The office (1 Viewer)

[rumpus]

Is it just me or is The office simultaneously really funny and really depressing. After watching it last night I felt like I learned something about shitty career jobs I could forget...along with feeling good about knowing it...along with saying "that's a funny show".

In other TV news...what did people make of Fergus' Wedding ep.1?

 

[Lolo]

rumpus (19 Feb, 2002 03:39 p.m.):
Is it just me or is The office simultaneously really funny and really depressing.

Nope, it's not just you - it's one of those shows that you rarely laugh out loud at, and its resemblence to real life is a bit too bloody close, but it's still very funny.

You know those two blokes who really hate each other? (can't remember the characters' names)
That was me and the guy I shared my office with in my last job, scarily reproduced on the small screen.

 

[Anne OMalley]

I watched "Fergus's Wedding" and here's what I thought:

- The Gaiety school of acting
- Oh no, not her again
- They want me to be shocked here
- They want me to be laughing here
- I don't know what they want from me here but I doubt they're getting it

rumpus (19 Feb, 2002 03:39 p.m.):
Is it just me or is The office simultaneously really funny and really depressing. After watching it last night I felt like I learned something about shitty career jobs I could forget...along with feeling good about knowing it...along with saying "that's a funny show".

In other TV news...what did people make of Fergus' Wedding ep.1?

 

[Stuart Little]

Quality Television

Bring back upwardly mobile.

What was the name of that one with the 3 losers who were on the dole? 2 blowkes & a burd. Yonks ago now this is.
I used to think it was A Hilarious.

You couldn't beat 'Play the Game' for laffs. Derek Davis' team Always won - cos men are just better than women in all the ways that count*.


*No architectural structure you ever see with your own 2 eyes was EVER built by a woman*. What's that about? And then they fucking moan about everything.

[1]*OK. Maybe the odd grass hut, but that's only cos the fellas are out hunting waterbuffalo with their bare hands. [/1]

 

[rumpus]

Yup, it didn't make me laugh and I'd hoped it would but I think it might be a (very) slow grower.

The main reaction was "this is very strange", and I thought the characters were less believable (or likable?) than paths... still, possibly you get to laugh later on....when you get to know them.....

that's often the case with comedy stuff....

 

[Anne OMalley]

I thought "FW" was rubbish of a sort interesting only because it may in fact be peculiar to Ireland.

The yawn-inducing attempts at controversy, the schematic characterisation, the patronising mimicry of Dublin accents scripted and directed by posh buffoons with middle-class guilt complexes and religious hang-ups - this is the kind of thing that makes me yearn for the simple fun of a two-dimensional mouse beating the unholy crap out of a two-dimensional cat.

"FW" was the work of people who clearly felt very rebellious while doing it - hence, its self-satisfied, gloating, unbearable smugness.

"Paths to Freedom" had one thing going for it, which was the performance of the guy playing Rats. Everybody else was total shite. With few exceptions, we just don't seem able to do screen acting very well in this country... Although not as laboured as "FW" the episodes of "PF" I saw still came across as overwrought, over-glossy, high in caricature, and high in the kind of ersatz proletarian fetishism you only find amongst the clueless affluent.

rumpus (19 Feb, 2002 04:14 p.m.):
Yup, it didn't make me laugh and I'd hoped it would but I think it might be a (very) slow grower.

The main reaction was "this is very strange", and I thought the characters were less believable (or likable?) than paths... still, possibly you get to laugh later on....when you get to know them.....

that's often the case with comedy stuff....

 

[flibbertygibbet]

Quality Television

Stuart Little (19 Feb, 2002 04:12 p.m.):


What was the name of that one with the 3 losers who were on the dole? 2 blowkes & a burd. Yonks ago now this is.

That wasn't 'Threes company' by any chance, was it?

 

[chriths]

i didn't see FW and never will. that nauseating fucknut deirdre voice of torture is in it and is one of the few yewmins in the world that drive me up the wall.

but the office. nearly had to turn it off several times. amazing television.

 

[Stephen]

I've seen the first three episodes of FW and I enjoyed them to be honest granted watching it last night it wasn't as good.
Theguy playing fergus is great(he also played Ratts in PF) and the priest is the business.

Granted it's no Father Ted.

 

[rumpus]

I do think whats's his name (played rats and now Fergus) is a good comic actor

Anne your right that there's a certain smug "aren't we funny how we capture these charatcers " feeling to it...although it's not that they don't...but I don't feel as angry as you about it...

I suppose I can't help being suckered by the fact that paths did make Irish screen comedy at least a <i>poissibility</i>... and thus I WANT to believe.

Upwardly mobile, THAT made me angry - THAT said Irish comedy was a fucking pipe dream - a niche reserved for panto writers and shite shite actors.

 

[Anne OMalley]

...one of whom met a curiously karmic end, though. I believe he was the character whose mere entrance in a scene caused automatic guffawing amongst the (also fictitious) audience.

rumpus (19 Feb, 2002 05:02 p.m.):
Upwardly mobile, THAT made me angry - THAT said Irish comedy was a fucking pipe dream - a niche reserved for panto writers and shite shite actors.

 

[Stephen]

rumpus (19 Feb, 2002 05:02 p.m.):
I suppose I can't help being suckered by the fact that paths did make Irish screen comedy at least a <i>poissibility</i>... and thus I WANT to believe.

