“The Office”, the series that 18 years after its premiere does not stop coming back: it is now on the Netflix grid

The office
the hit series starring
Steve Carell
landed back in Netflix, 18 years after its original premiere. Available from Sunday, January 1, the series that had left the catalog in 2020 will remain there until the first day of 2025.

Users will thus be able to enjoy the adventures of michael scott and the workers under their charge, who conquered the hearts of viewers 18 years ago and continue to do so: the series was in the top 10 most watched in Uruguay on the platform.

The day-to-day of the workers of the Dunder Mifflin paper sales company, led by Scott (Carell), is reflected in The office with a touch of humor and irony, with a mocking side regarding work that borders on the absurd to distract the viewer from daily responsibilities and routine.

Thus, Dwight (Rainn Wilson), Pam (Jenna Fischer), Andy (Ed Helms), Ryan (BJ Novak) or Erin (Ellie Kemper), among others, deal for nine seasons and more than 200 episodes with the controversial guidelines of a boss whose leadership position is highly contested. He’s basically a goofball with power. He is so irritating that he is likeable.

The series is a singular remake of the original, launched in the United Kingdom in 2001 and by Ricky Gervais, as creator and great protagonist . It lasted only two seasons and was highly successful (and above all a great word of mouth). It can be seen on HBO Max.

Four years later, the comedian agreed to make an American version, but with a new protagonist, none other than Steve Carellwho managed to turn that story into a true global event.

The task was not easy at all: the official version had just over 10 episodes and Gervais’s subdued humor seemed difficult to translate into the logic of the usually more colorful American sitcoms. And the one who finally accepted that challenge was the writer and producer Greg Daniels, recognized for working on hit series like The Simpsons, King of the Hilland for writing a highly praised episode of Seinfeld, “The Parking Space”. Daniels had a precise sense of humor, which drank more from discomfort than from friendly laughs, and his driving was the only one that could bring this remake to a successful conclusion. But above all, the scriptwriter knew that the first step was to show respect to the British version, and that is why he carried out the writing of a script that was essentially a copy of the British pilot.

Daniels wrote a pilot that borrowed the most important features of the original fiction: the presence of an unsympathetic boss, an underling who was constantly trying to ingratiate himself with him, another employee subtly infatuated with the receptionist of the place, and a parade of just as many office workers with dull routines. .

The producer’s plan consisted of relying on the charisma of his stars and the chemistry that emerged during the filming so that the American branch of that office would take off. And because of that, Daniels needed talented actors who would be encouraged to improvise and give this remake a defined profile. The showrunner knew it: to a large extent, everything depended on finding the michael scott perfect.

The list of applicants for the position was long: among some of the names that applied were Alan Tudyk, Nick Offerman, Hank Azaria, Martin Short and Bob Odenkirk. Carell, who was working on the comedy Come to Papa at the time, also auditioned but was rejected. Will Ferrell he ultimately got the role, but ended up turning down the offer, and so it was that Carell returned to the charge and managed to convince the producers that he was the ideal Michael Scott.

When the sixth season finished shooting, Carell announced his retirement. Thus, in April 2011 and in episode number 148, Michael Scott said goodbye to Dunder and Mifflin.

The office it was never a boom rating. never hit the numbers The Big Bang Theory either Two and a Half Men. “It took people about 10 years after the end to really get hooked on the show. When we were on the air, nobody cared about this show, which barely had a hard core following of a few hundred people,” admitted Carell.

The later bosses, with their ups and downs, could never fill those shoes (although James Spader’s Robert California did have great moments), and the plots with Dwight, Jim and Pam (whom the writers wanted to divorce) alongside the rest of his companions soon fell into clichés and unprepared outcomes. With no more stories to tell, in May 2013, The office closed its doors with chapter 25 of the ninth season. However, the legend was just beginning.

In 2020, the series was removed from the netflix catalog to come back just now. The return was announced on the last day of 2022 by the Netflix Latin America Twitter account, from where they accompanied the news with a celebratory clip starring Carell.

Based on La Nación/GDA