The Office: This Australian remake could be mistaken for a lost series of the US show | television and radio

IIn June 2005, I used methods I won’t disclose to watch the first few US episodes of The Office over a spotty Internet connection. It was a bizarrely jarring experience: I was such a fan of the original British version (and still am: in fact, I’m still pretty annoyed that I have to cite the British version when talking about it) that I wrote entire scenes word for word could recite the word.

It was disturbing to see American actors – Steve Carell from “Anchorman”, Mindy Kaling from “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and John Krasinski out of nowhere – doing the exact same thing. And wrong. The show’s British beats erroneously slipped out of their mouths, the interpretation of The Office as “cringe = that’s all it is!” felt like a fundamental misinterpretation, the whole thing smacked of folly. I went to college, I had sex, I got over it, and after a rocky start, the US version found the right path and became arguably the biggest and most popular sitcom ever. So…why does Australia make it again?

That’s the question people will be asking themselves throughout all eight episodes of The Office (Australia), premiering October 18 on Prime Video. This question has been asked since the remake was announced last year. Fans of both versions (although there are other remakes, including Quebec, Chile and Saudi Arabia) are fiercely protective of them, and that means this new version already has an uphill battle ahead of it to be loved. There’s a clever saying, the source of which can’t be found on the internet, but it basically goes like this: “People who watch The Office always ask, ‘Do you watch The Office?’ not, “Have you seen The Office?” because they literally always watch “The Office.” The Office, whatever version they watch, is meaningful to people.

The Australian version is based more on the American version than the British one. The Michael Scott is now Hannah Howard (Felicity Ward), the Dwight Schrute is now Lizze (Edith Poor), Jim is now Nick (Steen Raskopoulos) and Pam is now Greta (Shari Sebbens). But while the actors and first names have changed, the beats are all the same: Nick and Greta continue to blush and flirt, Hannah and Lizze have a corporal/too-committed-lieutenant dynamic, there’s a woman in the reports who… couldn’t care less about all of this and the fact that there are cameras is never explained. In fact, there are all the old favorites: guy in the brown suit! Camp manager who doesn’t like fun! Regional manager who would actually like to get some work done! “Hello everyone – meeting room, five minutes”! The layout of the office is the same! The theme song might as well be the same! They look at the camera when someone does something strange! They’re playing pranks! An intern repeats a question he was asked in an on-camera interview! An HR seminar fails!

The previous two English-language series of The Office shaped the comedy landscape forever: for half a decade in the UK there was nothing that wasn’t cringe comedy, and most straight men under 40 take it as linguistic tics Ricky Gervais; In the US, the format (“There are cameras in use, two people fall in love too slowly, everyone keeps saying ‘so…’ instead of making a real joke”) paved the way for Parks and Recreation and, more recently, Abbott Elementary School. A comedy that influences other comedies is fine, even “good” – a comedy that influences the exact same comedy again is a little more irritating. Watching the Australian version feels like you’ve stumbled upon an alternate universe remake that jumps timelines into our own. On Earth-617 they’re probably crazy about it.

However, if you go beyond that – once the first few episodes have passed with the “here’s everyone, Nick and Greta haven’t kissed yet” scene setting – you can squint and imagine that this is a late, lost series of the American Office, even beyond the Catherine Tate episodes. Workplaces have changed in the 11 years (!) since the NBC broadcast ended – the Australian version opens with a reckoning with work-from-home culture, a nod to Zoom quizzes, the realities of corporate renting and some more about standing desks. All of this is ripe for a comedic side-eye, but why that side-eye has to be, “What about The Office, again?” is still a mystery to me. Next time they remake The Office at this rate in about 16 months, maybe they’ll do something subversive with it (my suggestion: they kill either Jim or Pam before they get together; the other is in a shocked state of grief). (The rest of the show also runs in Scotland), but for now the Australian version does exactly what you’d expect.