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The Office - An American Workplace - Series 3 - Complete [2006]


RRP: £29.99
Our Price: £15.98 (subject to change)

Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

After a shaky first season of finding its footing, and a second season of establishing itself as one of the funniest shows on TV, the third season of The Office finds the show in its strongest form yet, thanks in large part to the addition of some new characters and stronger plotlines centered on office romances. A corporate merger brings the Stamford staff to the Scranton office of Dunder-Mifflin a quarter of the way through the season giving a nice boost to the season's arc of story lines, especially the addition of Andy (Ed Helms, another Daily Show alum in a role that seems custom made for him) who serves as yet another foil to Dwight (Rainn Wilson) in his unending fight for Michael's approval. As the season begins, the focus is more on Michael (Steve Carell) and his unique "leadership" style in the Scranton office. "A good boss gruntles the disgruntled," and despite his best intentions, he proceeds to somehow screw it up, as in the opening episode, "Gay Witch Hunt," in which he accidentally outs a gay employee.

In the second episode, "The Convention," Michael tries to get the party started at the Mid-Market Office Supply Convention ("fun jeans"), and ends up revealing his insecurity about Jim's (John Krasinski) decision to move to Stamford. It leads up to "The Coup," where Dwight meets with Michael's Boss Jan (Melora Hardin) in a misguided attempt to take control of the office. The merger of the two offices into the Scranton location provides the fuel needed to continue the Jim and Pam (Jenna Fischer) subplot as Jim returns with his new girlfriend, Karen (Rashida Jones) who also transferred, and with Pam no longer engaged to Roy, the tension among them increases significantly.

Other major plot points this season include: Dwight shows his true feelings for Angela in an excellent climax to one of the funniest subplots on the show; Michael negotiates a raise after learning he barely makes more than his subordinates; new office suck-up Andy is forced into anger management classes; and finally, in what may be the most bizarre company retreat in history, a day at the beach ends with Pam revealing her true feelings for Jim in front of the entire office. The season wraps up in unpredictable fashion when Karen, Michael, and Jim all travel to headquarters to interview for the same position. The strength of this season just continues to solidify The Office's place as the preeminent satire of today's cubicle culture. --Daniel Vancini


Too good to just be a cult..!
Review date: 2008-09-15 Rating: 10 out of 10

This is a flat-out comedy classic. But what is it about British TV networks? Is their quality control so off-kilter, that they would force-feed the population hours of total crap, while hiding the truly transcendent stuff in some nether-world of night-owl TV scheduling?
As with Seinfeld on BBC2, Curb on More4, so it happened with The American Office. Buried by ITV2 in a spot where only insomniacs would have found it ( apart from a brief spell where they put it out at 7pm to try and compete with this DVD release of the same week ), The Office USA, is, as far as I am concerned, the next best thing if you've completed your Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm collections.
Season Three is a show that brings it's A-Game to almost every plot strand, and it's amazing how much they cram into every single episode. My favourite is perhaps the Joss( 'Buffy' )Weedon-directed episode, whereby Jim pretends to have been bitten by a bat. He suddenly becomes averse to daylight and allergic to garlic bread, in order to freak out Dwight, the office geek. Jim's underplayed, subtle impersonation of Bela Lugosi at the end, is pure comedy gold.
It's indicative of how much material goes into every episode, that the above-mentioned plot is not even listed on the episode guide. So i was unable to show it to visiting friends, as i had no idea which episode it was from. In fact, it is only in the incidental details where this particular box set falls short. The printed plot synopses are not exactly useful, and the fact that there are no subtitles, comes across as rather cheap, and stingy. ( No, I'm not deaf - but you try listening to a show where a lot of the dialogue is realistic and mumbled, late at night, without having the sound way up and annoying the hell out of everyone. And besides that, deaf people should be allowed to enjoy this, too..! ).
Both the aforementioned Seinfeld and Curb box sets had well-cued subtitling, and extensive extras and liner notes. This doesn't. However, i will say that the deleted scenes offer much more than you would expect. They are actually more like mini-episodes that must have been lopped-off simply for timing reasons, as the material is so strong that it's just as good as the stuff which makes the final cut.
My girlfriend and i would curl up every night for a fresh episode, only to end up having a marathon viewing session, but we couldn't help it. It's just so good.

