Revolutionary War II

The first season of the British version of The Office finally made it to the top of my Netflix queue. AND I'm having a hard time deciding which fruit I like better: the apple (pie) version or the limey variety.

It looks like 200+ years later, we're back to the United Stated versus Great Britain. Sure we can kick their ass in any sport, but soccer and cricket, and their Prime Minister is our puppet, but I think their version of The Office wins out over ours.

For starters, the BBC shows run the full half-hour, giving them the time to develop their charachters and let gags and rants run for an extra minute and gain some momentum. I am amazed by how eight extra minutes really changes a show. But it makes sense, when you consider eight minutes is more than a third of an American show.

I also like the BBC version better because they make the "normal" male charachter (Tim) much more pitiful and human than the US version (Jim). In the BBC version, Tim still lives with his parents and is a bit more awkward and quirky than Jim. In the US version, Jim's most humanizing flaw is he has a crush on a girl and can't get over her. Big deal. Especially compared to the nut jobs he works with.

It reminds me of Seinfeld, where Jerry's biggest flaw was he was heartless and too neat, while all the other charachters were equally heartless, but riddled with quirks and flaws. So while his friends were annoying and quirky to the point of making us laugh, the lead charachter's biggest flaw is he was neat. I have found that I was the only person who was annoyed by this.

Is there something about the American TV, where the protagonists we sympathize with have to be perfect and cool, rather than a mirror of ourselves? Maybe we like to think that these ideal people are actually mirrors of us.

Getting back to The Office, the British version also wins out because thhe boss on the BBC show is slightly funnier and more dynamic than the boss on the American version.

So, while we may have dumped their sorry-ass stale Earl Grey tea in the Boston Harbor and ran their red-coated asses off the continent simply by hiding behind trees and throwing rocks at them, the Brits have us beat in the Battle of Dueling Sitcoms.

They also get extra credit for being the originators of the series.

Big deal. We'd still kick their ass in basketball, baseball, track and field, football (not that pansy kick the can version they love), hockey, tennis, NASCAR...