The Office UK Vs US: Which Characters Are Best?
Wernam Hogg vs Dunder Mifflin - who are the star employees?
Comparing the overall quality of the two English language iterations of The Office is a fool’s errand.
One is a pitch black, miserablist comedy that fulfils its job in under ten hours total and sticks quite rigidly to the mock doc formula; the other is a sprawling, warm, increasingly traditional sitcom that eventually gives the people what they want. Both are great, but they serve totally different purposes.
The characters, on the other hand, are well worth contrasting. In many ways the US adaptation stuck closely to the formula of the core creations, but the massively longer run time allowed them to dig into more of the side characters, as well as the backstories of the entire staff.
We’ll be sticking here to the characters that have clear variations on both sides of the pond, so sadly that means no Toby, no Malcolm, and worst of all, no Creed Bratton.
As for the others, though, who comes out on top? Who is lining up for the combined Office XI? This is a transatlantic supergroup, the two great shows combining to create one of the finest hypothetical casts ever assembled.
11. Glynn vs Darryl Philbin
One criticism you could levy at the UK Office is a complete disregard for its working class characters. The office workers visit the warehouse on a couple of occasions, and the entire workforce are portrayed as belligerent and backwards.
Worst of all is foreman Glynn (we all call him Taffy), best remembered for savagely shutting down Tim’s obnoxious new desk mate in the Christmas special.
The US version handles the warehouse workers much better. They’re earthier than the office lot, but they seem a far saner and more professional bunch than their white collar colleagues. This is particularly notable in Taffy’s equivalent, Darryl, who is among the most aspirational characters in the show.
He starts off as somewhat of a strawman, a blue collar guy to whom Micheal can’t relate, but works his way up the ladder before setting up his own business by the end of the show. He is one of the few calm, sensible people in the office, and is given a rich life outside the confines of the workplace.
The UK’s time constraints play a factor here, of course, but the lack of interest in that side of the business is apparent in the original show.