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2011
Dir. by Gervais & Merchant
This 4-disc box set from BBC Home Entertainment provides a good dose of extra features and content for fans of the series and makes it stand out from previous box sets. Writers/Producers Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant introduce each episode, basically providing a director's commentary track in the process. Additional “luminaries†such as Ben Stiller and Matthew Perry provide some thoughts on the show - its originality in style and its importance in television - as well.
Disc 1 contains the entire six-episode first season.
Disc 2 features the original pre-pilot episode (19:24 runtime) that's pretty much what became the first episode; six deleted scenes from the first season, and two documentaries: Comedy Connections (38:43 runtime) and How I Made 'The Office' (39:16 runtime). The first documents the origins of Gervais and Merchant, how they got their start, how they met, and how they conceived of the idea for the show. It then details its path to production through the BBC and details further its subsequent run and success. The second is much more of an act, featuring Gervais and Merchant again but clearly in a more comedic take on how the show came to be.
The web videos from promotions around this special edition release are also included that pretty much cover what the documentaries do but it's just Gervais and Merchant talking about it all directly. The five included videos cover how the series got its start, their style of comedy and its impact and how it impacted the staff of the show.
Disc 3 comes with the entire second season along with more season-specific deleted scenes, outtakes (both of which feature introductions from a giggling Gervais in an editing suite) and a production video diary (20:10 runtime).
Disc 4 (oddly, the only disc here opening with the standard FBI warning) completes the set with both parts 1 and 2 of the Holiday Special. Extras here include another documentary, this time about them all returning to do these specials, called The Office: Closed For Business (22:35 runtime) Golden Globes featurette, full song videos for If You Don't Know Me By Now (performed by Gervais' David Brent) and Freelove Freeway (the full-band version). Director's commentary is made available but just on the part 2 of the special, featuring Gervais and Merchant talking through the production style and anecdotes, making one wonder why they didn't do that for the entire series.
All the available audio is solely in Dolby Digital 2.0 and, since the show's style was a low-budget documentary, it's completely serviceable here. Subtitles are available for the series episodes and extras but only in English.
Summary
The de-facto approach on the 10-year anniversary of the launch of the seminal show offers up many insights and clearly demonstrates its lasting impact and importance in the world of television. This well-produced set gives The Office its proper due quite nicely and is the only version to own for any fans of the show.
