In shocking news, the American version of The Office is not as good as its British counterpart.
In other news, I weigh in on The Office.
“It is not as good as the British version.” – DC
But really, I saw the first episode on Thursday night, and while it has its charms, I think it will ultimately fail with American audiences for a couple of reasons. First, Steve Carrell is no Ricky Gervais. Simply put, Gervais was The Office. While Carrell brings some of his own inspired goofiness to the table, the tragi-comic genius of Gervais is noticeably missing. The main reason you had to watch, and at times look away, from The Office, was because you had to see what David Brent was going to do next. The other reason I don’t think The Office is going to last long is that most Americans like their stories happy and their comedy obvious, The Office, is neither of these things (which not necessarily a bad thing).