If • Samuel Beckett is still alive, he might "Waiting for Godot" in the context transferred from the wilderness to the office: a computer screen on the desk light emitted dead, copier left and right It's a fax machine, and the water dispenser in the shadow behind you blisters weakly from time to time... The colleague next door has to use a paper shredder to dispose of used cards when you call. There will always be someone behind you gossiping about your private life, of course they Never forget to speak ill of you in front of your boss, and the content of your daily work is always the same and meaningless.
I'm talking about the British BBC drama "The Office". Someone commented: "It's really not suitable for humans." A few gloomy and pessimistic little employees seem to be able to use their work to maintain their connection with the society. Work is just doing trivial and boring things in a bleakly-run paper company ("My job is statistics, which company needs how much paper, and whether they can afford these expenses... I don’t know after I leave here, What else can I use these data for"). But it is undeniable that due to the inherent gloomy psychology of human beings, the audience's interest in watching them fight in the office and worry about professional crises is far greater than watching them get bonuses and red envelopes.
In this blinding day series, people are dressed in dim blue and gray clothes, and they seem to be drowning under the white fluorescent lamps. The camera follows the characters like a low-quality news documentary, interspersed with interviews with them from time to time-don't expect them to speak the truth in front of the camera, never expect them to speak the truth. This comedy can be called "the general mobilization of pessimism." Don't expect to find any laughs, but seeing the ubiquitous embarrassment and the absurd jump of joy, you still can't help but send out bursts of dry and cold wry smile.
The central figure in the office is David Brandt, the company's regional manager and head of the office in Wenham Hogg, a fat man who is tumbling in the quagmire of a mid-life crisis. He always wanted to make people think that he was young, lively, humorous, professional, respected, and versatile... the standard Brandt-style speech: "People say I'm the best boss, and they say:'Oh, we've never been like this. Worked in a place where you are so interesting, you have mobilized us all.'" Unfortunately, these qualities are what he doesn't have. The only thing this person excels is that he ruins the conversation of others-a very powerful cold-spot king who can always stun his subordinates with excessive pornographic jokes. Two and a half minutes in the first episode is simply unbearable: Brandt called Dorn, the girl at the front desk of the company, to the office and said solemnly:
"Dorn, I want to fire you!"
Dorn (asked in disbelief. ): "Why?!"
Brandt: "Stealing."
Dorn: "What did I steal?!"
Brandt: "Stickers."
...
When the camera was aimed at Dorn again, we found the poor girl Already sobbing. Brandt stood up suddenly at this time, made a gesture of "you are being tricked" with both hands, and said with a sunny face: "This is a joke!" While Donn was still wiping tears.
Someone said: "David Brandt is a bit like the BBC. He uses a standard English accent to show off his knowledge of all pop culture lace news. He thinks he is the sun in the eyes of others." He often pretends to add Latin to the conversation. Appears to have aristocratic temperament, and the result is all misuse and abuse. He puts Shakespeare’s poems and rock music on his lips, and sometimes loves to write some crappy poems... But in the last episode, David can only beg his boss not to fire himself: "Don’t do this... at least you can. Say it's not settled yet." The fact is: David Brandt, a poor middle-aged creature without prestige and sense of humor. He constantly denies this and seeks approval from others, but things never get better.
The photocopier spit out documents tirelessly, and people stared at the computer in a daze. "Life, know it, as long as it continues, lasts, lasts, knows it, it can become eternal." And eternal life is: nothing happens, no one comes, no one will leave-contemporary workplace Edition "Waiting for Godot".
Oh vs. God
"People say I'm the best boss, and they say:'God, we've never worked in a place like this. You are so funny, you mobilized us all.'" Looks like deja vu? Well, this is the line in the first episode of the American NBC version of "The Office". The boss’s name has been changed from David Brandt to Michael Scott, and the original sentence "Oh" has been replaced by "God." ".
When the BBC sighed and sighed before ending the episode, and managed to prevent it from turning into a puddle, the Americans rebuilt the paper company in Scranton, a boring town in the northeast corner of Pennsylvania. Branch. The English version of "The Office" has only two seasons and a Christmas special, and the Americans have filmed the show for three years like a mule.
What a shame! If you continue to watch the first episode, you will find that the scripts of the two dramas are the same (pathological daily life, half-dead staff, wasted life...). It’s just that in the US version of the boss, Scott has a good tooth (Brand has two very annoying teeth), and other places can’t be compared with Brandt. The actor Steve Carell sees it. It looks like a confused detective version of Kim Carey, with exaggerated movements and facial expressions that are frightening.
