Reviews

... you are most likely a latte-drinking, C-minus student, Canadian studies major whose thoughts emanate not from an internal sense of reason but from a sense of what's popular as determined by your pot-smoking, anti-establishment friends; as well as hip celebrity idols like Jon Stewart and Kanye West.

If you are in this group, in the interests of evolution, please do humanity a favor and kill or sterilize yourself.

This is the most juvenile, over-rated comedy of this decade. Brain cells will die when watching this if you have any.

On a positive note, the DVD on which this movie is printed makes a good coaster. Downloading this movie will teach you valuable skills on how to download and watch other movies which is certain to be better than this overblown tripe.

The Office is one of the cleverest, funniest shows to ever be produced for television.

The depth of the writing comes not from punchlines but from the subtle, realistic characterization of every character in the show and their interactions. The key to the successful formula of the show, and the reason it far surpasses its British predecessor in every way, is that each and every character on the show is relatable and based off people you can commonly meet in the American workplace. Who throughout their lives has not dealt with a "Dwight"-self-important but naive-or an Angela-righteous but as flawed as those she criticizes? But despite being exaggerated, none of the characters become caricatures like in most comedies; each has their foibles, but also their strengths. Combined with the sharp observational humor of the show, the plots of most episodes seem very natural and real, as if the characters themselves were really working every day in an office with hilarious results.

For those who would deign this series in favor of the British show. The original British show was pretty bad, and the American version's pilot; which is based off the British version of the pilot is just as bad (thankfully the American writers started to diverge from the British version from the very beginning). Every time the office does homage to the British version, it degrades itself. This was reflected in the ratings as well. When the American version of the office was more like the British version, it was on the verge of cancellation.

The British version of the office was based on only one character; the idiotic boss who was so deeply and profoundly stupid a third-grader could've written his lines. The whole comedy of the British version revolved around the boss saying exactly the opposite of what a normal person would say. It an absurdly infantile exercise in wit, that was cancelled after 2 seasons and had an extremely narrow appeal even in its homeland.

The British version of the office will be a forgotten footnote in television history years from now. The American version is a true classic.

I loved Macgyver as a kid, so I had high expectations when I re-watched the series again through Netflix. I've seen the first 6 Seasons so far and have enjoyed all of them quite a bit. Of course, TV has progressed a lot since the late 80's so a lot of viewers might dislike the show for various reason. Some such reasons include the lack of character development: Macgyver is basically the same guy each show and so far, virtually all the episodes are stand-alone adventures. Another reason might be the slow pacing. A lot of the episodes revolve around Macgyver developing a new relationship with a person and then having some sort of adventure with them. But since the series is heavily episodic, these relationships are always reset at the end of the episode for the most part: notable exceptions include Macgyver's bumbling best friend-Jack Dalton, boss/friend-Pete Thornton, and arch-nemesis Murdoc. Another problem with the continuity is the fact that Macgyver uses so many actors for different parts, many times for episodes one after another.

Now with all this being said, I still love Macgyver quite a bit, even if I have to acknowledge the show's limitations. Within each 44-minute episode, you'll get a pretty engaging, adventure story (later seasons have a lot of added drama as well), and usually more than a few clever Macgyverisms-were Macgyver finds a clever way to escape situations. Macgyver always being the same is also an advantage because viewers can always expect him to be a great, caring role-model in each and every episode. Its an oldie, but still a classic.