Unpopular opinions.

[Dons_1988]

2 minutes ago, GordonS said:

Can't agree with that - the UK Office is 12 episodes and doesn't have time to develop the background characters, so they remain one-dimensional caricatures. Fair enough, we've all worked with them and recognise them, but in my experience people are rarely just one thing.

I'd also say (as I think I did earlier) that The UK Office is too bitter and realistic to be funny, other than in individual moments and in a kind-of smile-through-the-pain way. Much of working life is excruciating shit and I don't find it entertaining to be reminded of it.

 

I'm not trying to knock the US office, but it is definitely more slapstick, feel good comedy than what the UK Office is. I'm not sure I take the point on character development, volume of content doesn't equate to character development. There's good stories in the US Office like Pam, Jim, Darryl etc but they butchered some characters too. Ryan goes from fairly interesting to ridiculous, as does Andy.

The UK Office is very bitter, my wife enjoys it but struggles to watch it too much as she finds herself cringing too much but it's part of the character of it. It's genuinely funny but also very sad too. It captures the feeling of pointlessness of Office life very well and probably holds a mirror up to many people's lives.

[Dons_1988]

1 minute ago, Bairnardo said:

10 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

My unpopular opinion would be that when Ed Sheeran first came on the scene he was good and pretty refreshing for the 'singer/songwriter' genre. Songs like A-team and others on that album are not bad at all.
His popularity became such that he's been sucked into just churning out generic shite song after shite song that I now can't stand him. 

I will agree with you on that. Despite his early stuff not being to my taste either, you could call him a respectable singer songwriter. His popularity levels though were still incomprehensible to me, and now in his Hollywood phase, his music is unbelievably bad.

One of his first songs was that 'you need me, I don't need you' single, which was him saying he won't be pigeon holed into singer/songwriter generic pish and he'd rap etc on songs if he wanted. He definitely won that one....

Well, he probably takes one look at his bank balance and feels he did.

[Sergeant Wilson]

46 minutes ago, GordonS said:

Can't agree with that - the UK Office is 12 episodes and doesn't have time to develop the background characters, so they remain one-dimensional caricatures. Fair enough, we've all worked with them and recognise them, but in my experience people are rarely just one thing.

I'd also say (as I think I did earlier) that The UK Office is too bitter and realistic to be funny, other than in individual moments and in a kind-of smile-through-the-pain way. Much of working life is excruciating shit and I don't find it entertaining to be reminded of it.

 

I think that's the point. It is brilliantly observed and delivered. People at work are one dimensional. Have you ever gone back after a holiday and realised you forgot many of your colleagues existed?

Offices can be bitter and petty places ( @D.A.F.C. ) and they got that in the writing and got the cast perfectly. 

[GordonS]

3 hours ago, Dons_1988 said:

I'm not trying to knock the US office, but it is definitely more slapstick, feel good comedy than what the UK Office is. I'm not sure I take the point on character development, volume of content doesn't equate to character development. There's good stories in the US Office like Pam, Jim, Darryl etc but they butchered some characters too. Ryan goes from fairly interesting to ridiculous, as does Andy.

The UK Office is very bitter, my wife enjoys it but struggles to watch it too much as she finds herself cringing too much but it's part of the character of it. It's genuinely funny but also very sad too. It captures the feeling of pointlessness of Office life very well and probably holds a mirror up to many people's lives.

 

2 hours ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

I think that's the point. It is brilliantly observed and delivered. People at work are one dimensional. Have you ever gone back after a holiday and realised you forgot many of your colleagues existed?

Offices can be bitter and petty places ( @D.A.F.C. ) and they got that in the writing and got the cast perfectly. 

Both of these are true to an extent, but I don't find it either funny or entertaining. 

I didn't find the Ryan character ridiculous - I know a guy who's far too much like that. 

[D.A.F.C]

I think that's the point. It is brilliantly observed and delivered. People at work are one dimensional. Have you ever gone back after a holiday and realised you forgot many of your colleagues existed?
Offices can be bitter and petty places ( [mention=39728]D.A.F.C.[/mention] ) and they got that in the writing and got the cast perfectly. 

[The OP]

Shakespeare missed a trick by making Hamlet a mere 4 hours long as he could’ve fleshed out Polonius’s servant Reynaldo a lot more.

[Father Ted]

14 hours ago, D.A.F.C said:

I mean stuff like this

 

Is it even heavy metal, dunno?

Pearljam, nirvana etc is that not grunge? 
 

How can anyone like stuff like the YouTube tune? Is it just tying to play stuff to annoy people or be edgy?

Its probably the only type of music that I can’t see why people would like it, usually it’s a bunch of red neck Americans.

Each to their own, the crowd numbers that turn up to Download festival and similar would suggest its popular.

You are fully entitled to your opinion.

Grunge is a branch of metal. You can get Nu metal, funk metal, thrash, death and traditional metal to name but a few.

Thought most rednecks would be into country. However that is only my opinion.

[Trackdaybob]

13 hours ago, Bonksy+HisChristianParade said:

You can usually judge if someone’s going to be sound or not by if they like the UK Office.

I agree.

The office is utterly dreadful and only watched  by complete zoomers.

 

 

[Bonksy+HisChristianParade]

1 hour ago, Trackdaybob said:

I agree.

The office is utterly dreadful and only watched  by complete zoomers.

