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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 31, 2005)
• Arcade • Novelties • Gases HE & SHE I HE & SHE II ALBANY 290 River Rd., Eugene 720 Garfield, Eugene 1-5 EXIT 233, 3404 Spicer Dr. 688-5411 345-2873 541-812-2522 New Releases weekly VHS&DVD 5-day Rentals Over 3,000 DVDs ADA accessible gm gjflj aVaHa|||e Playwright, author, radio star, and retired elf may he the most brilliantly witty New Yorker David Sedaris April 22 • Hult Center MOADWIWu Eugene Tickets: The box office, BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com, or call 682-5000 • Groups (20+) call 744-1962. FRIDAY APRIL 1st SATURDAY APRIL 2nd, SUNDAY APRIL™ * all shows are all ages * www.wowhall.org * 681.21H6 * Office: Mockumentary style refreshing Continued from page 6 obliviousness. The scene remains fun ny but loses depth. He's no longer a grown adult pitifully seeking approval, but a lunatic without a cause. While making the audience cringe at the character's inappropriate behavior was the comedic staple of the original, it is Carell's performance that feels awkward, not the character. Though Carell's performance digresses, the show's original concept remains intact and maintains a degree of comedic poignancy. The bland mon otones of the staid office and the quiet desperation of the characters capture the maddening absurdity of contempo rary office culture. In the NBC pilot, Jim Halpert, a sales rep played by John Krasinski, blankly describes his job selling paper before admitting he is boring himself by talking about it He passes the time by flirting with the receptionist Pam Beesly (played by Jenna Fischer) and shares his cubi cle with the maddening Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), who takes his meaningless job extremely seriously. In the pilot Wilson showed potential for making the character his own rather than inviting comparisons to Mackenzie Crook, who memorably played the same role in the BBC ver sion (the character's name is changed from Gareth Keenan). Whereas Crook played the role of sycophant with a qui et creepiness, Wilson creates a louder and more confident yes-man. The adaptation keeps the same painfully long, awkward pauses that were essential to the original. But be cause the American version clocks in at 22 minutes rather than the 30 min utes devoted to the BBC episodes, the rest of the show feels hurried. So far, the show hasn't strayed from the racy topics of the original. A pre view revealed an office diversity-train ing day in which an African-American diversity trainer introduces himself as Mr. Brown, and Carell's character as sures him, "I will not call you that" While later episodes will diverge from the original, the premiere was a near carbon copy of the BBC pilot with certain cultural references adapted for an American audience. Though the British version played on BBC American and is available on DVD, there's a large audience unfamil iar with it Neophytes free from the bur den of comparing the two versions will find the show's mockumentary style re freshing compared with the pre dictable punch line approach of stan dard prime-time comedy. But the prospect of the new show finding an audience large enough to please NBC seems unlikely. HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Sex and the City" proved that American audi ences can handle comedy without punch lines or laugh tracks, but FOX's "Arrested Development" has proved the phenomenon is better left to cable, which doesn't require the mammoth audiences that major networks do. "The Office" airs Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on NBC. joshlintereur@dailyemerald.com Heads up Penny EXCLUSIVE FREE ADVANCE CAMPUS SCREENING / '..fe It s under Yellowstone. And it’s overdue. Produced with government agencies and based on the latest predictions of leading scientists, this is the story of what could happen when Yellowstone erupts. APRIL 4TH n 5PM i» PACIFIC 12 www.discoverychannel.com/supervolcano CHANNEL
