The pilot episode of the American version - I think I should delete the word "pilot" and insert "only"; surely they won't show the other remade episodes if they have made them - has a near identical set to the original version; a near identical script (though some of the 'near the knuckle' references from the original have been written out); and a cast of characters who in a bad light, with your contacts out and your cataracts in, almost look like the original actors but it just gets everything wrong. Steven Carell, who fills the shoes of Ricky Gervais, attempts to play the David Brent character (renamed as Michael Scot in the American version) as a wholesale rip from Gervais performance - tic for tic; sly glances to the fictional documentary camera; and even the attempt at the best fake laugh this side of an audience at a
David Baddiel* Stand Up Show. However, it just doesn't come off. And the guy playing Gareth? For some reason, the makers of the American version thought that they would get an actor who looks like the lovechild of Garrison Keillor and Olive from 'On The Buses' fame to play the part. That is the most interesting part of his performance.And what does Ricky Gervais himself make of the American version?
"I've watched the pilot. It's good. It's quite faithful to the original."But it's weird for me because I can't look at it objectively. I think anyone who's seen our version will find it weird. But it's not aimed at us Brits, it's aimed at 250 million Americans who've never heard of The Office."So I don't know what will happen really, but neither do I care. It's nothing to do with me. We handed over the rights and now it's up to them. I wish them luck."David Brent couldn't have excused it away better himself.
*As Baddiel is a fake comedian, I thought I would link to a pic of a fake David Baddiel.
12 comments:
I couldn't watch the Office - too close to Real Life (TM) for comfort. Fingernails-down-the-chalkboardingly painful to watch.
Hak Mao
I'd give you the same advice I've given to other people who find it too true to life to watch.
Watch it two times.
First time round, watch it through your fingers, flinching and looking away when it is too painful and embarrassing to watch.
Second time round with your head in a vice and directed at the screen (so you can't turn away),and with the eyelids pinned back just like that scene from 'Clockwork Orange'. Just so you can get all the excellent visual gags at the second time of watching.
I may yet take your advice one day. It was almost 10 years ago (that I worked for the Brent clone), and it still makes me cringe...
BTW - off topic, but you are a bit parsimonious with the links in your "worth a gander" section comrade. Sniff.
Hak Mao
Aye, sorry about that.
I'm a bit of a techno cretin and I need a lot of dutch courage before tackling my template. I'll try and get it rectified in the next couple of days, and have the good manners to reciprocate the good faith of others by adding some more links. And that includes the Victor Serge loving cat from Down Under ;-)
BTW - I love 'The Case of Comrade Tulayev'. A great novel, but I absolutely hate 'Conquered City'. A terrible read.
If you are worried about your template, click in the template window and press [ctrl]-A (selects everything) and then [ctrl]-C to copy it, then paste it into Notepad and save it as "thetemplatewhichwasworkingbeforeistartedfuckingwithit.txt" (or somesuch) - check that everything is there (just in case). Edit your bits and pieces, preview before you actually save your changes. If there's a disaster, you can retrieve the original template from the txt file...
Cheers for the suggestions, but my techno phobia is well founded. An aversion to all things electrical coupled with a Bolshy PC (it must have sussed out that I'm a Menshevik) that has twice now in the past week cut out suddenly whilst I was half way through *cough* composing a post, thus losing my sawdust prose to the cyber space ether, has meant that I now approach the PC to start writing a post in the same way that Robert De Niro puts that gun to his head in the Russian Roulette scene from 'The Deer Hunter'; the next click could be oblivion. ;-)
As it is self-evident that you are technically minded about these things, any idiot proof suggestions on posting mp3s on a person's blog? I have this overwhelmingy desire to inflict my taste in music on an unsuspecting blogging population.
Thanks in advance for any tips.
Sounds like your PC is sick. What OS do you have, how old is it, how much free space is there on the hard drive... Email me the details, and I'll see what I can suggest in the way of maintenance.
You can't store MP3s on blogger - one option would be to set up a Yahoo Groups account (http://groups.yahoo.com/), which allows for about 30MB of storage (I think), and direct people there.
Hak Mao (hakmao at oztralia dot com)
That posting catastrophe used to happen to me regularly. Nowadays if I am posting something biggish I'll do it in word and save it then cut and paste.
P.S what happened round here, you miss a day or 2 then suddenly you go and get all prolific!
I think I will try and stick to the short posts in future.
That's three longish posts that have went awol in the last week (albeit all were variations on the same theme).
PS - If you look through my archives - not like I'm trying to get me stats up or anything ;-) - but that is the pattern. Short bursts of blogging activity followed by longish silences. I can't explain but it is consistent with the rest of my life. ;-)
I feel a Lord Lucan moment coming on.
The bigger question is...when are you going to score me a copy? I'm dying to how they bastardize one of the best tv comedies of all time. Help a brother out! :)
*sotto voce and looking distinctly shifty* You didn't hear this from me right, but if you click on the following link - and register on the website - then you will be able to download the episode. Make sure to d/l it soon in case the good taste police take the torrent down. (Search in the comedy section.)
http://delirium-vault.com:6666/
If you edit posts in M$ Word, you will end up with all sorts of smart quotes and em-dashes etc which won't render properly in many browsers. Much better you use Wordpad.
Hak Mao
Post a Comment