It turns out that NBC’s remake of “The Office” is actually pretty decent, which makes today a sad one in television history. I would have been far happier to report that somehow NBC (the re-makers of “Coupling” and “Men Behaving Badly”) yet again had bungled its attempt to appropriate a British comedy for American television – and this time, one of the wittiest shows in recent memory. The scabrous workplace comedy that limited itself to two perfectly realized seasons (and one spectacular Christmas special) seemed impossible to duplicate. The news that NBC had optioned it for an American version inspired widespread derision among its die-hard fans; no one could possibly have imagined a happy scenario involving the network responsible for “Committed.”

But “The Office,” which debuts Thursday at 9:30 p.m., is not only good; at times, it’s even inspired. And that, sadly, means that NBC will now be rewarded with critical kudos for its laziness. Now other networks may even be encouraged to program their own cover versions of great shows, using valuable network real estate that might otherwise have been devoted to original ideas. Still, it must be conceded that for the first time in recent memory, NBC has programmed a comedy that deserves an audience. If “The Office” proves successful, it will stand as a weekly reminder to naysayers like myself that NBC’s cynical programmers were right, and we were wrong – and that is a development too horrible to contemplate.

This isn’t a wholehearted endorsement of NBC’s “The Office,” either. Steve Carell’s performance as Michael Scott, the office manager, proved just what the original’s fans suspected – that no one could ever approach the genius of Ricky Gervais’s David Brent. Mr. Gervais brought to the character he co-created (with Stephen Merchant) a belief in himself that somehow tempered his odiousness; you always sensed that Brent hoped he wasn’t the braying fool we knew him to be. But in the Americanized version – relocated to Scranton, Pa., from its original home in Slough, England – “The Daily Show’s” Mr. Carell plays Scott with a relentless harshness that’s almost painful. Back at Wernham Hogg, you got the feeling that Brent’s office minions pitied him a bit; here, Scott gives them good reason to despise his every move. For most of the first episode (a virtual word-for-word recitation of the original pilot), you’re averting your eyes from the swath of annoyance he cuts through the workplace.

It isn’t until the second and third episode that the American version finds its own identity, and actually begins to develop its own voice; it’s uglier than the BBC version, and some viewers will be put off by sequences in which Scott becomes an insult machine, lashing out at his minions as though they had no feelings at all. While the British Brent’s barbs hit home with those who worked alongside him, they tended to inspire eyerolling at his insensitivity; here, Scott’s nastiness reaches the level of harassment. Indeed, a subsequent episode explores the aftermath of an incident in which Scott has insulted a co-worker by telling an inappropriate Chris Rock joke that comes off as racist, and results in a diversity-training session that – unbeknownst to Scott – has been scheduled by upper management to cure his problems, not those of his employees. During the session, he manages to insult minorities of all colors and religions.

Along the way, writer Greg Daniels (of Fox’s clever “King of the Hill”) pulls off some clever dialogue. He never quite reaches the mischievous heights of Messrs. Gervais and Merchant, but he is sharp enough to keep sophisticated audiences coming back for more. His choice to ratchet up the level of hostility – rather than bring it down for Americans reared on political correctness – may have felt like a courageous move, but in the end, it’s off-putting and probably a miscalculation. Mr. Carell’s boorish performance won’t help matters any. If anything saves “The Office” from cancellation, it will be in the supporting performances and side stories; by the third episode, it has already done more to develop the intra-office romantic issues than in a season’s worth of the British version. The engaging performances of Jenna Fischer as the receptionist Pam and Rainn Wilson as office nerd Dwight Schrute seem aimed squarely at Emmy voters, and may prove successful.

So, I will keep watching “The Office,” at least until Steve Carell takes his character too far into the depths of degradation for me to tolerate; and I will even credit NBC with having taken a chance, at last, on a show not cut from the cookie-cutter mold of the rest of its comedy slate. From its many recent failures, NBC has taught itself a valuable lesson: If you can only copy your way to success, at least learn to copy something good.

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NBC’s hugely profitable “Today Show” has come up with a uniquely original – and awful – idea it’s calling “Live for Today.” The premise is: What would you do if you suddenly found out you were about to die? What unfulfilled dreams do you have that the producers of “Today” can at last help you to fulfill? I humbly request the “Today” show genie to transport me immediately to a remote corner of the world where I can be spared the sight of Katie Couric’s phony-baloney smile.