The Trailer for Australia's Female-Led 'The Office' Is Missing a Key Ingredient

By Dustin Rowles | TV | September 18, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | September 18, 2024 |

I’m not sure why Australia needed to create its own version of The Office — they already have Fisk — but I sort of appreciate that their version cast a woman in the Michael Scott role, as well as the Dwight Schrute role. I hope this doesn’t sound too sexist, but I have rarely met a female Michael Scott type outside of a Melissa McCarthy role, and I have never encountered a female Dwight Schrute on television or in the real world.

However, that is not the issue I have with the trailer for the Australian The Office. The issue is that the trailer plays up the Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute characters (and the Andy Bernard character?), but doesn’t give much time to the Jim and Pam characters. The Jim and Pam relationship is central to The Office, but more important than their romance is their grounding effect on the sitcom. You need straight men and women to make the Michael Scott character work. Jim and Pam transform Michael Scott from a buffoon into our buffoon. It’s a critical piece of the sitcom puzzle. (The show does have their own version of Jim and Pam — Steen Raskopoulos and Shari Sebbens — but their screentime here is inadequate).

Still, with the American reboot on the way, we should probably get used to different versions of The Office beyond the two near-perfect versions we already know.

The Office premieres October 18 on Prime Video in Australia and New Zealand. It’s unclear if or when it will ever be available in the United States.