Indeed, the first few episodes of the NBC version of "The Office" were too faithful to the original. They copied all the scenes of Wenhan Hogg in Scranton, and it seemed nothing new. But in the winter of 2005, the US version began to radiate its own heat, using exaggerated expressions and actions commonly used in American comedies, and using one after another with wit and jokes to push the story of each episode to a climax, and quickly became the most popular in the United States. One of the series ("You would think this is the best TV series in the United States-if you haven't watched the original English version.").
The US version of "The Office" focuses on the communication barriers and racial issues in the United States. "Racism is very bad. If we believe that different races can coexist in a society, we can stay away from racism...in theory." In an "anti-racism training", Scott said to a Latino employee: "What do you like in Mexico? Uh...except for those who are particularly violent."
In addition, the US version has greatly enhanced the intensity of the dramatic conflict. The degree, for example, the enemy of Dwight and Jim is much more intense than Garis and Tim in the English version. While the listless Tim in the English version boringly freezes Garris's stapler into the pudding again and again, the Jim in the US version has already begun to seal Dwight into a cardboard box and lock it into the meeting room. If Tim teases people mostly because he is too boring (at the age of 30, he still does this hopeless job, living with his parents, "I never talk about life easily, because I have no life at all." ), the two in the US version can be regarded as personal grievances ("The greatest meaning of life is to play with your disgusting colleague next to you, and then laugh at him").
In order to make the series more accessible, the US version of "The Office" has penetrated into the hearts of every employee. It will tell you clearly that Michael Scott likes to eat crayfish at a certain fast food restaurant, but we are very close to David Boo. Rand knows nothing about his private life. In fact, we don’t know much about the private lives of all the employees in the English version of The Office. Some of them don’t even have names. The British drama is a desperate chorus, but the US version is much more commercial: Scranton’s The office is brighter and noisier, more posters, more staff, and they seem less idle. Jim and Pam ("If you think she is beautiful, you should look at her a few years ago.") The couple is more beautiful and more confident than the English version of Tim and Don.
Costa Rica drifted away.
NBC’s boss said of the difference between the two versions of The Office: “Americans always believe that there is something to look forward to in life. But the British don’t. They prefer to have fun out of despair.” But in fact, the situation in the Scranton branch in the United States is almost desperate: at the beginning of the series, this branch was on the verge of bankruptcy, and the staff member Toby said to the camera: "For a minute, I saw that I was selling a house. , And then I moved to Costa Rica to learn surfing. I hope Costa Rica will be there when I am 65."
Dilemma. On the one hand, it is a mediocre and desperate job that lacks personality, and on the other is a dream that I dare not dare to set foot in. All romance and hope were squashed in the office, and then stuffed into the paper shredder. The poker-faced Jim/Tim will only soften his eyes when he sees Dorn/Pam, the girl at the front desk. The ambiguous pair of men and women keep eyebrows every day, but in fact, Dorn/Pam already has a fiancé.
Ryan Howard, a newcomer who just graduated: "Stanley likes to play crossword puzzles. Angela has a cat. I don't want to have any things or habits. You know, I don't want to be fixed as a certain type of person." But soon He was called "arsonist" by Dwight. Because he accidentally caused a kitchen fire. Everyone is nailed to their place, and then repeated mechanically. Jim’s fantasy is manifested at best in sending a fax to Dwight next door, signed: Dwight of the future; and Dwight’s most imaginative words are nothing more than: "We are like those classic famous groups, he is like Mozart. , I'm like a friend of Mozart, no, I'm like the sharpshooter in "Dragon Tiger", and Michael is like Mozart. If you want to hurt Mozart, you will eat a bullet from the sharpshooter!"
"For many people, the office It's their only home." Scott raised his cup with "The World's Best Boss" printed on it and said, "I am the best father in the world." If this is true, then this show is a game. Home video tape. But whether he admits it or not, the fact is that his office is not a family at all. We just watched how the Costa Rican dream slowly slipped away in front of the camera...
What will happen next? I don’t know, the US version of the series is still far away from the end. "When the British hid behind the sofa, the Americans were already asleep on the sofa, so it looked huge." Supporters of the British version said: "Since it's perfect, why repeat it?" The supporter of the US version retorted: "We are Americans. How do we understand the British culture? They speak another language." (It seems that any cultural nuance will make American audiences are confused about the drama.) But in any case, the German version, the French version, and even the Chilean version of this series are already ready to be filmed.
There is a T-shirt that says: "The British version of this T-shirt is much more interesting." On the "Office" issue, this T-shirt is correct
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