Sorry Hump, but that was lame. I just can't get over the laugh track. The Brits don't need to add canned laughter to their comedy.

That show has never had a laugh track before. I wonder if it is because iFilm took the clip from the Tonight Show, and we are hearing the laughter of the Tonight Show audience.

Duh.

Also tonight: Survivor, race-war edition. 8 pm.

Double duh, and the fact that that clip was the one they selected for inclusion on The Tonight Show only makes me love the show more. (And I TOTALLY RESENTED it at first, out of devotion to the Brit original, but it's since totally won me over...However, America's Jim is nowhere near as dreamy as Britain's Tim.

Here's my missing close-parentheses: )
(It is NOT a smiley face, as emoticons, like Febreze, are a tool of the Devil.)

Also tonite is the 2nd half of the Warhol documentary. 9pm on KCTS. Part 1 was quite good, though the background music was overwrought and distracting.

My girlfriend and I are SO EXCITED about the premeire of the office. After being scared by Jericho, it will be nice to see people who are in love and work in an office.

We're so glad that it is getting to be about a young couple who are in love rather than some boring anti-Bush stuff.

Tim had a little more edge than Jim. Jim's kind of a lump. And the UK Office was better at the tortuous long drawn out moments of horrible cringe, like my favorite scene, where Keith is eating his lunch and telling Dawn that the Americans call "bum bags" "fanny packs", because in America, "fanny" means "bum" -- "not yer minge". Silence for what seems like ten minutes of horror. Maybe my favorite moment in all of TV.

The US version gets right to the cringe straight away and moves on. It's a different show, but it's really, really good. I think Steve Carell is THE huge factor; he's just brilliant all the time. And the writers now how to pull away from his idiocy at just the right moment before it starts to cloy. My favorite subplots in the American one are Angela's thinly disguised lust for the Nazi discipline of Dwight Schrute, which he studiously pretends to be unaware of, and especially Kelly's bubbly airhead crush on Ryan.

There's a really interesting piece on slate.com about the differences between the versions. Did you know France and Germany also have their own Offices?

Doug, I agree about the Warhol documentary; you can also tone down some of those talking heads while you're at it.

The French version is ok, not nearly as funny as the British or American one. Mainly b/c its actors are way too good looking to be believable as ordinary shlumps.

Thanks for the link to the article, Some Jerk. Very interesting, indeed.

Perhaps it is a good show, but that clip sucks. Honestly, that was funny? Yikes.

Grey's Anatomy was totally disappointing. I should've watched CSI instead.

Seasons one and two of The Office were great. So naturally I had really big expectations for last night's start of season three. But the whole gay theme was a little much and moving Jim out of Scranton has really damaged the show's chemistry. I want things to go back to the way they were. The new set up is not as funny and even kind of disturbing.

I agree. Last night's episode had some riotously funny moments, but "riotous" kind of throws the pace of the show off. It rested far too heavily on the schtick of Carell, whom I praised so much above. The deft directorial hand wasn't there to pull away before he went too far. The kiss was funny but in a regular-old-sitcom way. And Dwight Schrute's character has also gotten out of hand, with the "gay detector wand".

The whole gay theme was handled in a kind of stupid, willfully ignorant way, reminiscent more of the 1970s than the 2000s. I think what was missing was the religious element; no one in George Bush's America is "afraid" of gays in that finicky, "ew" kind of way without an ideological framework of robust right-wing Christianity. Right-wing homophobes aren't that way because it's "icky" (at least not out loud); it's because it's unnatural and wrong, gosh durn it. Says so right here in my bible. Angela, in real life, would have that bible, and her cubicle would be decorated with church cards, and she would be less squeamish and more angry.

Once again, I blame Hollywood; I don't think anyone involved in the show has had any actual contact with real homophobes as they exist in the wild today. I also don't think they've spent too much time in offices like this; there was WAY too much physical contact, not just gay. There's no hugging in American offices, and DEFINITELY no kissing.