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Some recommendations
PLEASE NOTE: Some links are to US shops now, not just the UK!
So you like The Office, but even with all the DVD extras included you can sit down and watch all of it well within a day, and after doing this for about a month you’ll find yourself wanting more. Trust me. Here are some recommendations that if you like The Office, should also tickle your fancy.
As an aside, it’s always worth having a quick look at the top selling comedy DVDs on Amazon:UK: Comedy DVDs
US: Comedy DVDs
Ricky Gervais
Live – Animals
Ricky Gervais’ live show Animals takes a look at the world of animals. It’s the theme for a show that allows Gervais to tell us a load of facts about animals that we’d normally never come across, a major reason being that they’re not facts suitable for primetime nature documentaries a lot of the time.
As well as the stand-up being top rate, there’s also a little cameo in a pre-recorded segment starring a familiar face.
Useless trivia: the cover of Animals is a parody of Michael Jackson’s Thriller album cover, which you can see for yourself by looking here.
UK: Available to buy Amazon.co.uk here.
US: Not out there yet.
People Like Us
Spoof documentaries had been done before The Office, and none better than this.
Each episode sees a different occupation investigated by the always just off screen Roy Mallard, played excellently by Chris Langham, and like The Office, could easily convince the unsuspecting viewer that it was a real documentary. The humour is dry, subtle and consistent throughout each episode, never being tempted to become just plain silly for some easy laughs.
People Like Us started out as a radio show, and after three successful series was a finely tuned worked when it transferred to TV, and this shows in the exquisite attention paid to detail. Remember, Gervais and Merchant were relative newcomers when they came up with The Office, and that turned out ok didn’t it?!
UK: People Like Us
US: Sorry, not out there yet!
Fawlty Towers –
Complete collection DVD
I’m not sure how to describe this as I’m sure you’ll have heard of it already. People who are really picky about their comedy normally describe The Office as the funniest thing I’ve seen since Fawlty Towers, which in itself has been described as the greatest ever British sitcom.
So for completeness I’ve included it here, even though chances are you already own it. If you don’t own it, or perhaps you TV-taped copy is starting to lose quality, then you’ll not get better than the three disc DVD set-Fawlty Towers Complete.
Extras with the set include commentaries, interviews and outtakes. And a guide to Torquay, naturally.
UK: Amazon.co.uk has the set here.
US: Amazon.com has is here.
The Larry Sanders
Show
Mentioned by Gervais as having an influence on him when making The Office, The Larry Sanders Show revolves a chat show and the behind the scenes happenings. On the show itself, we see Larry slickly interviewing his guests, acting like everyone is everyone else’s best friend, while behind scenes we see the paranoia and backstabbing and the general crappy ways in which the celebrities treat each other. Unlike a lot of US comedy shows, you can’t just turn on halfway and get a stream of one-liners or pratfalls, this show is subtle, realistic and sometimes like The Office, painful to watch.
The segments in The Office, where the characters don’t know they’re being filmed may not have been thought of if it wasn’t for this show, though I’m guessing here.
Anyway, subtle, character based humour with killer writing and the odd celebrity sending up their own persona; if anything compares to The Office from before it was shown than this is it.
Phoenix Nights
Imagine The Office set in the North, in a social club, and without the whole mockumentary thing?
Now stop that because you’re doing a great injustice to Phoenix Nights, which many will rate above The Office, and fairly so. What can be said about both series though? The observational humour, the ordinary settings are common to both, and very funny of course, that deserves a word.
Peter Kay stars as Brian Potter, the wheelchair bound of the Phoenix Club, and also portrays Max, the bouncer. It’s unfair to highlight these two characters, as everyone in the show is someone you recognise. A little bit of trivia is that co-writer of Phoenix Nights Neil Fitzmaurice has a brief appearance in The Office as the fork lift truck driver getting hired in episode 1 (and fired in episode 6). Another bit of trivia is that everyone’s favourite character from both series is a minor one called Keith, but this is really more of a coincidence.
UK: Choose from to pre-order series 1 & 2 DVD, or the separate series 1 DVD and series 2 DVD.
US: Sorry, not out there yet.
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