posted
And I'm feeling a little trapped. There are SO many quotes, but so few people that know what I'm quoting. I tried on numerous occasions at work to bring up the degradation of women or staplers in jello, but I just got weird looks.
By the way, did anybody else find the British accents a little difficult to understand at first? I've watched many, many British shows and never had a problem, but for some reason, I did with this.
Posts: 2292 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Yeah, they aren't careful to be articulate. This makes it "realistic" so it doesn't feel scripted.
What makes it unwatchable for me is that I completely identify with the manager. I totally feel like I humiliate myself like he does ALL THE TIME but I still can't stop talking.
(Which is why I avoided posting on this forum for YEARS for fear it would lose me readers. Then I realized that my political essays were losing me readers anyway, so what the heck.)
Oh, look! I made this ABOUT ME! See? I really am JUST LIKE THAT GUY!
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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*patpat* It's ok, Mr Brent--I mean, Mr. Card.
I didn't think the accents were much worse than The Fully Monty, and they were no where near as bad as Snatch.
Posts: 226 | Registered: Mar 2005
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Don't they have subtitles? I always watch movies with subtitles even if they are in English. I am weird.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I turned on the subtitles for the first episode or two, until I got used to it. The subtitles are actually pretty far from what is often spoken though--my guess is that the subtitles represent the dialog as written in the script, and that the actors improvised a lot.
I was pretty surprised that I had trouble understanding them at first. Usually I can make my way through an accent of pretty much any sort without much trouble.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Actually I heard a radio interview with Ricky Gervais (David Brent) and he said that only a very very small amount of the show was improvised.
Posts: 3564 | Registered: Sep 2001
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The people writing the subtitles didn't have the script and had to guess at what the actors were saying?
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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My favorite part about Mr. Brent is his self-satisfied way of looking at the camera whenever he thinks he's said something particularly clever or meaningful.
For example:
You should eat that. There's children starving in Africa, which I hate! (Looks at camera)
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I got the first disk, though, and was so bored that I stopped watching halfway through the first episode. I even work in an office, and I just wasn't intereted.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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The second season is good, and the Christmas special is worth watching. In general it's not quite as funny as the first two seasons, but the sequence with David Brent on a series of matchmaking service dates is incredibly funny.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I didn't really feel like I needed it wrapped up though--I kind of liked having it left with a bunch of dangling strings. I didn't *mind* having everything resolved, but I liked the open feel that was left by the end of the second season.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Well, it's set in Slough, so nothing particularly unusual. If it were set in the Yorkshire Dales or something I'd have expected the accent to be more on the difficult side for an American ear.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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The accent wasn't beyond our ears, so we never turned on the subtitles. Of course, now I kind of want to see how they differ.
Posts: 98 | Registered: Jan 2003
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In the English version, I can't believe that Jan had a meltdown. I liked her as a character, and her meltdown now places her in the psycho position. Pity :*(.
Posts: 3060 | Registered: Nov 2003
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