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Reviews


Fantastic
Review date: 2008-08-09 Rating: 10 out of 10

This is even funnier than the original Office, and Series 3 is the best I've seen so far. Episodes like "Gay Witch Hunt", "The Coup" and "The Convention" are examples of perfectly crafted comedy. The scripts are sublime.

It's an unexpected delight and this is the first online review I've ever been moved to write. It's that good.

Perfect
Review date: 2008-07-29 Rating: 10 out of 10

The Office is one of the first series in a while thats had me completely hooked. Like K. Moore said, you'll try and watch every episode in one sitting. The show is perfect television, hilarious and heartbreaking in equal measure. The casting is perfect, from the adorable Jenna Fischer to the Emmy-worthy Steve Carell, by way of consistent-scene-stealer Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute. The pacing is superb, even in the randomly-placed double length episodes. Best of all, we are invited to sympathise with the characters, rather than revile them, which is the one thing Gervais could never nail, throughout his Office and even Extras. This third season in particular entertains. As cliched a phrase as it is, the series found its stride with this year, and as such the ratio of character development and hilarity is spot on. The following season would only be let down by the fact that there weren't more episodes (due to the strike), so season 3 has yet to be topped.

Despite being huge in America (where everything is better anyway) it has failed to gather a proportionate following over here, due in part to dreadful scheduling. I imagine many, like myself, would be quick to criticise (and by extension ignore) an adaptation of such a revered program, but once you get past the dodgy, UK-inspired first season and the show takes on its own identity, you may find you'll never want to go back to Brent, Gareth, Tim and Dawn. Must see TV and the single greatest adaptation ever made.

A DVD worthy of the show
Review date: 2008-07-26 Rating: 10 out of 10

As other reviews have stated the show really hit it's stride during the second season and loses none of it's quality over the third season. The new characters are interesting and well acted while the story continues to be both hilarious and touching.

What really surprised me was the quality of the DVD offering. As a show that has a limited fanbase outside of it's home country my expectations were of an understandably limited port to DVD. However, the disk comes packed with many interesting extras, original footage and hours of deleted scenes, most of which are excellent and can only have been cut for time constraint reasons (though some do seem to detract from the characters and should maybe be taken out of the context of the show).

My only complaint is that some scenes do seem to be completely missing from it's US counterpart and were not included in the deleted scenes. Most of these were unimportant bits that added little and were arguably better edited out though some I feel should have made an appearance, at least in with the other deleted scenes!

Still, if you are interested in getting in to this show then start from season 2 and enjoy what is easily the best comedy to come out of America since Arrested Development.

Keeps getting better
Review date: 2008-07-14 Rating: 10 out of 10

I wrote a review on series 2 of this and I'll simply echo what I said in that and what has already been said about this series - it is an amazing TV show.

I was hooked when I watched series 2, so by series 3 I was putty in their hands, the storylines develop further from the 2nd series and some new ones appear and the whole show does not rely on 1 or 2 single stories, there are so many that develop in this season and each one is done so well and it doesn't end up 'messy' like some shows with so many story lines.

I can't recommend it highly enough, although I would watch series 2 first (series 1 not completely necessary but still ok).

You won't be disappointed at all.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
John Krasinski
Rainn Wilson
B.J. Novak
Jenna Fischer
Steve Carell

Creators:
Steve Carell (Primary Contributor)
Rainn Wilson (Primary Contributor)

Recording label: Universal Pictures UK
Manufacturer: Universal Pictures UK
EAN: 5050582550092
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 4
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2008-07-21
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 551 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2006
Language: English (Original Language)

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