While Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's Slough-based sitcom may have passed into the canon of classic comedy, it was assumed that the US remake, headed by Greg Daniels, was doomed to follow in the footsteps of American adaptations of British shows like Coupling, Men Behaving Badly and Teachers.
The first episode of The Office: An American Workplace was slated by critics and abandoned by viewers. You couldn't blame them - it copied events from our first visit to Wernham Hogg almost scene for scene, albeit with some lines watered down.
However, by the end of NBC's initial six-show run, there were hints at the quality ahead as the show strayed from the UK original. After the show lost half of its audience after the first episode, the writing team obviously realised that to be successful they had to take the template of the British show and leave it at that, a template.
So, by the start of the third series of the show (which airs on ITV2 tonight), The American Office has managed to take the overriding themes of the British Office - the mundanity of office life, the limp power of middle managers and the awkwardness of workplace romance - and adapt them for a Thursday night NBC primetime audience, injecting the US show with its own distinct character without losing the touching wit of the original.
Steve Carell made a deliberate point of not watching Gervais and as such his Michael Scott is notable for his absence of Brentisms. He may be a much more sympathetic character than Gervais but he's just as compelling as hints of his childhood (and current) loneliness are dropped throughout the series. Likewise, Jim and Pam's romance/flirtation at first seems a bit too glossy and good-looking compared to Tim and Dawn's. But, with the benefit of two 20-odd-episode seasons of flirting and heartbreak, we find ourselves rooting for John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer every bit as much as we did for Martin Freeman and Lucy Davis.
Adapting such a successful and fawned-over show was never going to be an easy task, but it's one that Daniels and his team (which includes quality guest directors such as Jason Reitman, Joss Whedon and JJ Abrams) have responded to brilliantly. The Office: An American Workplace is easily the best comedy on US network television. And definitely on ITV. I urge - nay beg - any Brent acolytes who aren't convinced to tune in.
