The Office (UK)

Whether it's Brent's starry-eyed foppishness, Dawn's artistic daydreams or Gareth's organizational stiffness, these are characters we don't see on American TV. They're not accomplished, clever or distinctive. But they're so well-observed, and so subtly personified, that it's as if we're finding amusement in people we know. [21 Oct 2004]

Thanks to a finale that is, by turns, hysterical, excruciating and even poignant, this series--about a blowhard branch manager (Ricky Gervais) who gets sacked from his job at a struggling paper company--gets to quit while it's way, way ahead. [18 Oct 2004]

Brilliant. [21 Oct 2004]

Quite possibly the finest closing chapter ever for a TV series.

The special stays true to the tone and searing wit of the original series and makes for a spectacularly funny coda to "The Office." [18 Oct 2004]

Supremely satisfying. [21 Oct 2004]

A masterful series finale. [21 Oct 2004]

Easily one of the funniest shows of the year. [21 Oct 2004]

It integrates the boredom, self-delusion, dashed hopes and struggle for power into something bigger, and potentially better, and functions not only as a continuation of the story but a convincing conclusion.

As wickedly, painfully funny as the first two seasons and, in tiny, fleeting doses, as delicately tender.

Like the series that preceded it, The Office Special is brilliant. [21 Oct 2004]

It's hard to imagine any other comedy series putting such a fitting cap on its run. [21 Oct 2004]

As he did in the series, Gervais imbues Brent with a kind of idiotic cleverness that is both silly and devastating. [21 Oct 2004]

A fully satisfying and fitting TV finale, and a show that really should be seen. It's acted as well as it's written and directed, which means it's just about perfect. [21 Oct 2004]

As ever, it's all in the details.

What's most satisfying about "The Office" is that, despite the sharpest humor this side of "The Larry Sanders Show," it has an ultimately sympathetic take on the cubicle-dwellers of the world, and that outlook is derived from a million tiny observations about personal decency (and lack thereof). [21 Oct 2004]

For the most part, the special continues with the show's distinctive brand of brutal, punchline-free, squirm-inducing humor. Ultimately, though, it gives us what the first and second seasons did not, a happy ending. This optimistic conclusion could be seen as a loss of nerve. I prefer to see it as chance for release.