Extras: Season Two DVD

Review By: Steve Mucchetti
SteveMucchetti@TheCinemaSource.com

There are few things more annoying than a person who claims that he was a fan of [insert popular cultural item] before it became popular. For example: As most people probably know, Family Guy didn’t become the go-to television show for 95% of college students in America until it was released on DVD, after the series had been cancelled. Family Guy was at its most popular during the three years it was off the air, from February 2002 to May 2005 (at which point FOX brought the show back, which was kind of unbelievable – Family Guy’s resurrection was due almost entirely to a staggering number of college kids lazily watching several episodes in a row when they were either hung-over, stoned, or drunk). I suppose you had to be there, but it’s hard to overstate how universally loved Family Guy was in 2003 and 2004 among people my age: I literally didn’t know anyone who wasn’t at least somewhat of a fan.

Of course, there were drawbacks: A subculture of certain people who had watched the show from its very beginning (January 1999) started to act patronizingly towards those who had been introduced to Family Guy more recently through the DVDs; they projected a weird sense of Family Guy-related superiority that was, by any objective standard, idiotic. I’m not sure exactly why these kids felt this way, but I do remember that this minor phenomenon involved a lot of mumbling and eye-rolling, and frequent, sarcastic use of the phrase “That’s cool, I guess.” Needless to say, there’s no place for that kind of anti-social pretentiousness in decent society. Given that this is my official stance, I’m going to preemptively label myself a hypocrite for my opinions regarding The Office, to be discussed in the next paragraph.

I haven’t seen more than a few episodes of the American version of The Office, so I don’t know how qualified I am to actually “discuss” it. I do know that it’s loved by both reviewers and the American public, which is very difficult to pull off with a non-cable network comedy. Even so, it feels like I’m hiding something if I reference The Office without also referencing The Office – the original, long since completed British series. For reasons I think I can explain, the American version feels fake to me, and the fact that it even exists seems a little strange. I mean, it’s ostensibly the same show as the British version: The character types, major plot arcs, themes, and even title are all identical. The specific dialogue is obviously different, but the ideas are the same. I’m not disputing the American version’s quality, but it’s not entirely difficult to produce quality television when a brilliant template has been laid out beforehand (and when Steve Carell is involved). The American series couldn’t exist without Ricky Gervais, star and co-creator of ...