I continue to be off work sick and as such, have quite a lot of time on my hands. Having given up on using these free hours to teach Roman how to play chess – a challenge made even more difficult by the fact I don’t know the rules myself – I have taken to binge watching television shows.

The series which started this pastime, and one which I am still working my way through, is the US version of The Office. I’ve always been a fan of the original UK series and as a result scoffed at the mere thought of a remake. Then I discovered that it was created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Given the fact that they are behind the British offering, it seemed unlikely that they would bastardise their baby for the Yanks.

I watched the first few episodes. Annoyingly, I really enjoyed them. It was funny, with lots of new jokes, as well as welcome gags from the original series.

But who am I to review the show? Season 1 is twelve years old! To emphasise how long ago that actually is, read this… In 2006, I played football; with no Claire in my life, I admired women in the park; and MSN still existed! Therefore, if you give a damn about this series, you’ve probably watched it a long time ago!

I am currently on Season 8 of 9. There are apparently about 200 episodes in total (Seasons 1 to 9). At a guess, I have around 30-ish left. I am starting to get a little bored. Maybe this is because I’ve watched so much of the series in such a short space of time; or perhaps The US Office just ran it’s course and became crap – if anyone ever says Gervais should have made more episodes of the UK version, this is surely an argument against such an idea. I personally think that I am finding the later season less amusing because the main character – the David Brent equivalent – played by Steve Carell left.
Still, I’ve come this far, I might as well finish the series off. The next show which I plan to devour is Roots. I have a feeling that going from a light-hearted sitcom in The Office to a brutal and disturbing drama about the slave trade, will be something of an experience…

Note: Before any know-it-alls comment on this post, I have since discovered that The Office was created in 2005, and not 2006. So there.