I don't have BBC America, but they're releasing the special on DVD November 17th.

It is one of the best shows I have ever seen on TV. I began watching it while living in Britain and couldn't recommend it enough to friends back home.

I will say, I think the Emmy's are shit and not worth watching. But when they honored the show and Ricky Gervais last year, I was actually proud that people actually got it.

I don't have BBC America, but they're releasing the special on DVD November 17th.

It is one of the best shows I have ever seen on TV. I began watching it while living in Britain and couldn't recommend it enough to friends back home.

I will say, I think the Emmy's are shit and not worth watching. But when they honored the show and Ricky Gervais last year, I was proud that people actually got it.

Agh.

I'm glad that at least one reader saw it.

A friend told me to watch it, but he gave it one of those fan-boy "Best Show Ever" reviews that immediately turned me off. And for the first show or two I was ambivalent about it.

But once I was hooked, I was hooked. These two guys -- with barely any real experience together -- put together one of the most original and realistic comedies ever.

Oh -- and funny, too, of course.

But there are some shows that are funny and there are some shows that are both funny and great, and they keep being interesting even after the jokes have been heard too many times to be funny anymore. They're great because they tell a great story that actually works as a drama or romance.

I think Airplane! is actually like that -- the story is cliched and dopey, but cliches are used so often because they're so powerful, and even after the jokes in Airplane aren't funny anymore, I still want Striker to get together with the girl in the end.

Young Frankenstein too. Something About Mary. Some of the dumbest comedies actually have a solid dramatic story at their heart that continues being interesting once the laughs are gone.

Dear Acehouse Forum:

It's pretty funny and just like you describe. I watched the first season on DVD with two girls and a guy friend, and us guys were cracking up and the girls were yawning.

I wonder if there's a girl/guy divide on liking this series. Have any of your readers experienced anything like this?

One woman I know found it too damn painful to watch for a time. I think maybe men are a little less sensitive to how awful the show really is, because, quite frankly, we behave that way a good amount of the time in real life so it doesn't seem quite as bad to us.

I hate to admit it, but I can see a lot of myself in David Brent.

I think women might be a little too repelled by him to like the show.

"I think women might be a little too repelled by him to like the show. "

that and the exquisitely contrived painfulness of the whole thing. I got pretty depressed when Finchy threw the main character's shoes over the pub.

David Brent strikes me as a tragicomic figure in the Ignatius J. Reilly mold. A legend in his own mind worthy of strangling, but you just feel so damn bad for the guy in the end. I just put on the final episode really quick, and remember how cringe-worthy so much of the show is. It really is like watching a train-wreck, if only because you realize that you've acted in exactly the same foolish way yourself.

What makes the show is how true to themselves the characters remain throughout the whole series. They don't rely on cheap slapstick or forced wit to be funny. And just when you think characters like Brent or Gareth are about to go over the top, you realize you know people like that. You've worked with them. Who, working in an office, hasn't made the same faces at a Gareth across their desk the way Tim does? Who hasn't waited forever to ask out the unrequited love, only to have their heart crushed when it doesn't work out at all like it does in the movies?

It's a depressing, poignant show. I think people make a mistake going in thinking it's a comedy. It's funny, but in that uncomfortable, embarrassed laughter way, where you're going "Oh nooooooo" in your mind.

But yeah, one of the best shows ever. Can't wait to see the special.

Gotta. See. The Special.

Gotta. See. The Special.

Not really super funny, and awfully painful through the first hour -- some of the worst Brent stuff you've seen. But awesome ending that makes it a perfect epilogue.

Just wanted to throw a bit of horror out there.

NBC is making an American version of the show with Steve Carrell of the Daily Show in the David Brent role.

What could possibly go wrong . . .

There's a little David Brent in all of us. Here I am posting on a blog under a fake name and thinking people care. Because I'm so smart and witty, you see.

(Long pull at the Valu-rite Vodka bottle; loads pistol.)

At least I'm not Finchy.

I think that the mainstream media is the eyes, and bloggers like Instapundit the mind, and bloggers like LGF the heart.

And what part of the body am I?

The humor.

I absolutely love The Office. I just wish they had decided to do more than two 6 episode seasons. Ah well. I have both seasons on DVD, and I saw the special episode shortly after it aired in the UK. I pulled it down off the net. It's a great way to wrap up the show. I, too, was worried that Tim and Dawn would never get together, so the end was quite satisfying.

I'm also a huge fan of Coupling, which is another great BBC show.

I can't relate. I find the office to be a very easy place to hop from one bed to another. Must be a British thing. They seem to have a very hard time with sex.

The Office is a dead funny series, haven't seen the two hour movie yet, I get BBC Canada and they are usually a few weeks behind BBC America

you would never know it from reading the Guardian and other leftist rantings, but the Brits do have finely tuned wit and wicked sense of humour, actually I have plenty of British friends too

I also like the show Manchild, kind of like Sex in the City except for middle aged men, two divorced, one married and one never married.....

Ah Mark, I think that is part of the comedy because from what I've seen and read, the younger generation of Brits especially outshag their American counterparts quite easily......

To suggest an answer to your question, I think Gareth might be saying "Careful, she's got a fiance."

I and several other women I know love the show. I don't see anything in it that wouldn't be funny to women.

upnights,

I considered that, but he doesn't say enough syllables for it to be that. It also sounds nothing like that.

I thought maybe he was saying "Careful, she's got kids," the reference to the babies she's taking care of, but it doesn't sound quite like that either, and that doesn't make sense. Gareth would know that she didn't have kids.

Not to obsess - but - I watched that part of the tape again, and Gareth says, with the British usage of omitting the article, speaking quickly and accenting it as "fiANce": "Careful, she's got fiance." And then Dawn who says "Not anymore," telling them the news.