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The reviews for The Office Australia are in – and they are brutal.
Many have argued that the Amazon Prime remake is “unnecessary”, given the brilliance of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s 2001 original workplace classic, and the hugely popular US follow-up, which ran from 2005.
Aussie comedian Felicity Ward leads the cast of the Australian version, starring as Hannah Howard, the equivalent of Gervais’s tragic middle-manager David Brent.
In a two-star review for The Telegraph, Benji Wilson called the show “a heinously misguided undertaking” that “hasn’t paid enough attention to its source material”. He asked: “What is this for?”
The Guardian’s one-star review, meanwhile, headlined “An edgeless reboot doomed for the shredder”, saw Luke Buckmaster write: “Given The Office has already been remade a dozen times – including a brilliant long-running US version that (apologies to my British colleagues) surpassed the original – the key challenge for the Australian reboot was to bring something new to the table. The amazing thing is that the creators don’t seem to have even tried.”
Commenting on the performances, he added: “The cast do their best but look a bit dazed and glassy-eyed, like fish nearing their last breath.”
The Evening Standard was slightly more generous, awarding the show three stars and complimenting Ward’s “eccentric and needy” portrayal of Howard. Critic William Mata wrote that, while “or the first five minutes”, the show “feels a genuinely fresh and updated retelling of the story”, it soon resorts to “familiar ground”.
Pat Stacey, writing for The Irish Independent, didn’t like it at all. He wrote: “There’s not a spark of originality in this pointless and toothless dud.” The critic, who called the show “lazy”, asked: “Why did anyone think this series was necessary?”
In an interview with The Independent this week, Ward told Helen Coffey she knew that covering similar ground to two established and beloved shows clearly comes with its challenges. “I know that people are going to have very strong opinions about this regardless,” she said, but added: “When people ask, ‘Did you feel the pressure?’ I’m like, ‘No, not at all.’ This is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me.”
