Product Details

• Actors: Ricky Gervais, Mackenzie Crook
• Format: Color, Dolby, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: BBC Video
• DVD Release Date: April 20, 2004
• Run Time: 180 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0001EFVFY
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,148 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "The Office: The Complete Second Series (BBC Edtion)" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The second series of the award-winning BBC mockudrama The Office exceeded even the sky-high standards of the first. Indeed, it ventured beyond caricature and satire, touching on the very edge of darkness. Ricky Gervais was once again excruciatingly superb as David Brent, a subtly shaded modern English comic grotesque in the desperate and self-deluding tradition of Alan Partridge and Basil Fawlty. In this series, however, Brent's to-the-camera assertions concerning his management qualities and executive capabilities are seriously challenged when the Slough and Swindon branches are merged and his former Swindon equivalent Neil takes over as area manager. To compensate, Brent cultivates his pathologically mistaken image of himself as an entertainer-motivator-comedian whose stage happens to be the workplace.

Meanwhile, Tim Canterbury (Martin Freeman), who can only maintain his sanity by teasing the priggish Gareth Keenan (Mackenzie Crook), continues to wrestle with his yearning for receptionist Dawn Tinsley (Lucy Davis), a sympathetic character persisting in a relationship with a man about whom she still maintains unspoken reservations. As ever, it's the awkward, reality TV-style pauses and silences, the furtive, meaningful and unmet glances across the emotional gulf of the open-plan office, that say it all here. As for Brent, his own breakdown is prefaced by a moment of hideous hilarity--an impromptu office dance, a mixture of "Flashdance and MC Hammer" as Brent describes it, but in reality bad beyond description. Then, when his fate is sealed, he at last reveals himself in a memorable finale to perhaps the greatest British sitcom, besides Fawlty Towers, ever made. All this and Keith too. --David Stubbs

Product Description

Ricky Gervais, Martin Freeman, Mackenzie Crook. The second satirical season of Wernham Hogg's cynical employees' workdays, recorded documentary-style with hilarious results. 6 episodes on 2 DVDs. 2002/color/3 hrs/NR/fullscreen.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Smart, Brilliant March 18, 2004

By Lorraine Fenelon

Format:DVD

It is not a typical tv program, it actually assumes that the audience is intelligent. It doesn't talk down to us, or preach to us, or spoon feed us. It doesn't need a laugh track to tell you when you are supposed to laugh. It just makes you think, and sometimes cringe, and laugh out loud hysterically or just smile and wonder "why can't 99% of american sitcoms be this brilliant?". Our society is so dumbed down and we stand back and let them decide what we can watch until there is nothing left but stupid story lines, unrealistic conversation, sugary sweet endings and those horrible laugh tracks to make us all think it's funny, when it really isn't at all. The Office challenges all of that. Buy it, and enjoy it! It's a rare gem that we won't see again any time soon, well maybe until Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant come up with their next project.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Please don't make me redundant May 16, 2004

By A Customer

Format:DVD

I don't understand the negative reviews for this second season. I perhaps have a different outlook on the whole thing than most people, as I saw the second season first... I've never seen anything like it, and if I had to pick one season over the other, I'd go with the this one. This is comedy that makes you squirm in your seat and laugh simply because you're feeling so uncomfortable. That's unique. It may be darker and more insidious, but that's a good thing. I get so sick of 'harmless' fun comedies. I think people get used to television shows where the characters remain stagnant archetypes and never change, but I thought the ending of this season was brilliant. It seems that we expect all TV show comedies to be regularly funny and never serious or sad, but we don't require the same "consistency" from our comedy movies. Frankly, I'm sick of tv, and its shows like this that make me briefly consider reconnecting my cable... until I realize that the show is now over and practically everything else on TV is a reality show gimic with flashy cutting to distract you from how moronic its concept is. I won't plead for another season, because I think it ended perfectly and if their heart's not in it then it should be discontinued... But I will eagerly wait for anything else Gervais and company come out with.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Get it now! February 18, 2004

By Malcolm R Phillipps

Format:DVD

The 2nd series of `The Office' takes everything that made the first series so popular (currently the biggest selling TV series DVD of all time) and produces another series of superb quality.

For those not aware of the humour in the show, it is cringe worthy at times - but it is this insight into real peoples emotions and weaknesses that makes the show so appealing. Ricky Gervais, the writer and star of the show, has come from relative obscurity, to make something that is so relevant to people today - not just in England, but around the world.

Following on from the 1st series, the 2nd series sees a continuation of the fall of David Brent, allowing for some darker comedic moments. The romance between Tim and Dawn continues, will true love ever prevail? But perhaps the highlight of the 2nd series is David Brent moving onto the consultancy circuit and becoming a motivational speaker. Slough did not know what it got itself in for....and as he walks out on the stunned group to the strains of Tina Turners `Simply the best' you will really start to appreciate why this series has slowly made the world sit up and take notice.

With just 2 Christmas episodes left before this show is forever consigned to the repeats channels, I strongly advise you to enjoy it now while it is fresh - this is the Fawlty Towers of our generation.

The extras that come with the DVD are also well worth viewing, it is a total package.