Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: The Office season 1 ::
by William the Bloody
Welcome to the Dunder Mifflin paper supply company. Follow the documentary cameras as they capture the day to day dealings of the employees to the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch as they try to make sales to earn their commission, plan birthday parties, play practical jokes, and make confessions one on one to the camera. Okay, so it's not REALLY a documentary, more like a comedy done in that style, a la the Christopher Guest mockumentaries (re: This is Spinal Tap, et al).
The Good: The documentary style for a television comedy is new and innovative and it's about time. No more do we have over the top and overly contrived plot devices! This show is very real to life in not only what happens, but how people act and react to certain circumstances. Basically it's almost just like anyone taking a camera crew to their workplace to capture the goings on. Sometimes it seems boring to you personally, and there's always people who don't get along with each other, the office romance, the boss who tries way too hard to liked, you know, all that jazz. Some of this show's best bits are between coworkers Dwight and Jim who cannot get along. Dwight always tries to flaunt his superiority to Jim, and Jim seems to outwit him on every turn. Good stuff. Episode 4 ("The Alliance") of season 1 is by far my overall favourite because it features heavily on the Dwight-Jim conflict, with episode 6 ("Hot Girl") being a very close second (I totally loved that Dwight's idea of a perfect date with a woman involves a ninja assassination attempt. Good gravy whomever writes this stuff is a genius.).
The Bad: Being quite close to the true to life style makes certain situations hard for me to watch. I have this hang up where I can't stand to see someone in an embarrassing personal situation, and every few episodes that's exactly where bossman Michael Scott (played expertly by Steve Carell nevertheless) seems to put himself time after time. It makes me REALLY uncomfortable to watch people unwittingly put themselves in such positions, because mainly on a show like this I cannot look away. The pilot episode I found suffered more than a little due to the fact that it was tightly based on the British original version, but happily the following episodes were allowed to loosen up and find their own voice.
All in all, The Office rules. It's a comedy like no other, done in its own way with its own style and has no comparison on television. The DVD release of season one has some lovely outtakes and commentaries, but really even though season 1 is only 6 episodes long, it sells itself if you're willing to try it. It's not perfect, with more than a few squirm worthy awkward moments, but it definitely fits this style of "story" telling.
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