The first season of The Office was good. Funny, interesting, with a lot of great characters. No question that it should have been renewed, and a fair start to one of the most beloved TV comedies in recent years. But in our opinion, at least, the first season finds itself too beholden to its ancestor, the British version of The Office. We all loved Ricky Gervais as David Brent, along with his ensemble cast of put-upon office workers. However, Steve Carell is not Ricky Gervais, Jim Krasinski is not Martin Freeman, and Rainn Wilson is not Mackenzie Crook. And they shouldn't have to be. What worked in the British version was golden, but for the remake to succeed it needed to create its own identity. At the beginning, they just sort of replicated scenarios and dialogue from the original program. It wasn't until they began to develop the American characters into unique entities that could function separately, that the show really began to find itself.