The Office Australia Remake Reviews Are Decidedly Mixed

“No! God! No! God! Please! No!” Yes, The Office has been remade once again, this time in Australia. Prime Video is at the helm of the latest take, transporting audiences to a new office with a new boss in Felicity Ward’s Hannah Howard, who gets word that her branch will be shut down to work remotely. The idea of another remake of the hit sitcom was not met well by fans, and the reviews are now in, so how does The Office Australia fare against both the award-winning British original and its beloved U.S. counterpart?

We begin with a scathing review from Luke Buckmaster of The Guardian, who gives the remake just 1/5 and calls the series “an edgeless reboot doomed for the shredder.”

“The Office Australia is so lacking in distinctive flavour, and so adherent to such a generic format, that it feels like it belongs to nowhere. Perhaps even nowhen, being as dislodged from the space-time continuum as it is. Will this put a nail in The Office franchise coffin, ending this thing once and for all? If it does, most people will probably react by asking themselves the same question they could ask about the show itself: shouldn’t this have happened a long time ago?”

The brutality continues courtesy of Pat Stacey of The Irish Independent, who calls The Office Australia a “toothless dud” without “a spark of originality.” Ouch.

“If the first instalment barely deserves the description ‘comedy’, the second, which sees Hannah organising an office pyjama party, is even worse and seems to drag on forever.

I’ll be surprised if this pointless, toothless dud gets a second season. It doesn’t deserve one.”

Mercifully, Not Everyone Hates The Office Australia

Thankfully, things get better with William Mata of London Evening Standard, who awards The Office remake a 3/5. However, while they say the series “offers plenty of gags,” it nonetheless feels like its “treading old ground.”

“It might take time for the Australian Office to find its feet, but it does offer an improvement on the American version’s early days. There is no copy of the stapler in the jelly, at least, and if Lizzie is a TA veteran, she keeps it to herself. It feels Prime has taken on a safe bet with this sitcom and it delivers a steady stream of gags. But for seasoned fans, there is little more than treading over old ground here.”

Things get vastly better courtesy of Tania Hussain of Collider, who offers an apology to the “haters” as The Office Australia “Is Downright Funny.”

“When we let go of these rigid expectations that narrow our view of comedy, we open ourselves to humor that reflects diverse experiences through another type of lens — something The Office excels at. Across its episodes, the show is chaotic, funny, and oddly heartwarming in the best way. Thanks to its bizarre yet believable characters, this thirteenth iteration is a lot luckier than it thinks, capturing the same magic that made the original a hit — just with a refreshing Aussie twist.”

Finally, Mamamia.com felt that The Office Australia offers plenty of “uniquely Australian jokes,” “side-splitting humour,” and “an oddly relatable experience” with lots of potential for more.

“You’ll need need to watch to see whether you think Australia has pulled it off, but I reckon there’s loads of potential in season one that can be built upon for many seasons to come.”

You can judge The Office Australia for yourself (in everywhere but the U.S.) when the remake lands on Prime Video on October 18, 2024.