Before anyone jumps in and says the usual "the one from the UK with Ricky Gervais was so much better!" blah blah blah... I have to say to them "have you actually even tried to watch the USA one?"
The UK one was a trailblazer, that is for sure. Without Gervais and Stephen Merchant having created that one we wouldn't even have the USA version but as someone that has watched all of the UK one and nearly all of the USA one, I can say that this is one of the few shows that have ever traveled from one country to another and been good on both sides.
The Office is one of the few shows that has me absolutely captivated and sadly, I am just a few episodes from being at the end of the line and there will be no more for me to watch. I dread that this is going to happen.
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One's ability to enjoy this show is going to be compounded if they have ever worked in an actual office. I've had a few jobs in offices and some of the office politics, romances, and rivalries are pretty well exhibited in this show. I have had a few bosses that seemed incompetent but just like is the case with Michael Scott (played by Steve Carell), a lot of the time the manager actually cares very deeply about the company they work for as well as the staff that work there. They just have a difficult time balancing being professional and being friendly. Most of the workers reluctantly do what Michael tells them to do because they have to, but then there is also an office suckup that views him as a god.
Dwight perfectly portrays this type of person that exists in almost any office I have ever worked in or even heard of.
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The other characters play their roles just so perfectly as well. We have a couple of people that are much older than their coworkers and they feel a bit alienated because of their age. We also have a few people who everyone just presumes is useless but when the time comes, they are able to figure something out that is absolutely crucial to everyone's benefit. The manager that people see as rather counterproductive to the overall business shows how important they are to the overall operation at certain times and the other workers briefly have a level of respect for them, which they almost immediately screw up by trying to hard to capitalize on this new admiration
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The infamous "parkour" episode doesn't happen until around season 5 or 6 and it kind of shows certain cliques that end up existing in any office. Dwight, Andy, and Michael get involved in silly activities with one another constantly and none of the rest of the office seems to have any interest in it at all.
I suppose you will end up having your own interpretation of how to feel about the characters as you watch it but for the casual viewer I would recommend NOT starting at the beginning but instead maybe skipping ahead to season 3 or 4 and then if it catches you like it did me, go back and watch them all later.
Should I watch it?
Let me tell you something that lets me know that you definitely should. I have a lot of series under the belt and normally I will be watching 2 or 3 of them concurrently. It depends on what kind of mood I am in at evening time as to which I am going to watch. In the past week I have been bypassing all other series including ones that I really like such as Shogun in order to watch only The Office. Even with the assistance of sleeping pills I have been kept awake at night well past my bedtime because I kept telling myself "just one more episode." The next thing I know it is 3am.
Soon this addiction will be behind me because I only have 4 episodes left that exist at all. I will be very disappointed when I no longer have this as a "go to" but perhaps it is for the best so I can get back on a reasonable sleep schedule. There is no such thing as "just one more episode" with this epic series and I highly recommend it to anyone, especially if they have ever worked in an office.
As of this year the only way to legally stream this show in USA is on Peacock. Outside of the USA it is available on Netflix. A wide variety of streaming services have the episodes for sale