I’ve grown up watching The Office, and its sense of humor has definitely rubbed off on my generation. It has resonated with audiences because of its depiction of humanity and wholesome themes surrounding a mid-range paper supply firm in Scranton, PA. It has deeply affected media, television, and film because of its Mockumentary format, which has been copied but never successfully duplicated. Even though the series finale aired in 2013, it is still like comfort food; the events transpiring today are unbelievable, and booting up an episode of The Office is an easy escape.
Season 1 of The Office (U.S) is known as one of the most controversial seasons of comedy on television, mostly because of the way they duplicated Ricky Gervais’s classic 2001-3 comedy of the same name. The direction did not know what it was doing, and the characters, scenarios, and relationships were ripped off and hadn’t found their own voice. This is especially seen in the way Michael Scott (Steve Carrel) is portrayed. He is racist, misogynistic, and unapologetic for his actions. This is because Ricky Gervais’s portrayal of David Brent, and that character is unaware of how bad he actually is. Throughout the season Michael is consistently offensive to women and minorities, but most of these aggressions happen in the standout episode “Diversity Day” written by B.J Novak.
Diversity Day is about a person from a fictional company who comes to Dunder Mifflin for sensitivity training in response to an offensive comedy routine by Michael Scott. Michael then feels like he is being portrayed as the villain in this situation so he starts his own company and chaos breaks in the Dunder Mifflin Scranton branch. Michael thinks it’s a good idea to tape index cards to the employee’s heads with races, ethnicities, sexuality, and gender. What ends up happening is that Michael overstays his welcome and loses any respect he once had from his subordinates.
In Season 1, Michael’s stupidity is the butt of the joke, and his character is one-dimensional; he’s just the man in charge who everyone hates for good reason. In subsequent seasons, the focus shifts to his immaturity, lack of awareness, and the childlike wonder of his character.
One of the best things about Season 1 is that it’s not that long. Most of it is a slow burn with some moments of chaos. Season 1 is vastly different from any other season of The Office. The other seasons are goofy; Season 1 is an anomaly and is not in tune with the rest of the series.
All Office Season 1 episodes ranked from best to worst:
6) “Pilot”
The Pilot introduces Michael, Pam, Jim, and Dwight and the rest of the cast in a remake of the Ricky Gervais (U.K.) Office’s first episode. It has the same jokes and character introductions, and it is only here to tell people who the characters are.
5) “Hot Girl”
An attractive saleswoman comes to Dunder Mifflin, and many of the male staff members try to catch her attention. It is very cringy as Michael and Dwight try to impress her. The titular “hot girl” is played by Amy Adams in this awkward season finale.
4) “Health Care”
Michael places the responsibility of choosing the office’s health care plan in Dwight’s hands. He starts pressuring his co-workers to tell them their diseases and medical history. Jim and Pam realize this is a great opportunity to mess with Dwight. This episode has some amazing jokes.
3) “Basketball”
Michael challenges the warehouse to a basketball game to prove that the upstairs people are cool. There is a bet involved: the winning floor gets to stay home on Saturday. This episode is a fan favorite, but I am not the biggest fan of sports, so it’s not my favorite of the season. Still, it has a lot of great lines and jokes that are unique to the episode.
2) “The Alliance”
Dwight invites Jim into an alliance to protect them from downsizing. Jokingly, Jim agrees just to mess with him. This episode is the goofiest of the first season and is pretty fun to watch. This is an episode that I watch frequently because of its feel-good nature.
1) “Diversity Day”
After an unsuccessful comedy routine by Michael, Dunder Mifflin sends a sensitivity trainer and Michael hijacks the session and starts his own company. This results in one of the most famous sequences in comedy history. Go watch it.
Levi Jacobson Reviews 