There are a lot of opinions about The Office Australia after it was released on Prime Video on Friday, October 18, and a brief skim online suggests they're not all positive. However, after watching some of it, I was surprised by two things that I really liked, and one of them is something that neither the US or original versions of The Office handled well.
Launching a decade after the US version of The Office wrapped and more than two since the original UK show finished, The Office Australia feels uncomfortably like a tribute act to the former. You can immediately tell which characters are meant to fit into which archetype, with the series trying hard to unnaturally reverse-engineer dynamics like the "will-they-won't-they" between the Jim and Pam and the rivalry between the Dwight and Jim. However, the show gives us something to cling to instead of the characters.
The first scene of the Australia The Office features boss Hannah Howard (played by Felicity Ward) getting a visit from a representative of their company, Finley Craddick. This woman tells Howard that the office is being closed down due to the staff working from home all the time, but is convinced to let the office stay open if the team can raise the rent ($300,000) in the next month.
Cue a ticking clock element of the plot, with Howard first having to convince her staff that they want to work from the office anyway (with their motivations largely being "the plot needs us to") and then the group having to raise the money from working extra hard.
Later seasons of The Office US included some sub-plots about the office needing to hit figures, and other business-y topics, but the first seasons of the show (and the UK Office) lacked this kind of driving plot to get viewers hooked. It reminds me most not of an international version of The Office but of Netflix's recent Tires, as a similar plot was the central premise of that workplace comedy.
Another element of the show that I liked is that it's the first version of the show since the original to actually represent what it's like to work in an office, albeit a post-Covid one. At the beginning, the floor is deserted with all workers working from home, and even one they're coerced to return they're still much more interested in communicating on Zoom rather than in person. As someone who worked in a massive team through and after lockdown, Howard's confusion at having loads of co-workers and yet being totally alone in the office felt relatable!
I can't say I'm desperate to watch more of The Office Australia, but lots of reviews suggest that it gets better as the series goes on, and every other version of the show has had a weak opening. I've only watched a few episodes and time will tell if I find motivation to return.
