The Case for The Office
May 30, 2018
The Office is an amazing NBC comedy series featuring a wide array of outstanding actors and characters within it. The series is about a documentary of an American workplace based at the fictional Dunder Mifflin paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
From the joking and immature regional manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell) to the incredible and uncanny salesman Dwight Shrute (Rainn Wilson), the show is full of multifaceted characters who engage in ordinary and unordinary tasks full of relatable humor.
Throughout its 9 seasons of 201 episodes, there is actually a clear storyline present, full of twists and surprises. I firmly believe that there is a character one can relate to personally, or perhaps reminds one of someone they know. For example, office dimwit Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner) is constantly seen making stupidly comical lines in reference to certain events. He is played nearly perfectly by Baumgartner through the raspy voice and facial expressions he employs.
Furthermore, Carell effectively acts as the immature boss, from making “That’s what she said” jokes and impressions throughout the series. When you just look at the cast of the office, you can see how talented of a set is working towards this series, with Carell picking up a Golden Globe for his acting in the show in 2005 among 6 total nominations. The Office also won an Emmy Award in 2006 for Outstanding Comedy Series, which Friends hasn’t been awarded.
Since Friends doesn’t have quite as much characters as The Office, some viewers may not be able to relate perfectly well to characters of the former compared to the latter. The Office is so beautifully written, and all characters seem to do every action for a reason- even with producing punch lines, they all sound very genuine of the character. I do not see the same kind of gusto present in Friends. The wide array of characters among The Office definitely trumps the more tightly knit stars of Friends.
While The Office is a comedic take on an average American workplace, many aspects of the show make it possible for Dunder Mifflin to be seen as a legitimate company, through constant sales calls and changes in management. This show is not just a ploy to garner laughs off people making jokes in a fictional office; Dunder Mifflin just contains the sort of life and genuine qualities of a real one. Thus, when considering which show is somehow greater than the other, The Office emerges as the victor.
