The Office Special (2003) – DVD

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by Travis Mackenzie Hoover I suppose the hot streak had to end sometime: "The Office" was so meticulously detailed, so vividly characterized, and so totally uncompromising in making you feel the agony of workaday life, that it can perhaps be forgiven for wanting to give back to the characters it had so spectacularly abused and humiliated. Thus we have "The Office Special", which is smart enough to know that the ride on the gravy train is over but can't bear to leave our heroes in limbo and thus forces a closure that violates everything the series stood for. It's still "The Office" and it's still worth watching, but its movement towards climactic release is incongruous after the two years of droning sameness that went on–hilariously–with no end in sight.

It's been three years narratively since the end of the second and final season of "The Office", and none of the participants seem any better off. Vain and deluded David Brent (Ricky Gervais) has blown his generous severance package on recording and marketing a single that sold exactly 150 copies, reducing him to selling cleaning products door-to-door when not capitalizing on the weak celebrity he gained from the documentary on Wernham-Hogg. Former receptionist Dawn (Lucy Davis) is wondering why she moved with her increasingly insensitive man Lee to Florida; Tim (Martin Freeman) continues to be the only conscious man in the office, though he no longer has Gareth (Mackenzie Crook) to torment at his station. Gareth, of course, has taken David's job, but he's Gareth, a fact that cancels out any sort of rise in status he might have enjoyed.

For about 80 minutes of "The Office Special"'s 90-minute running time, it is as it always was. David craves adoration as usual but now lacks a captive audience. He keeps returning to the scene of his former crimes, where he does his best to disrupt the workday and raise the ire of new manager Neil (Patrick Baladi); online attempts to find a date for the Christmas party are hobbled by his total inability to settle on anything less than arm candy. (Totally consumed with feeding his ego in the face of rejection, his behaviour is at once humorously arrogant and heartbreakingly sad.) There is also the matter of Dawn and Tim, the latter of whom is once again denying his attraction to her–even with the documentary crew flying her in for the party. Gareth has been somewhat marginalized, but he remains easy to trick into making homoerotic statements about military service. Petty, unpleasant, cringe-inducing: the first two-thirds of "The Office Special" represents the show at its peerless best, and justifies any fan's blind purchase.

But then there's that ending. I don't want to reveal the specifics, but to give you an idea of how wrong it is, allow me to apprise you of one of the special's quintessential elements: the introduction of Gareth's replacement, a pregnant woman from finance on whom Tim's derisive powers are lost. For most of the special, she's fairly obnoxious, jabbering spitefully about bad parents and the dullards in her department without a hint of self-awareness or frivolity. Then, at the Christmas party, she's sexually demeaned mid-gripe–and as she flees the room your feelings shift from annoyance to pity. It's that ability to instantly redefine someone you despise that not only makes "The Office" great but also makes the definitive statements of the wrap-up so unsatisfying. The characters prove absolutely redeemable when in fact they're extremely complex; its notion that concrete endings can be found in life other than through death is the show's only real misstep. I just wish it weren't positioned at a point where it redefines how you look back on "The Office".

THE DVD
Warner/BBC's DVD rendering softens the blow somewhat. Although the 1.78:1, 16×9-enhanced image is a hair too indistinct in the fine detail department, it offers a more than good translation of the show's muted yet sophisticated palette. Boasting some surprising usage of the subwoofer, the Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio meanwhile throws an expert soundmix into sharp relief.

Extras are as follows:

Commentary with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant
The co-creators/co-directors comment on part two of the Special. Unfortunately, they disappoint with statements of the obvious and constant cracking up at their own bad jokes. It's slightly more urbane than the average Garry Marshall track–the constituency is different, of course, but the methods are largely the same.

"The Office": Closed for Business (22 mins.)
The cast and creators provide a post-mortem on the "Office" experience. They appear genuinely taken aback by the popularity of the series (especially given that it tested worse than any in the BBC's history) and understandably disturbed at the lengths to which people will go to bask in their fame. This is much meatier than the Series One featurette, though the cast is regrettably approving of the sentimental ending.

Golden Globes Featurette (6 mins.)
Thoughts on the award nobody expected to win. Interviews are interspersed with footage from the evening, from a meeting where everyone assumes they've lost to the mad scramble to turn the cameras away from those nominees with a supposedly better chance. Pretty damned funny.

"If You Don't Know Me By Now" Full Song and Video (4 mins.)
The complete version of David Brent's gauzy, white-on-white bid for music stardom. It loses steam after a while, but Gervais's fatuously "sensitive" looks into the camera are priceless.

"Freelove Freeway" Full Band Version (5 mins.)
Gervais and several musicians record the B-side to the "If You Don't Know Me By Now" single–which faithful viewers will recall from the best episode of Series One. Nothing much visual to be gleaned, but the song is overproduced enough to be very amusing.

Trailers hawking BBC America and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" round out the platter.

90 minutes; NR; 1.78:1 (16×9-enhanced); English DD 2.0 (Stereo); CC; English subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; BBC