Quote: Lee @ 29th June 2021, 10:23 AMIsn't the "rule" of sitcom that they're not allowed to grow as characters and when you do do that, it breaks them?
Which is part of the sense of finality that's so satisfying.
There you go, I managed to be nice about something that isn't the Beatles, Ingmar Bergman or the Spice Girls.
Quote: Michael Monkhouse @ 29th June 2021, 12:07 PMWhich is part of the sense of finality that's so satisfying.
Writers want to finish things.
It's only natural.
Quote: Lazzard @ 29th June 2021, 12:20 PMWriters want to finish things.
It's only natural.
But for me it has to feel organic and believable, which I don't think the end of The Office is. Unless you see it as a Brazil style break with realty in which the happy endings are all in Brent's mind.
Reality TV shows often have their narratives directed by the producers. You could say, that in a way, how they invited Dawn back, was a way to "push" their story in the right direction. Because what mentalist revisits a workplace a few years after leaving it in any other situation?
Quote: chipolata @ 29th June 2021, 2:18 PMBut for me it has to feel organic and believable, which I don't think the end of The Office is. Unless you see it as a Brazil style break with realty in which the happy endings are all in Brent's mind.
No I agree re The Office
It was more of a general point about narrative comedy.
Good in depth article by BCG's Chris Hallam on here on The Office's 20th anniversary this month. I don't remember it being an off season shown sitcom but I do remember it being on very late for a sitcom back then, about 10pm I think. In other words, the good old Beeb didn't have a lot of hope for it. 
As he says, viewers weren't too sure what they were watching at first, I remember that exact feeling, I knew it was being funny but it was so different to what I usually watched that a lot of the gags went by me until about the third episode, the Quiz Night one, where I remember pissing myself laughing at this new sitcom monster David Brent, trying to cheat then getting the answers wrong. 
It's been my favourite ep ever since, although I'm well over due a full re-watch as I've barely seen it since.
Don't like the substandard cycle of copyist sitcoms STILL following in its wake, but that's also a measure of how great this sitcom was. clap clap.
Yeah, took a bit of getting into but it was worth it. People go on about the Young Ones but I watched it from the first trailer and it didn't do much at first - then in the middle of the second series, it suddenly went ballistic.
Surprised at the hate for the Yank version. Crap but not that crap.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 12th July 2021, 2:33 PMGood in depth article by BCG's Chris Hallam on here on The Office's 20th anniversary this month. I don't remember it being an off season shown sitcom but I do remember it being on very late for a sitcom back then, about 10pm I think. In other words, the good old Beeb didn't have a lot of hope for it.
10 o'clock was a great slot - hardly very late!
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 12th July 2021, 2:33 PMDon't like the substandard cycle of copyist sitcoms STILL following in its wake, but that's also a measure of how great this sitcom was. clap clap.
Actually Operation Good Guys pre-dates The Office - so The Office didn't get there first with this type of mockumentary sit com !
Yes but that's a bit like saying Moses came before Jesus, no offence intended. Who do most people follow?
What's the difference between Moses and Kojak? Moses went round with Aaron.
Yeah, there were wankumentaries before the Office, just as there were pop groups before the Beatles, but that was when the format really took off.
I'm sure People Like Us was pre Office too. But no chance of that getting repeated 
Victoria Wood pre-dates them all by about ten years.
Victoria Wood is massively overrated. I can't help feeling myself. I mean I can't help feeling myself that people are just impressed that she was the first female to make it in the biz - and guys were scared to say they disliked her or they'd be considered sexist. That 'Wanna do it' song is beyond cringeworthy.
There have been lost of mockumentary sitcoms, but it was The Office that really brought them in from the cold.
