating man I've ever met." No argument there; both Lucy Davis (Dawn), Martin Freeman(Tim), and Mackenzie Crook(Gareth) attest to it. Freeman imitates the voices he makes - "Aa! Aa!" and Crook carefully admits that "He has a .. capacity to be annoying." Davis says, "Why is he annoying? So many reasons." Even Gervais himself seems to agree with it. He says it's his art, because a lot of the scenes on the show come from that. He starts to do his "windscreen wipers on glasses" thing on Merchant, who says, "Don't do it now, seriously don't do it now, cos I'll go mental." He calms down. It really seems like it is as Merchant says: he will go on until he gets a reaction. And even in a short interview like this- yeah, he does seem irritating.

Don't get me wrong. I really like Ricky Gervais' humor. I've never seen him not be funny - podcasts, Animals, Politics, anything. He is funny. He is intelligent, because all of his humor is really smart stuff. He makes good observations. But I don't think I'd like to be his friend. He's the kind of guy who will poke you just for fun until you either laugh or get mad. He's the kind of guy who thinks annoying equals funny, and if you get mad ,that's part of the joke. I don't think I'd like to hang out with him for very long. Even the video reel of them writing episodes together shows him just goofing off.

Stephen Merchant seems completely different. He is calm, jokes verbally without weird sounds and overexcitable movements, and generally seems like the kind of guy who wouldn't annoy the hell out of you. He's the straight man, even if he's as funny and intelligent as Gervais. He doesn't put on a show. In some ways they are really similar, but there's a certian dignity about Merchant that there isn't about Gervais. Even their names in the credits - Stephen vs the more nickname-sounding, boyish Ricky. I think Stephen Merchant is the kind of guy who can also be calm and serious if he wants to.

Maybe it's this difference between them that makes them work so well together. Gervais is there to bring the excitement and creative madness, while Merchant balances it with a more calm approach. They seem to have the same basic sense of humor, but different ways of exhibiting it. It's a good balance.