So true (shaking head)

Upwardly mobile, THAT made me angry - THAT said Irish comedy was a fucking pipe dream - a niche reserved for panto writers and shite shite actors.

Anyone who had anything to do with that should be so ashamed. SO ASHAMED. Worse than all the Mike Murphy's, Pat Kenny's, Gay Byrne's and all the rest of those big fish small pond heads.

 

[Stuart Little]

Upwardly Mobile was hated & slated the length and breadth of the country.

So someone please tell me why they were let do the Cassidys last year?

This second chance was undeserved. They most certainly did not vindicate themselves.

 

[Anne OMalley]

Friends, your anger is righteous and noble. However, in case it passed under yizzers radars RTE have sinned in far more heinous ways. In the late 90s they broadcast on radio a little something by the name of "Convenience Corner". Were any of you familiar with this abomination?

I once penned a satirical piece on it called "Inconvenience Corner". If RTE are still broadcasting this impressively abstract nonsense, someone please let me know and I'll resurrect the piece.

If not, you can thank your golden calves they axed it. It really was a low point for us here in the West.

Stuart Little (19 Feb, 2002 05:21 p.m.):
Upwardly Mobile was hated & slated the length and breadth of the country.

So someone please tell me why they were let do the Cassidys last year?

This second chance was undeserved. They most certainly did not vindicate themselves.

 

[simp]

Anne O'Malley (19 Feb, 2002 04:31 p.m.):
"FW" was the work of people who clearly felt very rebellious while doing it - hence, its self-satisfied, gloating, unbearable smugness.

"Paths to Freedom" had one thing going for it, which was the performance of the guy playing Rats. Everybody else was total shite.

And ironically enough it was the guy what played 'Rats' (and Fergus) who (co-)wrote both series...

Anyway, I lent my weary eyes to the all new series of Shooting Stars! on BBC2 which was on at the same time...
It was quite good, but nothing can recapture the chaos of yore.
Mark Lamarr has been replace by Will Self - a humourless ponce who has all the sparkle and wit of a brillo pad. Jordan was on and Vic did an excellent job of trying to humiliate her... Goldie was a 'good sport' and Vic'n'Bob danced a little dance to 'jungle music' whenever the camera went his way.
But you kind of got the sense that these people had become too much part of the establishment to properly create chaos ever again... (With the honorable exception of George Dawes, of course...)
But I'm sure it was better than FW.
And yeah, the Office was pretty good, but it's being getting increasingly sentimental in its old age...

But then I watched the last three episodes of Lars Von Trier's The Kingdom I - and I was absolutely blown away.
You can't get Kingdom II on video but did anybody tape it when it was on TV last year - I need to see the rest!

 

[Anne OMalley]

Haven't seen "Kingdom 2" yet either, but I'm a big fan of the first one.

One scene that made me hoot was when the character of the demented, misanthropic surgeon Hellmer stands on the roof of the hospital at night, gazing out to sea towards his beloved Sweden, cursing all things Danish and murmuring about the superiority of Volvos.

simp (19 Feb, 2002 05:32 p.m.):

Anne O'Malley (19 Feb, 2002 04:31 p.m.):
"FW" was the work of people who clearly felt very rebellious while doing it - hence, its self-satisfied, gloating, unbearable smugness.

"Paths to Freedom" had one thing going for it, which was the performance of the guy playing Rats. Everybody else was total shite.

And ironically enough it was the guy what played 'Rats' (and Fergus) who (co-)wrote both series...

Anyway, I lent my weary eyes to the all new series of Shooting Stars! on BBC2 which was on at the same time...
It was quite good, but nothing can recapture the chaos of yore.
Mark Lamarr has been replace by Will Self - a humourless ponce who has all the sparkle and wit of a brillo pad. Jordan was on and Vic did an excellent job of trying to humiliate her... Goldie was a 'good sport' and Vic'n'Bob danced a little dance to 'jungle music' whenever the camera went his way.
But you kind of got the sense that these people had become too much part of the establishment to properly create chaos ever again... (With the honorable exception of George Dawes, of course...)
But I'm sure it was better than FW.
And yeah, the Office was pretty good, but it's being getting increasingly sentimental in its old age...

But then I watched the last three episodes of Lars Von Trier's The Kingdom I - and I was absolutely blown away.
You can't get Kingdom II on video but did anybody tape it when it was on TV last year - I need to see the rest!

 

[Stephen]

What about "our song" about three o'clock on 2FM I think.

Depressing bollix.

[1]Jodie had just married billy when he was ran over by a truck and was in a coma for seven years. after just waking from the coma billy was in a nasty golfing accident......[/1]

 

[simp]

Anne O'Malley (19 Feb, 2002 05:37 p.m.):
Haven't seen "Kingdom 2" yet either, but I'm a big fan of the first one.

Got part I out of Laser - so fucking good...
But I *have* to see part II...
I mean, what a fucking cliffhanger!
Did anyone tape it?

 

[rumpus]

The office sentimental...I think your right...it's almost as if he's preaching to our inner carpe diem dolphins.... I get the feeling he really wants to say a big fuck you to every corporate boss he ever had.....


and why not

 

[Anthony]

A friend of mine worked on FW and hated the first while of production but by the end of it was raving about how funny it was. I hope that happens to viewers too.

I did get the impression that the makers were trying to make it flashy enough to put on their showreel for filums. Some of the camera work was over done.

Funniest moment was when Fergus said "Thanking you" must have read the Hate thread on thumped!