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The cast of The Office AU (Image: Supplied)
The cast of The Office AU (Image: Supplied)

Pop CultureOctober 18, 2024

Same same, but different: Our reviews of The Office Australia

The cast of The Office AU (Image: Supplied)
The cast of The Office AU (Image: Supplied)

Can the fresh, gender-flipped new version win over this office’s diehard Office fans? Our panel assesses the first few episodes.

The Office UK was one of the most defining comedies of the early 2000s, making stars out of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and launching a whole industry of David Brent impersonators. A few years later, the series was reborn in the United States where it would run for 201 episodes and become comfort TV for a new generation of fans. There are now at least a dozen versions of The Office from all around the world and, today, latest variant debuts: The Office Australia. It’s the first to feature a female boss at the helm, Hannah Howard, played by comedian Felicity Ward, and includes a whole host of familiar faces, including New Zealanders Josh Thomson, Jonny Brugh and Edith Poor.

In an interview with Alex Casey, Ward described the “cultural impact” that The Office UK had on her growing up and how that influenced her performance. “Not for a second did I actively try to be like Ricky Gervais, but I think that my 20s were just so culturally infused with Gervais-like humour that there are probably different points where he comes through,” she said. “Again, that has nothing to do with me trying to impersonate him, but just that 20 years ago, he had such a comedic impact on the cultural landscape for everyone.”

Will The Office Australia impact our own cultural landscape? The Spinoff’s panel of Office diehards gathered in the staff room for a team meeting and to assess the first three episodes of the show. All eight episodes are available right now on Amazon Prime Video.

Funny, but maybe a bit too familiar

I went into an early screening of The Office Australia with a deep sense of foreboding. The original British series remains sacred in my life, and the American one certainly has its moments even if it’s filled with a bit too much joy for my tastes. Could a local version ever compare? Or would I be left cringing for all the wrong reasons. Thankfully, based on the first three episodes, I’m quietly confident the world will come to embrace this Antipodean spin on The Office. 

Admittedly, it takes a little while for the first episode to find its footing. The Covid-inspired “work from home” premise is at least an original setting for the show, but I found the obvious similarities between the new Aussie characters and their British and US counterparts a little jarring. In particular, the “will they, won’t they” romance subplot is set up way too early (it’s basically the first thing we learn about Nick and Greta after the titles roll) and with little subtlety. Edith Poor’s Lizzie is essentially a direct replica of Dwight Schrute to the point where it starts to feel like impersonation. Felicity Ward’s Hannah Howard is clearly from the book of Brent and Scott, but thankfully has enough distinguishing qualities (behind just the gender-flip) to make the character a worthwhile successor. 

By episode two, the show starts to get into the swing of things. A deeply uncomfortable office wake and a drunken Melbourne Cup storyline in episode three are laden with eye-wateringly cringe moments that made me laugh out loud. It was refreshing that while the characters could easily have been plonked in any other version of The Office, the Australian iteration hasn’t made the mistake of copying the plotlines. I’m particularly and patriotically pleased to say that the New Zealand cast members come out largely unscathed. My reservations about Lizzie as a character aside, her performance hits all the right beats and Josh Thomson’s dry HR manager is a stand out. 

I’ll be returning to the world of The Office AU for the remaining five episodes with hope that the laughs continue to come thick and fast, but with a little bit of frustration the show hasn’t elected to do something unexpected with its carbon copied characters. / Stewart Sowman-Lund

Cautiously optimistic

Relieved to report that I really enjoyed the first three episodes of The Office Australia. I laughed out loud quite a few times, especially in episode two with its absurd drivers licence-decorated wake, complete with the problematic cultural welcome. The New Zealand-strong cast do us proud, too. Josh Thomson’s uppity HR guy is in a living hell, Lucy Schmidt’s brash, cigarette-smoking loose unit steals every scene, and Jonny Brugh’s IT guy is perfectly pathetic. 

Local Edith Poor is remarkably weird as Lizzie, the oddball right hand woman to the big boss Hannah. Played by Felicity Ward, Hannah is outrageous, totally incompetent, and hopelessly devoted to her staff and her weird moustachio’d best friend that she secretly wants to marry. She’s far closer to Michael Scott than David Brent on The Office boss continuum, sailing off the charts entirely when she enters outlandishly berserk Get Krackin territory in episode three. 

Perhaps a symptom of the breakneck, binge-watch streaming age, but the show moves way too fast on Greta and Nick’s banter-stuffed office romance. What is so good about the Tim/Dawn and Jim/Pam dynamic are the subtleties in the silence – a lingering glance there, a shoulder touch there. Call me an old-fashioned Jane Austen prude, but Greta and Nick’s relentless flirtatious wisecracks straight out the gate, including a weird threesome bit, felt like a bit much.

