The Office - The Complete Collection (DVD)

My first experience with the popular BBC comedy "The Office" was when I reviewed the second season DVD release and not having seen the first season you do get a bit lost in the insanity, but once I understood where everyone was coming from I fell head over heels for this squirmy comedy "documentary" which gives us an inside look at the workings of just your average office environment that isn't exactly average.

This special-edition release includes the first two seasons of "The Office," which constitutes 6 episodes each and the series finale, which is an hour long special broken up into two parts, which is what I am here to talk about. I am assuming you are an "Office" fan already, and if not shame on you, you need to buy this to see what you have been missing. If you would like more background on the show click the official site link above and get the whole backstory.

This final episode revisits the office of Wernham Hogg three years after the final episode of Season 2 and things are not exactly as you left them. Gareth is now the office manager, Dawn is living in Florida with her fiancé and David has two jobs, one as a traveling cleaning-products salesman and another as an up-and-coming "personality" as he tries to make good on the "fame" he obtained from the first two documentary seasons of "The Office."

The group could never be more apart and yet together at the same time as a new documentary on the lives of the employees that made up the original staff of Wernham Hogg are revisited and brought back together in the end for the company Christmas party.

This finale has it all as you are forced to finally feel pity for David Brent and you want Tim and Dawn to get together more than ever. The show is taken somewhere you never would have guessed it could have gone infusing the same gut wrenching humor that makes you cringe along with some real human emotion.

Along with the special and first two seasons you get the original special features that came with the season releases, which include a documentary titled "How I Made The Office," deleted scenes, a video diary and outtakes. What comes new with the series finale is another documentary, a director's commentary on "Part Two" of the finale, a featurette focused on the show's Golden Globe achievement in 2004 and some music video fun featuring David Brent's "Freelove Freeway" from season one and his latest "If You Don't Know Me By Now" from the season finale.

The one thing I can say about these bonus features is that they are just as funny as the show, primarily the documentaries as co-creator Stephen Merchant is just as quick to reveal that Ricky Gervais is just as nutty in real life as he is in the show, and to go along with that Gervais's "I don't care" behavior is as liberating as it is funny.

"The Office" certainly is one of, if not the, best half-hour television shows of all time. This is a show that strove to do its best in a limited number of outings as opposed to focusing on the dream of having a long running series. They came in on top and went out with a huge bang, with a series finale that takes the show to even a higher level.

This is the ultimate collection and you will not be sorry that you bought it. If you already own the first two seasons, you can purchase the series finale by itself by clicking here, or just use the link above to buy the whole shebang.