British Critic Pours the Haterade on American Office

Dear me, the Guardian's (UK) TV and Radio blogger Steven Wells has just given the American remake of The Office a backwards peace sign, thus reinvigorating a debate three years too late:

"It's rubbish. The American Office is a dysfunctional and unfunny pastiche of the original. When the British version first aired, I met several Americans who thought it was a documentary. 'Is England really that awful?' asked one. Where the original is nail-bitingly excruciating, the US Office – dumbed down to the point of being insulting – is comfort food for liberals . . .

"When the original Office was shown on US TV, BBC America plugged it with a street interview with an enthusiastic US fan who said: 'If you don't see some of yourself in David Brent, then you are David Brent.'

"The same simply can't be said of Steve Carell's two-dimensional and entirely unsympathetic Michael Scott. He's an Aunt Sally. A straightforward sad bastard to be straightforwardly laughed at. In short, where the BritOffice had you hiding behind the sofa AmeriOffice has you falling asleep on it. And yet it is huge."

Now, I'm more partial to Ricky Gervais' original as well, but there's room for both in this world, no? Just because one has the audacity to cater to an American audience doesn't mean it doesn't have other things going for it, like Jenna Fischer. I suppose my unnatural love for Jenna Fischer matches Steven Wells' unholy hatred for Steve Carell. On the karmic scale of things, I'd say that about evens things out.