[detruncate]

Great comedy is dangerous. Its essence is the discomfort and insecurity at the heart of the human condition, and it necessarily walks a fine line between insight and insult. An inherently difficult exercise made even more so given how widely the location of this line varies from person to person.

While there's a lot to like about the US version, what it boils down to for me is that the UK version bites while the US version too often barely nibbles. It lacks the depth and subtlety of the UK version, which leaves it feeling flat. Or flatter than I'd like, anyway. I still think it's a reasonably good show (primarily because of the Jim and Pam stuff), but I'm often distracted by the over-the-top delivery that Steve Carell in particular brings to the table to really get excited about it.

The first episode of the US version made me cringe in an entirely different and not nearly as interesting way as the UK one. I was ready to write the show off as another failed adaptation of a popular UK show. They managed to kill almost everything I liked about the UK version, and weren't able to add anything interesting of their own given that they were using the same script. Thank Jeebus they quickly set about finding their own way episode 2 onward because it would have been a trainwreck otherwise.