Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #394 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-11-22
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 4
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 437 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
It feels both inaccurate and inadequate to describe The Office as a comedy. On a superficial level, it disdains all the conventions of television sitcoms: there are no punch lines, no jokes, no laugh tracks, and no cute happy endings. More profoundly, it's not what we're used to thinking of as funny. Most of the fervently devoted fan base watched with a discomfortingly thrilling combination of identification and mortification. The paradox is that its best moments are almost physically unwatchable. Set in the offices of a fictional British paper merchant, The Office is filmed in the style of a reality television show. The writing is subtle and deft, the acting wonderful, and the characters beautifully drawn: the cadaverous team leader Gareth (Mackenzie Crook); the monstrous sales rep, Chris Finch (Ralph Ineson); and the decent but long-suffering everyman Tim (Martin Freeman), whose ambition and imagination have been crushed out of him by the banality of ! the life he dreams uselessly of escaping. The show is stolen, as it was intended to be, by insufferable office manager David Brent, played by codirector-cowriter Ricky Gervais. Brent will become a name as emblematic for a particular kind of British grotesque as Basil Fawlty, but he is a deeper character. Fawlty is an exaggeration of reality, and therefore a safely comic figure. Brent is as appalling as only reality can be. --Andrew Mueller

The second series exceeded even the sky-high standards of the first. Indeed, it ventured beyond caricature and satire, touching on the very edge of darkness. Ricky Gervais is once again excruciatingly superb as David Brent, but in this series, Brent's to-the-camera assertions concerning his management qualities and executive capabilities are seriously challenged when the Slough and Swindon branches are merged and his former Swindon equivalent Neil (Patrick Baladi) takes over as area manager. To compensate, Brent cultivates his pathologically mistaken image of himself as an entertainer-motivator-comedian whose stage happens to be the workplace. Meanwhile, Tim, who can only maintain his sanity by teasing the priggish Gareth, continues to wrestle with his yearning for receptionist Dawn Tinsley (Lucy Davis), a sympathetic character persisting in a relationship with a man about whom she still maintains unspoken reservations. As ever, it's the awkward, reality TV-style pauses and silences, the furtive, meaningful and unmet glances across the emotional gulf of the open-plan office, that say it all here. As for Brent, his own breakdown is prefaced by a moment of hideous hilarity--an impromptu office dance, a mixture of "Flashdance and MC Hammer" as Brent describes it, but in reality bad beyond description. Then, when his fate is sealed, he at last reveals himself in a memorable finale to perhaps the greatest British sitcom, besides Fawlty Towers, ever made. --David Stubbs

The brilliant and devastating comedy of The Office is brought to a satisfying conclusion in The Office Special, originally a two-part Christmas special on the BBC, set three years after the end of the faux-documentary's second season. The former office manager David (Ricky Gervais) now ekes out a desperate existence as an oblivious quasi-celebrity, making awkward, humiliating visits back to the office staff he still believes loves him. Gawky Gareth (Mackenzie Crook) has risen to manager and become a petty tyrant, while the sweet but snide Tim (Martin Freeman) continues to pine for former receptionist Dawn (Lucy Davis), who fled to Florida with her fiance. When the documentary crew pays for Dawn to return for the holiday party, an unpredictable reunion looms ahead. The Office fuses scathing humor and genuine empathy, turning excruciating social discomfort into inspired satire. Fans will find this special rewarding in all respects. --Bret Fetzer

Synopsis
A documentary film crew follows David Brent, regional manager of the Slough branch of Paper Merchants, Wernham Hogg as he and his 'team' go about their business. As David works he manages to alienate, belittle, embarrass and offend just about everyone who works with him... Features the all the episodes from Series One and Two, plus the two Christmas Specials.

Customer Reviews

Your office, my office
It's a dark "Dilbert," a realistic "Office Space." Hit Brit-comedy "The Office" takes mockumentaries to the small screen, featuring the hilariously unfunny David Brent, and his unhappy employees. This three-pack includes both seasons, plus the satisfying holiday special, which also serves as the grand finale.

The first season opens with David Brent (Ricky Gervais) learning that either his branch or another branch of paper corporation Wenham-Hogg will shortly be downsized. So this wannabe-comedian sets out to prove that his branch is better, stumbling as he tries. Trailing in his wake is bored everyman Tim (Martin Freeman), dead-looking yes-man Gareth (MacKenzie Crook), and pretty, quietly cynical receptionist Dawn (Lucy Davis).

The second season, while more unsteady than the first, takes some new and darker steps. Now David's rival Neil (Patrick Baladi) is his boss, and David has a slew of new employees who are less than thrilled about his racist jokes, chicken suits, and the lack of any actual work going on. Dawn becomes jealous when Tim gets a girlfriend, and Gareth searches for any way to bed Tim's girlfreind. And after a catastrophic managerial meeting, David learns that the next downsizing just might be him...

After the dismal ending of the second season, the feature-length "Office Special" provides a satisfying wrap up. Three years later, everyone from Wenham-Hogg -- including those who no longer work there -- is being called back for a special reunion. Tim is given one last chance to win Dawn's affections, and David finally learns the truth about himself. (Anyone disappointed by the end of the second season had better check out the new endings)

Don't expect a typical sitcom in "The Office." No laughtracks. No punch lines. No gag humor... well, not much. And no episode has a clear-cut ending. Instead, we have the format seen in "This is Spinal Tap" and the Christopher Guest mockumentaries -- hidden cameras watching the madness. And what those cameras see is enough to make the world's cubicle-dwellers cry. Okay, most offices don't have giant inflatable genitalia, or a comedy-for-charity day, but the core of it is frighteningly close to home.

The series gets off to a slightly bumpy start -- at first, the jokes are a bit too thinly-spread. But soon "The Office" gets its footing and the humor steadies itself ("Tim's put my stapler inside a jelly again. That's the third time he's done it!" Gareth complains, displaying the stapler in a Jell-O mold). And a lot of the humor is a subversive, subtle kind -- it creeps into your mind, and by episode two you'll be laughing your head off at David's bad jokes, his spastic chimp dance, and his prejudices hidden behind a veil of political correctness.

Ricky Gervais is brilliant -- David is every bit as annoying and obnoxious as the immortal Basil Fawlty, but hides it under a genial mask and stupid jokes. Mackenzie Crook is wonderful as the obsequious boot-licker with a bit of a sex fixation; his Dirty Bertie toy is one of the most tasteless, horribly funny scenes on TV. Tim, like Dilbert, is a lovable loser who can't get himself out of his soul-sucking job. And Dawn is mired in a relationship with an obnoxious cheapskate, yet it takes her the whole series to finally do something about it.

Clearly destined for cult status, this is "The Office" as it was meant to be, with a darkly funny storyline culminating in a satisfying finale. Funny, strange and immensely entertaining.

The Comedy of Embarrassment
I think genius is not too strong a word to describe the comic talents of Gervais and Merchant's in their conception, writing, acting and casting. I also think that The Office is not only fantastically tears-running-down-your-face-funny but also important in the history of TV Comedy. Somehow, without demonising him, Gervais gives us a monstrous egotist called David Brent who challenges our attitudes to modern social values, ruthlessly exposes workplace politics, and shakes us out of our apathetic comfort zones. The fly-on-the-wall mockumentary format is marvellously effective in emphasising the unbearably cringe making moments - it says "that really happens, it's hilarious, but it's awful". The humour is in how the blinkered and self-deluding Brent is blissfully unaware of what a complete prat he really is; such a desperately lonely loser that we actually feel some sympathy for him (even after his office party dance - one of the funniest TV moments of the decade). The series is also refreshingly non-PC and, like Father Ted, is likely to offend over sensitive souls, but it is so much more relevant and profound than those dreadful middle class British sitcoms like "Keeping Up Appearances" or "zany" candyfloss USA shows. The casting is also perfect - Gareth, Tim and Finchy all memorable creations and the satirical take on modern management style, business guru buzzwords, motivational techniques, team building exercises etc are all mercilessly lampooned. Gervais' delivery is absolutely perfectly timed - the pauses and sidelong glances, facial expressions and pretentious gestures, as funny as the lines. Brent embarrasses us and makes us think. OK Alf Garnett did that in the 60s and 70s and Alan Partridge more recently but a measure of the greatness of the show is that anyone who has worked in an office can relate to the characters and events without too much effort. Finally, it's a show that knew when to quit. Last of the Summer Wine PLEASE TAKE NOTE !

A Mockumentary Masterpiece !!!
This show was very innotive and very well done , although it's somewhat an aquired taste ....... like marmite it'll either click very well ..... or it'll be bad viewing if it doesn't click

Done in a very interesting format , not your straight forward sitcom ..... having a more real presence , with a fake documentary style appearance , it was indeed a unique watch at the time !

Best of all , this box set has the whole collection! So yeah great value !
Get it while amazon has the price cut