Where the current era has helped the show is in the litany of modern workplace references. The overarching storyline about working from home feels fresh and relevant, as does Hannah’s insistence on still thinking corny Zoom filters are funny four years after Covid (great to be represented on screen). To use some of Hannah’s corporate jargon: The Office Australia cautiously has both buy in and sign off from me, and I’m looking forward to more. / Alex Casey

Felicity Ward as Hannah Howard in The Office AU (Image: Supplied)

Relief, robots and existential crises

There are so many New Zealanders in the so-called Australian Office, I can only assume because their little frenemy is way funnier than them. This was initially bad news as when I turned up at the early screening they were all there, dressed really nicely. “Oh no,” I said to my hot date arm candy, “It’s going to be bad and the stars are here.” I sipped my wine to soften life’s hard awkward edges which are terrible IRL. 

I was relieved to find out, probably in episode two, that this series doesn’t suck. It keeps well within the classic Office format with a few very obvious (too obvious?) Aussie things thrown in. If it had a smell it would be cheap prosecco with a waft of unclean work toilet. I cringed, I laughed, I thought “wow what a portrait of society I can’t believe we really do live like this”. Two stand out stars are the robot vacuum cleaners. The next day I went to work and felt strange. / Gabi Lardies

Call an ambulance… but not for me

Blah blah blah The Office UK was and kind of still is my whole personality blah blah blah I eventually came to appreciate the US version’s comforting charms blah blah blah I was nervous that this one would be bad and turn me into one of those sad little men who had a meltdown when they remade Ghostbusters with women in it. Those men will definitely be out there but I am not one of them this time, as much as I wanted to contribute an alternative viewpoint to this round-up of reviews.

The precise moment I stopped worrying and started loving The Office Australia is midway through the first episode, when Hannah says “I’m on the toilet”. Felicity Ward is insanely good and funny, to me her performance feels closer to Tim Robinson than to Gervais or Carrell, and you can tell (in a good way) that the episode was written and directed by NZ’s funniest person Jackie van Beek.

I agree with the consensus about the romantic storyline not holding a candle to its slow-burn will-they-won’t-they forebears, but overall I thought the first episode got the all-important “vibe” and “tone” right, splitting the difference between the quiet despair of the UK version and the out-loud wackiness of the US version. Considering I haven’t even got to the “good” episodes yet, and how painful the whole first season of the US version was, The Office Australia is way better than I or anyone could have reasonably hoped. / Calum Henderson

Keep going!
JP Foliaki, winner of Celebrity Treasure Island 2024 (Photo: TVNZ)
JP Foliaki, winner of Celebrity Treasure Island 2024 (Photo: TVNZ)

Pop CultureOctober 17, 2024

‘It felt like the world stood still’: CTI winner JP Foliaki on digging up the treasure

JP Foliaki, winner of Celebrity Treasure Island 2024 (Photo: TVNZ)
JP Foliaki, winner of Celebrity Treasure Island 2024 (Photo: TVNZ)

The winner of Celebrity Treasure Island 2024 talks strategy, stamina and what the show means to him. 

Last night, John-Paul Foliaki dug his spade into the Coromandel sand and pulled up an old suitcase worth $100,000. It was an epic ending to the 2024 season of Celebrity Treasure Island, one that saw Foliaki and fellow castaways Christian Cullen and James Rolleston compete in a tense series of perplexing puzzles and slippery physical challenges to dig up the treasure. 

And dig they did: it took three long, arduous hours for Foliaki’s spade to finally hit gold. “This is the longest treasure hunt in Celebrity Treasure Island history,” host Bree Tomasel told us, as an exhausted Foliaki wiped tears from his eyes. 

Foliaki joins a prestigious group of CTI winners, but when The Spinoff sat down with him in the Coromandel just days before filming began, the actor, musician and artist admitted he was shocked when CTI asked him to be on the show. “I was like, ‘have I done enough? OK, I guess they’re just asking anyone now’,” he joked.

But whether it was playing “kumara in a box” against infomercial queen Suzanne Paul or trying to solve a tricky tree puzzle in the final challenge, Foliaki proved he had indeed done enough. After winning $100,000 for his chosen charity Childfund NZ, Foliaki spoke with The Spinoff about what it was like to actually win Celebrity Treasure Island – and what was really hiding inside that ratty old suitcase. 

JP Foliaki in the final search for the challenge (Photo: TVNZ)

Congratulations on the win – how are you feeling this morning? 

