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I honestly don't think either of these were among the original recommendations I received. Instead, I think they were part of an IMDB trail I followed off one of the other shows that was. Either way, I did enjoy both. One of my "guilty pleasure" favorite movies is "Head Office" from the early 80s. It paints a cynical, and I still think hilarious, view of the corporate world. I see a lot of that in these 2 shows, even though they're taking a more "Office-"style mockumentary path.

Hugh Bonneville is his normal great self in both, and David Tennant's narration is fun, as well. Though the mocking humor in the narration is more subtle in Twenty Twelve than in W1A, both are great. I kept waiting for some joke about constantly referring to Siobhan Sharpe as being from Perfect Curve every time she was mentioned.

The striking difference between the two was with Twenty Twelve, you have people actually moving towards a goal, in whatever way they're able to get there. With W1A, goals are met by almost falling backwards into each one, but it doesn't get repetitive. Also, the sheer nothingness of what a lot of the executives say in the various meetings is half the humor of the show! That, and everyone always saying, "Yes," or "Yes, no" or "No, Yes." How the character of Anna Rampton devolved into a corporate-speak automaton by the end was great (and sad of course, but fun to watch). The Simon Harwood character reminded me a bit of Max Landsberger in Head Office. It's never really clear what he does other than avoid trouble, and say "brilliant" a lot.

Anyway, I enjoyed both shows. Doubt I'll do a rewatch; but they made me laugh, so job done!

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[-] stsquad@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 days ago

What's your experience of British comedy like? Have you tried The thick of it?

[-] d00phy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Not finished with that one, but I’m enjoying it. I love Peter Capaldi! As for Brit comedies in general, it varies, but I mostly like them. I have some more coming. I kind of went down a Reddit hole!

So far, the only dud for me has been Stath Lets Flats. By episode 2 I noped out. The guy is just such a useless prick. I know someone is going to tell me it gets better at some point, but I’m not sure i want to give it that kind of time!

[-] i_am_not_a_robot@feddit.uk 4 points 1 day ago

Useless prick is the point! A lot of the humour comes from the whole lot of them being complete idiots. I enjoyed it but I can see it's not for everyone.

[-] d00phy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Yeah, that’s a hard thing to nail. Kind of like slap-stick, which I think is probably the hardest kind of comedy to do successfully.

this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2026
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