The Office: Season Two

Hilarious, emotional, absurd, sweet -- and great on DVD
For new potential fans of "The Office," the DVD set of the break-out second season is a must-see. Start recording the third season now (premieres Sept. 21) and save those episodes, but don't watch them until you've watched the complete second season.

For devotees like myself, the DVD set is a just reward for loyal viewing. The show came into its own this year. I had watched fitfully until the stretch of episodes starting with "The Injury," "The Secret," and "The Carpet" hooked me for good. I am now going back to watch the whole season again and the shows hold up very well upon repeated viewing.

Strengths of the season: Steve Carell gets the award for Most Improved Characterization. It took about a dozen episodes (starting with 6 in the first season) for the show to settle on a tone for Carell's incompetent boss. For a while I wasn't sure what to make of him, which kept me from getting attached to the show. But this season he evolved from a mean jerk to a...

An absolutely brilliant Season Two for what could well be the best comedy on TV
Warning: Some spoilers

Of all the half-hour comedy shows that I've ever seen, THE OFFICE is the one that I would have thought the least likely to be brilliant. The BBC original version of the show was a thing of genius. Trying to do an American version of it seemed to me to be akin to Andy Warhol doing a remake of Picasso's "Guernica." Watching the show in Season One I was astonished that it was not only not bad, but that it was in fact very good. Amazingly, in Season Two it became something utterly brilliant. Although I was a huge fan of the original show, I have to confess that the American show is every bit as good as the British original. It is the finest American adaptation of a British show since ALL IN THE FAMILY remade TIL DEATH DO US PART.

Two things make this a great show: the writing, which is persistently brilliant (though obviously aided by a great deal of improvisation on the set), and the cast, which is both talented and very deep. Steve...

Second season pure comedic genius
When "The Office" first appeared on NBC the show used many of the basic plots for the brief first season. In comparison to the British inspiration these shows were good but it's clear that the series hadn't found its own voice yet. That can't be said of the glorious, hilarious second season which actually surpasses its inspiration. Steve Carell can sell things with such sincerity and plays the role of Michael so perfectly straight that his deadpan approach fits the series like a glove.

An excellent transfer from Universal "The Office" looks marvelous in this transfer. The show is shot in HD video so there aren't any analog problems that crop up. Audio sounds terrific as well the box says it's 5.1 but it sounded like a 5.0 mix to me although the surround speakers are used well for ambient sound keep in mind this is a dialogue driven show like most sitcoms.

We have bloopers, parodies of the "The More You Know" commercial spots that NBC periodically runs on topics...

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