 

 

 

14 hours ago, Bonksy+HisChristianParade said:

Thank you so much for proving my point! It’s a fairly flawless test you can apply to life.

Exhibit B.

[DiegoDiego]

Grunge is a branch of metal.

Well, you're certainly in the right thread.

[Theroadlesstravelled]

The Venn diagram of people who think the UK office is better than the US office and people who clapped for the queen is a perfect circle.

 

[throbber]

On 21/04/2020 at 11:34, Dons_1988 said:

I love the US office to be honest but it's simply not comparable. It's a good American sitcom and Steve Carell is one of the best comedy actors out there. It is not the all encompassing piece of work that the UK Office is.

The American public wouldn’t really have fully appreciated the dry humour of the British show so needed a slapstick version. I agree that they’re not really comparable as the U.K. version had 12 episodes and the American one has 250+ but they are both fantastic, there is hardly an episode in the US one that goes by without something outrageously funny happening. My biggest laugh so far (I’m on series 6) was when Jim faxed Dwight pretending to be from the future telling him the coffee was poisoned and then Dwight charged the length of the office whilst screaming to slap the coffee out of Stanley’s hand.  Usually something whacky like that happens before the opening credits even start which I am also a massive fan of.

My favourite bits of the U.K. office are less obvious moments like how David and Gareth big up Chris Finch as this intellectual powerhouse but when he makes an appearance is the most loathsome, boorish, chauvinistic pig imaginable who refers to his penis as a single barrel pump action yogurt rifle. I also think the character (who’s name I can’t remember) who sits next to Tim in series 2 is criminally underrated and is one I can relate to most IRL. I’m also a massive fan of how Neil Godwin is petty much exactly the individual David Brent perceives himself to be ie well respected by his employees but still funny and approachable. 

I think it’s interesting to compare David and Michael though as they really aren’t that much alike. David is a genuinely tragic and unfunny man who isn’t respected by his staff and this is evident with his relationship with Chris Finch as Brent refers to him as a good friend of his but Finch is nasty to him almost all the time and calls him a fat waste of space because they never won the pub quiz. Michael is genuinely funny a lot of the time without the cringe factor despite being a truly absurd individual. Also you see how Michael really does care about the people in his office like when he’s close to tears because Pam and Jim never told him she was pregnant or when he shows up to Pams art convention and buys one of her pictures because it’s obvious she’s having a bad time of it then frames it and hangs her picture up on the office wall for all to see. Compare that to how David treats Dawn when he takes her along to his motivational speaking seminar or how he shows absolutely no interest in her handing in her notice the second he realises she isn’t doing it because he’s leaving. I could go on forever but like I said, both programmes are superb in their own way.

[Miguel Sanchez]

One of the Freeview channels started showing the US Office some time last year. Two episodes every weekday.  It last for two weeks, until I found it showing one episode a week at something like 6AM on a Sunday morning. Based on what I saw it was absolutely hysterical.

Based on literally everything I've seen of Ricky Gervais and what @Melanius Mullarkey loves posting, I have little interest in watching the original.

[NJ2]

One of the Freeview channels started showing the US Office some time last year. Two episodes every weekday.  It last for two weeks, until I found it showing one episode a week at something like 6AM on a Sunday morning. Based on what I saw it was absolutely hysterical.
Based on literally everything I've seen of Ricky Gervais and what [mention=70922]Melanius Mullarkey[/mention] loves posting, I have little interest in watching the original.

[throbber]

1 hour ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

One of the Freeview channels started showing the US Office some time last year. Two episodes every weekday.  It last for two weeks, until I found it showing one episode a week at something like 6AM on a Sunday morning. Based on what I saw it was absolutely hysterical.

Based on literally everything I've seen of Ricky Gervais and what @Melanius Mullarkey loves posting, I have little interest in watching the original.

I think the original would be right up your street tbh.

44 minutes ago, NJ2 said:

He’s the only character in the US version I don’t like, he just seems stupid and weird for the sake of it. Kind of reminds me of Chris from family guy.

[Derry Alli]

20 minutes ago, throbber said:

He’s the only character in the US version I don’t like, he just seems stupid and weird for the sake of it. Kind of reminds me of 

Try again. 

[throbber]

Just now, Dele said:

Try again. 

Melanius Mullarkey.

[Sergeant Wilson]

1 hour ago, throbber said:

I could go on forever 

It certainly seems like it.

[NotThePars]

On 20/04/2020 at 19:51, Miguel Sanchez said:

The Kooks (and Razorlight) were 2006. The Kooks were at least, Razorlight's first album was earlier than that but the breakthrough came later. Razorlight were also much better, and Johnny Borrell somehow managed to parlay his fame into pumping Kirsten Dunst, so I have some begrudging respect for him.

I miss indie landfill tbh, it was still better than the shite in the charts nowadays. 

 

On 20/04/2020 at 20:25, MixuFixit said:

you rather imagine Johnny Borrell is still to this day wandering about B&Q taps aff in white denims asking people if they know who he is when he tries to score a free karcher

Johnny Borrell's best moment was a few years ago when he said he doesn't watch the news as you can find more truth by walking down the street playing your guitar. King.

 

[Sergeant Wilson]

2 minutes ago, NotThePars said:

 

Johnny Borrell's best moment was a few years ago when he said he doesn't watch the news as you can find more truth by walking down the street playing your guitar. King.

 

Home truths maybe.