The Office UK: Ranking Every Episode From Worst To Best

The original UK version of The Office only ran for 12 episodes and a Christmas special. Ever since Fawlty Towers closed its doors in series 2, it’s been customary for British sitcoms to call it quits after just two six-episode seasons. We’ve seen it with I’m Alan Partridge, Spaced, Fleabag, and, of course, The Office.

One advantage that the British Office has over its formidable American counterpart is that it didn’t go on for too long. Whereas the U.S. series had started to go downhill even before Steve Carell left, and it legged it out for another two seasons after that, the UK original is a tight 14 episodes in its entirety, so it’s a stronger piece on the whole.

There are no bad episodes of The Office; every single episode is, at the very least, really, really funny, with some touching dramatic moments sprinkled in there. But some episodes stand out more than others. Episodes like “Training” and “Charity” rank among the greatest TV episodes ever produced.

14 Downsize

Series 1, Episode 1

The very first episode of The Office is arguably the weakest, not because it’s a bad episode — it’s one of the best sitcom pilots ever made — but because all it really does is set up the format. It introduces us to all the key characters and introduces the pseudo-documentarian approach (which was a novelty at the time; it’s taken for granted now).

“Downside” has some very funny moments, from Tim putting Gareth’s stapler in jelly to David fake-firing Dawn as a misguided practical joke. But The Office would only get better from there.

13 Work Experience

Series 1, Episode 2

After setting up its ambitious mockumentary approach in the first episode, The Office settled into the tropes of a workplace comedy in its second episode, “Work Experience.” It starts off with a hilarious comic situation that perfectly lines up with the show’s cringe-inducing sensibility: a doctored pornographic image depicting David in a compromising position is passed around the office, and he’s determined to find out who did it.

From David’s NSFW Google searches to Gareth’s “invetigation” to identify the culprit, “Work Experience” is a laugh riot. It doesn’t have any deeper emotional moments, but it’s a perfect sitcom episode that builds to the perfect payoff: Finchy being revealed as the photoshopper, and David spinelessly letting him off the hook.

12 Party

Series 2, Episode 3

One of the Swindon employees celebrates her birthday in “Party,” and the office has a shindig to celebrate. The episode perfectly captures the banality of an office birthday party, but it also has some great character moments, like David finding a dildo in his office and Gareth squeezing himself into a love triangle with Tim and Rachel.

“Party” is more of a vehicle for cringe comedy than a real narrative. It gets everyone in the same room — including supporting players like Finchy and Neil — and lets them loose. There are a lot of laughs, but the episode doesn’t accomplish much besides setting up the motivational speaker storyline for the next episode.

11 New Girl

Series 1, Episode 5

The second half of “New Girl” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. The first half of the episode only has one really big laugh: David accidentally headbutting a woman he just hired purely based on his attraction to her. It doesn’t do anything else all that memorable, but the second half of the episode, chronicling a work outing to a local nightclub, is pure comedy gold.

The episode perfectly captures the dismal nightlife of small English towns, and it’s always fun to see David Brent blackout drunk. He doesn’t have very much self-awareness or social skills at the best of times, but he’s completely hopeless when he’s had a few pints. Acting drunk is one of the toughest things an actor can do, but Ricky Gervais makes it look easy here.

10 Judgement

Series 1, Episode 6

A potential downsize had been looming over the office for the entirety of the first season. The series 1 finale, “Judgement,” wrapped up that storyline with some dramatic twists. First, David announces he’s being promoted, and the branch is being shut down. Then, in a shocking turn, he reveals he turned down the job, saved the branch, and Swindon will be shut down instead.

Then, in another shocking turn, we find out that David failed the medical exam for the corporate job, so it was out of his hands. The episode has a lot of plot to get through, so it doesn’t always have time to slow down for the little eccentricities of human behavior that make up the show’s best moments.

But there is still some of that stuff baked in there. It’s hilarious to see David indirectly tell Malcolm he’ll be losing his job, but it’s heartbreaking to see Tim give up his dreams and justify his promotion to Dawn with soulless corpo-speak.

9 Merger

Series 2, Episode 1

Following on from the series 1 finale’s bombshell twist ending, the series 2 premiere picks up with the Slough branch absorbing the Swindon branch (and, with it, a bunch of new people joining the recurring cast). The smarmy but affable Neil Godwin is David’s new boss, and Tim is now a senior sales clerk who takes his job way too seriously.

After telling an inappropriate joke with racial connotations, David keeps digging a deeper and deeper hole for himself as the episode satirizes a few specific aspects of race relations, like positive discrimination and whether white people can be offended by racism. The racial satire holds up surprisingly well, and the episode reignites the love triangle between Tim, Dawn, and Lee in delightfully dramatic fashion.

8 Christmas Special: Part 1

The Office’s series finale is a two-part Christmas special, encompassing a feature-length 95-minute runtime, so it has plenty of room to breathe. There’s more than enough time for the finale to properly set up and pay off everyone’s endings. The first part is more of a “Where Are They Now?” thing catching up three years after David was let go.

It’s not as emotional as the second part, but there’s some great stuff in this episode. It’s as hilarious as it is heartbreaking to see David’s desperate attempts to capitalize on his limited newfound celebrity, and the whole dynamic of the office has shifted: Gareth is the manager, Tim is miserable without Dawn at reception, and his new deskmate is even more insufferable than the last.

7 Motivation

Series 2, Episode 4

If you can’t handle cringe comedy, this isn’t the episode for you. It’s always fun to see Ricky Gervais give a performance within a performance as David Brent. Series 2 had a lot of that: we see him bomb with a standup act during the Swindon merger in the premiere, and we see his disastrous attempt at motivational speaking in episode 4, “Motivation.”

The second half of this episode elevates it to classic status. Everything about David’s speaking engagement is funny: the way he treats Dawn as his lowly assistant, the way he acts like a superstar going to a headlining gig for thousands of adoring fans, the Tina Turner needle-drop at the end of his speech — it’s comedy gold, and Gervais, as always, leans into the excruciating awkwardness of it.

6 The Quiz

Series 1, Episode 3

Some of the best episodes of The Office were the ones that got everyone out of the office. In episode 3, “The Quiz,” we got to see what the characters are like outside work hours as they all gathered for their annual quiz, hosted by Gareth. The heated rivalries, obscure questions, and immature team names all lampoon the pub-quiz culture of the UK perfectly.

The rivalry between David and Finchy’s team and Tim and Ricky’s team is the source of some really sharp intergenerational humor, and Gareth as quizmaster is a recipe for hilarity. “The Quiz” was the first truly great episode of The Office.

5 Appraisals

Series 2, Episode 2

The M.V.P. of series 2, episode 2, “Appraisals,” are the appraisals themselves. Bringing in every employee, one at a time, for a performance review, was a great setup to have Gervais’ castmates come in and bounce off him. It puts David into some hilarious predicaments, whether he’s explaining the multiple-choice answers to Keith over and over again or goading Dawn into naming him as her personal hero.

David’s feud with Neil comes to a head when David berates Neil in front of everyone, and Neil confronts him to hash out their beef. It all feels so real, and it’s what The Office did best. It captured the messiness and mundanity of real life so effectively that it sometimes felt like watching a real documentary.