Let's be honest, you can't really experience The Office for the first time in 2021. Even if you, like me, have never seen the show back-to-back, you will still recognize the characters and jokes from the thousands of memes.
All things considered, the show aged like wine probably because of the characters. Creators did well portraying flawed people, and while each character has their own "thing" (Stanley - grumpy, Angela - condescending, Kelly talks too much etc), the are never reduced to cliché and tend to surprise the viewer once in a while by behaving unexpectedly. However, it never feels out of character, rather it explains their character more.
The balance between season-wide story arcs and episodic stories is nailed perfectly. People grow and evolve, and while largely office stays the same you don't really get a typical sitcom'y feeling of hitting a re-set button after the each episode.
Early seasons were relying a little bit too much on a cringe humor imo, making Michael so naive and out-of-touch with reality that in the real world he would have hard time functioning at all, but that's a part of the joke I guess. It contrasts nicely with situations where he clearly shows the capacity to empathize with his employees.
In the end, if you have not watched The Office yet, I recommend it. Even if you're not a fan of sitcoms (I'm not) - give it a try. Sometimes after a long day all you need is to experience another escapistic adventure in a fictional office full of whacky, but (mostly) friendly personalities.
I used to love the office when it came out. But today I think its too old. Its not timeless. Technology changed our lives in such ways that creation rarely hold their original impact.
Nevertheless there are many gems in this series and I think you wrote beautifuly.
One of the best shows of all time.
There's disagreements though as to which version is better, the UK original or the US. It's hard to compare though given how many more seasons the US one has.
But I watched the UK one first, and back then there was hardly any internet for someone as young as I was, and it kinda felt like a private secret. No one I knew was aware of the show, and I felt it was genius. So it's etched in my heart, and history proved me right!
You might wanna check out Life's Too Short. Give an episode a go maybe.
UK version is on the list of things I want to watch, I enjoy British series quite a bit. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll be sure to check out Life's Too Short.
An amazing comedy, specially the first 3 seasons, the characters, the rhythm, the plot-lines, everything.
I haven't seen The Office, but YouTube is full of short scenes that I found funny.
"Clarice" lol