US versus UK: The Office

The Office is a show that has become hugely popular across the globe. Starting as a small project between friends Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant in the early 2000s, the Office has grown not only into one of the most popular and endearing British television programs since Monty Pythons' Flying Circus, it has also been remade six times in six different countries and four different languages, including a US version, Israeli version, German Version, French version, Quebec Version, and a Chilean version with a Chinese adaptation of the show coming down the pike. The Office has succeed in so many different cultures and places because of the show's easily adaptable format with the idiotic and incompetent boss, the love triangle between the receptionist, her finance, and the laid back sales person, and the egotistical socially awkward sidekick to said buffoon of a boss.

The quality of these adaptations is almost always top notch, and fans have been split arguing and bickering over which one is the best. For the purpose brevity, I will compare only the merits of the American version of the show, and the British original starting with characters and moving on to the overall pros and cons of both series.

The Boss:

Us: Michael Scott

Michael Scott is the Regional Manager of the Scranton Branch of the Dunder Mifflin papercompany. Michael's character is portrayed as moronic, immature, and often times irrat

ional and lacking in self esteem. Much of the humor that Michael Scott brings to the show is his often times drastic overreactions to situations in the office (such as when he locked his entire staff

in the conference room to show them that prison is worse than working at Dunder Mifflin when they joked around about how

prison was better) and his many instances of pure idiocy (driving his car into a lake because his GPS told him to). Michael seeks the approval of his co-workers to an incredible degree, going so far as to grow a goatee because one of them did. He shows genuine caring for his staff (with the exception Toby) and complete devotion to his company, unlike his UK counterpart David Brent. However, despite his obvious incompetency as a boss, he has often times been shown to be an extremely good salesperson who may have been promoted too high up in the company. In terms of character depth, Michael never really passes the level of sympathetic buffoon.

His finest moment: My personal favorite Michael Scott moment on the show is in season four where he has some severe finance troubles and is advised to declare bankruptcy, where he takes the suggestion a tad literally:

UK: David Brent

David Brent is the Regional Manager for the Slough branch of the

Wernham Hogg paper company. David and Micheal share an unfunny and oftentimes offensive sense of humor (David leaning towards offensive) and despite this hold the belief that they are actually very funny. However, the two characters are almost as far apart as possible while still being different versions of the same archtype. Brent, unlike Michael, does not care for his workers, and only acts like he does as a front for the documentary cameras that are filming him. He seeks less their approval and friendship and he only wants them to find him funny. David, like Michael, can be a competent boss at times. His branch was doing better financially than future rival Neil's branch was, and he was almost promoted to a corporate position. However, Brent fell apart when the cameras came into the office to film the documentary that the Office pretends it is. He often hams it up for the camera, letting his actual work duties take a back seat. His ego explodes as he becomes a small time celebrity and at one point he even blows off fixing a pay issue of one of his workers to brain storm a game show he wants to create and host. Brent's humor and depth as a character come from his many delusions of grandeur, his over inflated ego, and his utter ineptitude as a manager. Brent is seen as a jerk of a character, wanting only fame and praise upon himself and not caring for others. He is often rude, inappropriate, and very awkward.

His finest moment: My favorite David Brent moment is an episode in series two when on 'fun day' his boss and rival Neil (who is everything David wants to be) does a dance for charity that gets rave reviews from the office staff. David then attempts to one up him.

David Brent Dance - watch more funny videos

And the Winner is...

David Brent. While Michael is a wonderful and very funny character, David just operates on so many other levels than just humor. He is an inherently unlikeable yet sympathetic character who ruined a good job and a fairly good life to try and showboat around for some cameras. David Brent's various delusions, mannerisms, short comings, and complete obviousness to what he is saying and doing entertain me on a level much deeper than Michael's idiocy. David Brent's saga over the two seasons of the original office is more of a drama and character study than a light hearted sitcom.

Thats all for today's post. Next post I make in the UK vs US version will focus on the second lead characters, that is Jim and Pam from the US version and Tim and Dawn from the UK version.

And to finish off this post, here is a clip where the two bosses finally meet: