The Office
sonbanon and I have been thoroughly enjoying the first 3 seasons of the Office. We just finished the last episode of season 3 last night. The humor is kind of like Ben Stiller movie humor; you want to cringe all the time because you just can't watch the horrible humiliation that a character is about to inflict upon him or herself. It's the comedic equivalent of not wanting to watch in a horror movie when the victim gets in the car without checking the back seat.

Some of the jokes are *really* funny, but the show is really character driven, and this is where it shines. Even though the characters are all exaggerated caricatures, they are nevertheless extremely believable. Maybe part of it is that there are so many average looking or even downright ugly cast members, so it doesn't feel like you're watching Friends-at-Work. Maybe it's that the acting is just that good. Whatever the case, they have managed to create characters that, to me, feel more real than any fictional character on TV since Cheers.

I watched a few episodes of the British version of the office, and the manager character is not likable the way that Steve Carell's is. I don't think it was written to be that way, I understand that the plots diverged a bit after the first season? Anyway, it looked like in the first season Michael Scott was trying to be a bit of a jerk, but now he's just hapless and it works.