The Office: Season One (2005)
Universal Home Video
Cast: Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, B.J. Novak
Extras: Commentary Track, Deleted Scenes
Rating:

Writer Greg Daniels (The Simpsons, King of the Hill) has adapted the British hit "The Office" for American audiences. Loaded with comedic parodies involving the typical 9 to 5 setting, this mockumentary-style show will have you laughing at the best of times.

Centered on a group of office staff working for a paper supply company, the story revolves around the day-to-day antics of a goof-ball manager, Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and his failing attempts to earn respect and boost morale from his unconventional staff, with hilarious results. To be honest, I have never had the chance to watch the original BBC creation of this show, but from what I have seen with the American transformation, I was pleasantly surprised and entertained by the wacky mix of characters and abundance of tongue-in-cheek humor, that make up "The Office"

Universal Studios Home Entertainment brings the NBC series "The Office: Season One" to DVD in a great-looking 1.78:1 anamorphic presentation. Blacks are rich and deep in appearance, coupled with a vivid white balance, which helps to produce fine detail throughout. Colors are well saturated and flesh tones are natural in appearance, but given the typical office setting of business attire and drab décor, vibrant colors only come to life in the odd flash of a yellow post-it note pad or the light-blue hue of the office water-cooler. There are no noticeable compression artifacts to speak of making the overall transfer quite enjoyable.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 surround soundtrack is nicely mixed and provides the presented material with the appropriate balance. Dialogue is natural sounding and the ambient workplace sounds such as; ringing phones and office chatter mix well to produce a pleasant soundtrack.

Extra features provided on this DVD consist of audio commentaries for selected episodes, which feature participation from a host of cast and crew. There is also a good sampling of deleted footage that is separated into corresponding episodes.

"The Office: Season One" comes complete with all six episodes, including the pilot, and only manages to achieve a running time of two hours and fifteen minutes! A bit short to be labeled a "full" season, but entertainment-wise, still provides a decent value.