Eight hot takes on the The Office Australia trailer

By ABC Entertainment staff

A casual 23 years after the first iteration of the mockumentary series The Office premiered in the UK, we finally have an Australian version.

The cult show has been remade 12 times since that first series aired in 2001.

Everyone knows about the US version (2005-2013) starring Steve Carrell as Michael Scott, which arguably eclipsed the original Ricky-Gervais-led series in terms of popularity.

But did you know there's also a German version of The Office? And an Indian one? Poland also beat us to the punch.

Prime Video doesn't seem to think it is too late for an Australian version, though - the first trailer for the new series dropped Wednesday, and stars comedian and actor Felicity Ward as Hannah Howard, the first woman to lead any iteration of The Office.

The inept wannabe girlboss presides over a handful of disillusioned staff as managing director of fictional, Sydney-based packaging company Flinley Craddick.

The ABC Entertainment team's thoughts on it all are many and they are varied.

1: It is very obvious who is meant to be based on who from the US version of the show

Hannah (Ward) = Michael, duh, this is old news.

Lizze (Edith Poor) = Dwight, again duh, the grey suit and proximity to Hannah give it away.

Martin (Josh Thomson) = Stanley, because he seems pretty no-nonsense.

Greta (Shari Sebbens) and Nick (Steen Raskopoulos) = Pam and Jim. Look at the way he's looking at her here:

Lloyd (Jonny Brugh) = Andy, both give grot vibes.

Tina (Susan Ling Young) = Angela, because she is wearing a sweater vest in one shot.

Stevie (Zoe Terakas) = Darryl, because of the warehouse clothes.

Can't wait to watch and find out! (See if I'm right).

- Velvet Winter

2: Do we really need this?

I love The Office and have watched both US and UK versions countless times. I also love Australian comedy and lament the fact there's so little of it on TV these days.

So, if I don't want this homegrown reboot, then who does?

Thankfully, there is some promise in the trailer. A couple of moments - the wake, Melbourne Cup Day - had me cringing in the way you want to cringe while watching The Office.

It's great to see more of Kiwi comedian Thomson on Australian screens, and frankly, it's just great that there's another Australian sitcom on the way.

I'm just worried this will end up as a half-baked Utopia rather than a meaningful contribution to the lore of a franchise that probably doesn't need any more rebooting.

- Dan Condon

3: Okay, having a new girlboss to laugh at could be good and fun

This is something earlier versions of The Office didn't give us so much of, simply because we didn't have a name for "girlbosses" back then.

Even if you haven't had the misfortune of having a boss like Hannah, we all know (or know of) exhausting girlbosses like her.

The kind who insists: "My back hurts from carrying all my sisters," when in reality they do little for women.

The team behind the Australian version was smart to shape Hannah into this sort of character because, facts, the limit does not exist when it comes to girlboss jokes. And Hannah's feral girlboss energy is one of the few things that feels up to date about the show.

- Yasmin Jeffery

4: A Melbourne Cup episode is actually a great idea

It's just a brief clip of Hannah bellowing, "It's the race that stops the nation", but you automatically know she's talking about the Melbourne Cup, Victoria's cursed November holiday.

For those who stay away from the world of racing or haven't spent November in Naarm before, the Melbourne Cup is held on the first Tuesday of the month, with a public holiday in place so everyone can celebrate the crown jewel of the Spring Racing Carnival.

It's a day when families gather around the television at home, clutching onto scraps of paper with the names of competing horses on them, hand-made fascinators and hats perched on their heads. It's a day of animal welfare and anti-gambling protests and a surge in domestic violence rates.

But most of all, it's a day when thousands of people observe the sacred tradition of getting completely blotto while wearing fancy clothes - come rain, hail or shine (frequently all three, as it is spring in Melbourne).

It's a distinctly and cringingly Australian holiday, which is something this version of The Office will have to lean into hard if they want to distinguish themselves from the swathes of remakes before them.

- Katherine Smyrk

5: Is Russell the Crow okay?

The trailer reveals Lizze Moyle, the receptionist/Dwight-type, has a crow named Russell. This random pet and its gag of a name made me immediately obsessed with her.

But then I thought about the fact Rusty was spending his days indoors in a tiny cage with zero enrichment in his enclosure. And everyone knows sentient beings need enrichment in their enclosures.

Then Rusty was shown flying into a pole, never to be seen again.

So, I have to know: Is Russell okay? Were any crows harmed in the making of this show?

Don't make us wait for the disclaimer, Prime.

- Yasmin Jeffery

6: This feels old and maybe not in a good way

If there's something fresh to add to a now very familiar formula, this trailer doesn't seem to foreground it.

Unlike Heartbreak High, which successfully revived the original concept and spirit for new audiences, this feels like yet another unnecessary drop in a sea of nostalgia-baiting reboots.

I think the talented cast could sell this, but honestly? Whatever goodwill I can muster gets shaken loose by the thought of my own remake of a post by infamous Twitterer @dril:

"Turning a big dial that says 'Australian Remake' on it and constantly looking back at the audience for approval like a contestant on the price is right."

- Al Newstead

7: Will still watch for nostalgia

It's definitely not going to be a perfect show, but you get the sense from the trailer that The Office Australia is going to be a pretty safe watch that leans heavily on nostalgia.

You've heard the barely risky WFH, girlboss, sexuality, race and gender jokes before, just using slightly different words and formats.

The characters are familiar, as is that particular shade of beige the walls are painted, along with the rest of the set dressing.

There's just enough that's new about it (Australian cast! Featuring woman … boss?? Woman… Dwight??? And 2020s references?) to reel you in.

Everyone knows that safe + nostalgic = highly bingeable even if it isn't necessarily good or fresh or provocative.

- Yasmin Jeffery

8: What's the point of trailers, anyway?

They either hype you up with the perfect song, include all the best jokes so that you're bored by the time you see the actual show, or are more aligned with key marketing points than the creator's vision.

The Office Australia's trailer feels determined to show us the franchise's classic beats: This is our local Pam, Jim and Dwight, here are a multitude of characters staring straight into the camera for comedic effect.

These repeated tropes aren't super inspiring, but I doubt they make up the entirety of the show: The first trailer had to balance breaking new ground and not alienating audiences, ultimately doing neither.

But the show's creators are all too smart and clever for that (go and watch Jackie van Beek's The Breaker Upperers if you don't know what I mean).

As long as they were given space to bring something new to the series, it'll be more than what we've seen.

Don't judge a show by its trailer (and remember, Parks and Rec, heavily indebted to The Office, took a season or two to find its feet before becoming one of the best sitcoms).

- Jared Richards

The Office premieres on Prime Video on 18 October.

- ABC News