Man, just an immense feeling of gratitude. We watched the episode last night with my friends and family and some of the contestants as well. I was so grateful when I dug up that treasure, but then to watch it with everyone else and to talk to Childfund as well, just immensely grateful. 

It’s been months since the show was filmed. How hard was it to keep your win a secret?

It was tough, especially once the show kicked off. Everyone was asking, “How did this happen? How did that happen?” I would see people in public who were watching the show and they’d recognise me and say, “Oh, you got eliminated”. I was like, “Keep watching, it’s getting good. The best bits are coming.”

What surprised you the most about the CTI experience?

How real the show actually is, in terms of our food and living the Celebrity Treasure Island life. I was having showers in the ocean, no two ways about it. We had to try and use the limited water that we had, and the rice and beans, that was getting to me. Also, it was a reminder of how far we can actually go with just the bare minimum.

You were humble and loyal through the game and it seemed like you were genuinely having fun. Was that your game plan, or did things change once you got on the island?

I did want to keep a low profile. I didn’t want to look too strong in anything, in case I got eliminated. I just gave everything my best shot – it worked sometimes, and a lot of other times, it didn’t. I felt that if I was being viewed as a threat, there was always someone else who was seen as a bigger threat. I knew my strength was in relationships, in getting to know people and building genuine friendships, because that’s what the game is about. 

At what point did you think, ‘I could actually win this’?

Once we made the merge, I thought “I’ve got a good chance”. I had good relationships with both teams, and I was kind of floating in the middle. Once we got into the top six, I was like, “OK, I’ve got a genuine chance at getting to this final.” Then I tried to visualise actually digging up that treasure. I was praying about it a lot.

Foliaki (left) with his CTI teammates (Photo: TVNZ)

Take me back to that moment when your shovel finally hit the treasure. What was going through your mind? 

Well, we had been digging for hours. It was night time, it had turned dark, and by then, we had been digging in the same areas and digging each other’s holes and refilling them with sand. It seemed like we were going around in circles. We’d got to a point where the three of us were digging and thinking, “Are we ever going to find this?” 

I remember thinking I just had to push through. I could see this line that lined up with the clues that we had, and there was a certain point that hadn’t been dug too deep yet, so I just followed that. Then, it just seemed like everything went silent. I know James and Cully had stopped digging at that point as well. Once it hit, it just felt like the world stood still. Nobody’s going to cheer and be like “you’ve found it!” until you pull the treasure up. So I just had to keep going. Such a surreal feeling.

It must have been a feeling of relief too, that you could stop digging after three hours? 

Yeah, and for the entire show, you’re all working towards this one goal of finding that treasure. If you win the challenges, if you lose the challenges, it doesn’t matter. If you end up going home, that’s the end of your journey. So to have this constantly on your mind as your end goal, and to finally reach it, it’s hard to describe.

What was actually inside the suitcase? It looked like some shiny trinkets?

I was like, this is Voldemort’s horcruxes? They had a version of the treasure, with trophies and chalices and all that kind of stuff. 

Apart from digging up the treasure, what’s one moment from the show that has stuck with you? 

Sharing that moment with Millen when we were fighting for our spot to get into the top four. That was definitely a highlight for me. Being able to hold on for as long as we did, despite the cold, was really tough. Also witnessing Gabi and Carmel’s moment was beautiful, to see our culture really shine throughout the game. For me, being Tongan and Pasifika, it’s those kinds of moments that we were looking forward to seeing.

You spoke a lot about coming on CTI as being bigger than yourself and representing your Pasifika and Tongan communities. Why was that important to you?

I know that when there’s someone that looks like me in this line of work, it just makes whatever dream that you have a lot more achievable. Sometimes I’ve been seen to be way too farfetched, but I know that when there’s someone that looks like me, it’s something that we can actually grasp. When you can see it, it feels like it’s within arm’s reach, right? I’ve got young nephews and nieces, and for them to see me on a show with the likes of an All Blacks legend or Suzanne Paul, it puts things in perspective, especially if you have big dreams.

CTI also taught me that when I put my mind to something, that I can achieve it, and how powerful our culture can be. To call on the values that we have as Tongans, as Pasifika people, when times get really tough in the game. For Pasifika people, it’s never really about us. If we’re at the centre of something, it’s at the centre of our village and everyone that surrounds it. Whatever opportunity that I have, especially as an artist, there’s a lot of friends and family that help out. Those values help in so many different scenarios. In a game like Celebrity Treasure Island, those were the things that really got me through.

Celebrity Treasure Island streams on TVNZ+.

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