The second season of The Office (British version) is once again a short season of only six episodes. Each episode is around thirty minutes. The second takes place only two short weeks after the first, where David did not get his promotion, while his counterpart at another branch did. David tries to spin it in a positive way, like that he is looking after his team but it is not fooling anyway. David then makes the awkward situation worse once the Swindon branch officially merges with his Slough branch.
The season jumps straight into its trademark cringe humor where David constantly embarrasses himself. Having no sense of what is appropriate and what is not, he launches into racist and offensive jokes with his new team. Naturally, a barrage of complaints then come in and he gets a talking off from his new bosses, yet he still does not see the error of his ways. It’s amusing and impressive in a way, but David, as a character, does constantly straddle on the line between amusing and outright insufferable.
With the other characters, salesmen Tim and Gareth continues their rivalry. Gareth rivals David with his sense of delusion and offensive remarks. However, Gareth’s straight and no-nonsense personality makes him a more likeable character. You just love how he takes everything so seriously even when he is being set up by Tim. And with Tim, the season doubles down on his relationship with Dawn. While Dawn is engaged, and a new love interest enters the arena for Tim, the natural pairing is still Tim and Dawn.
It’s in this season that Dawn starts to realize she is getting jealous when Tim flirts with the new love interest. As the viewer and an objective outsider, you can’t help but think that she shouldn’t be angry or even try to flirt with Tim anymore, since it was her that rejected Tim in the first place. However, you still do feel that ultimately, there’s more chemistry between Tim and Dawn compared to any other pairing out in the show. However, some of the best parts are where Gareth tries to one up Tim with the new love interest, but failing spectacularly.
Despite taking place in an office setting, and perhaps the absence is to purposely emphasize this point, but no work gets done. Nearly all the characters display no motivations for their roles. Actually, there are characters whom you don’t even know what their role is. It’s a wonder how this branch manages to keep profitability or even pass upper management’s inspections.
There is a lot of tension between David and his new boss. Naturally, the new boss is not impressed with David’s way of working, given that… he doesn’t actually do any work. The pair class, and in typical David fashion, when speaking with his staff, he always tries to act as if he is in control and his opinions matter. It’s not a great look and it’s surprising that he doesn’t get called out on it more often.
The final two episodes were painful to watch, but only because of what is happening to David. It seems that he is finally getting everything that he deserves, but it is tough to watch his self-confidence crack and the bad karma heaping up onto him. The scene where it dawns on him the situation he is in, his face shows all the emotions rushing through him, it was done really well. Even if you were not a fan of the character, that one scene will make you feel at least something. So it’s a shame that the season finale doesn’t resolve much.
Overall, the second season of the British The Office is pretty much more of the same as from the first season. The scenes do flow on a bit better but there isn’t enough of an overarching plot to drive the season. For every funny scene, there are these awkward silent ones where nothing happens. This season also allows several characters to shine, in particular Gareth. It always surprises you with how far it is willing to go with its crude and sexual references. The show in the end feels like there are a lot of ups and downs.
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