If You Don’t Know Me By Now

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

It’s so hard to speak in superlatives about television, because people always suspect – with good reason – that praise for television is relative to the medium itself. What on television could possibly be as profound as a Philip Roth novel, or as provocative as a P.T. Anderson movie? How can anything be taken seriously when it’s being interrupted every 12 minutes or so by beer commercials? For most well trained intellectuals, television is for checking the weather, not the pulse of society. I don’t disagree with that point of view, either. Much of what I enjoy on television should really come with the caveat that it’s worth what I paid to see it.


But every so often, a television show comes along that goes beyond our expectations from that box in the living room. I can’t think of the last time it happened – “Roots,” maybe? – but I experienced an unexpected and powerful rush of enrichment and satisfaction in watching “The Office Special” that airs on BBC America this Thursday night at 9 p.m. It does more than cap the hysterically funny BBC series, which ended its regular run on American television last year; it adds to it a layer of insight and emotion that I could never have predicted. “The Office Special” is what American comedy ought to be, and so rarely is – funny, touching, and brutally honest about our bollixed-up world.


“The Office” takes place in Slough, England, but it might as well be around the corner. At the regional headquarters of puny paper company Wernham-Hogg, every workplace gambit you’ve ever experienced has asserted itself in the lives of these hilariously humdrum characters. Petty jealousies, secret affairs, depressing office parties, silly games to pass the time – it’s all a part of what makes “The Office” at once generic and universal. And at the center of it, even though he was put out to pasture at the end of the second and final season of “The Office,” is the maniacally unstoppable David Brent. It’s the comedy role of a lifetime, played with triumphant precision by Ricky Gervais, who with his partner Stephen Merchant created and wrote every episode of “The Office,” as well as this special. He’s England’s greatest gift to comedy since Peter Sellers.


With Brent now the bitter outsider, the show’s secondary characters get to shine as never before. Gareth Keenan, the brutally tressed nebbish, has been promoted to Brent’s old job as regional manager; that has added yet more misery to the life of Tim Canterbury, who continues his hopeless infatuation with Dawn Tinsley, the office secretary who now has moved to America with her boyfriend. The focus of “The Office Special” (I love the modesty of the title) concerns the upcoming office Christmas party, which will reunite Brent – who demands an invitation for two, promising to bring one his many fictional girlfriends – with his former underlings, who clearly resent his continued and annoying presence in their midst. The moment when Brent makes a painfully pathetic office wide plea for someone to join him for a drink – and is turned down by everyone until Tim saves his ego from crashing by saying yes – ranks among the most wrenching I’ve ever seen in any show that called itself a comedy.


But Mr. Gervais knows how to offset the pain with his extraordinary wit; his deluded character’s epic lack of self-awareness leads, in this special, to a comic set-piece that deserves a special place in television history. It seems Brent has devoted his downtime to the brief pursuit of a musical career, and spent his own savings to release a CD cover version of the Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes’ hit song, “If You Don’t Know Me By Now.” No words could ever capture the hilarity of the accompanying music video, featuring Mr. Gervais in a flowing white shirt and a rendition that ranks among the funniest performances ever put on film.


One of the many unique attributes of “The Office” was its brief, perfect life span. Alone among the classic sitcoms of television history, “The Office” lasted only two seasons, and it concludes here with a special that delivers everything we could ever hope for – including an understanding of these characters and the ways they mirror our own workplace experiences. Messrs. Gervais and Merchant had the courage not to stretch it out for the sake of a few more bucks or to push their story beyond its limits. Maybe that’s what led them to that perfectly schlocky Harold Melvin tune and its endlessly-repeated message: “If you don’t know me by now, you will never never never know me.” It has been thrilling to know David Brent and the men and women of Wernham-Hogg, and to be reminded that television at its best can deliver something far more valuable than the temperature.


***


I keep waiting for “Desperate Housewives” to represent a leap forward for anything besides ABC’s ratings. After watching three episodes of this season’s biggest hit series, I have yet to catch myself contemplating a single insight into marriage, suburbia, or suicide, the show’s three interlocking themes. By the end of episode three this past Sunday night, though, the producers did manage to get Teri Hatcher naked.


The New York Sun

© 2025 The New York Sun Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The material on this site is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used.

The New York Sun

Sign in or  Create a free account

or
By continuing you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use