I can already hear the collective groans coming from anyone who’s peeped the title of this article. “We don’t need a new Office! Can’t Hollywood come up with any original ideas! Quit ruining something that was already perfect!” It’s become a popular refrain every time a new rehash of a popular franchise is announced. We’ve seen it a lot recently with news about Twister 2 and Beetlejuice 2. And now with news of a brand new version of The Office, a series that has people subscribing to Peacock solely for the privilege of binging all their favorite episodes, you can bet people are poised with their thumbs hovering over a nasty Twitter response over it.
The new version features a female lead as branch manager and a new modern, post-pandemic storyline. Before you start polishing your pitchforks, maybe you should give the new version of The Office–coming to Amazon Prime in 2024—a chance. Here’s why:
This new version is set in Australia.
It’ll be a lot easier to deal with an absence of Steve Carell as bumbling regional manager Michael Scott (or Ricky Gervais’s David Brent, for that matter) if the show doesn’t even take place on the same continent. This new iteration of The Office is taking place in Australia. With that far of a removal from the Office you know and love, it should be easier to give this one a chance.
This is one of many international versions of the show.
Before you get all high and mighty about an Australian Office, here’s something you might not know: The American Office wasn’t the only international spin-off of the British original. Almost always taking place in the offices of a paper company, the show has had its own versions in 14 different countries, including Chile, the Czech Republic, and a recent version in Saudi Arabia.
Frankly, it’s surprising that Australia is only just now joining the ranks of Office elite. While it’s had versions all over the world, this’ll be only the third English-language Office behind the British and America series. (Though Canada got their own version, La Job, it was in French.)
It’s not just a same old plot.
In most iterations of The Office, you find a male branch manager of a paper company who’s just trying to get his staff to like him. There’s the sweet assistant who doesn’t realize that her best friend is in love with her, à la Jim and Pam.
Yes, it’d be annoying to relive that plot again, especially when many regard American Office’s rendition as nearly perfect. But that’s not what Australian Office is doing. Instead, it stars Australian comedian Felicity Ward (Wakefield) as a female version of management. And rather than running the in-person offices of a paper company, she’s attempting to keep her staff at a packaging company happy as they all go to the work-from-home model.
Will it be a fun switch-up to the traditional plot? Maybe. We’ll just have to watch to find out.
They had the same complaints about the American Office, and look how that turned out.
You might have forgotten how much hatred the U.S. version of the Office got when it first came out. You couldn’t talk about the show without some dude-bro saying “the British office did it better.” In fact, as the first season came out, USA Today reviewed it, saying it was a “passable imitation of a miles-better BBC original.”
Imagine if NBC had listened to the critics and angry fans. We wouldn’t have gotten 9 seasons of a great TV show that went on to win 42 Primetime Emmys over its run. Perhaps the Australian Office will have the same success? All we can do is watch on Amazon Prime in 2024 and decide for ourselves.
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