The Office Season 2 Review

It's been more than two decades since the second season of the British Office. In that time, the sitcom has remade itself in the show's image. The cringe comedy, the mockumentary format, the romance, the antihero, all these elements from the British Office have seeped into sitcoms from the past two decades. So why has no sitcom recaptured the power of the moment where Tim tells Dawn how he feels?

This moment uses the mockumentary format in a way that no show that came after it really dared to. To date, the talking heads have been islands, moments of commentary. The plot never happens in a talking head. So when Tim walks away from his talking head and the camera follows him, it's truly shocking. And we get the moment we've been waiting for as he tells Dawn how he feels, and we get to see it all. Except not really. We watch through the blinds, and we only watch since Tim turns off his and Dawn's mic packs so the moment is blanketed in total silence. Television is almost never silent, and this gives the moment a special kind of power. It's a moment of radical, invasive intimacy, but also a moment when our characters reclaim their privacy. As the audience, we feel all-powerful, we have become part of the story. Tim probably wouldn't have done this if we weren't watching. But we're also more helpless than ever. We can' hear what they say, and we can't make her say yes.

Finally, they leave and Tim invites us back in, turning on his mic to tell us what we already know: "she said no." We feel closer to Tim and Dawn than ever, and it is wonderful and terrible. Truly, one of the greatest and most influential scenes in the history of television.

(The rest of the season is great too. This show is a masterpiece).

Available on Hulu, Peacock, Britbox, and Hoopla