There have been many attempts to remake classic British sitcoms for an American network, and most of those attempts — Coupling, The Inbetweeners, Absolutely Fabulous, The IT Crowd, Men Behaving Badly etc. — have been just awful. But somehow, Michael Schur, Greg Daniels, and co. managed to turn their U.S. remake of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s The Office into one of the greatest TV shows ever made.
Naming the better series of the two is difficult, because they’re both great in their own ways. The U.S. remake’s much higher episode count means it has a larger cast made up of both beloved and despised supporting characters.
Best: Mose Schrute
Dwight often talked about the cousin he lives with, Mose, but the character didn’t appear very often. On the rare occasion that he did, he always provided more than a few laughs.
Whether he was throwing manure at Dwight or running alongside Jim and Pam’s car or driving Toby’s car into a cornfield, Mose was always hilariously weird.
Worst: Roy Anderson
Just like Lee in the original British series, Roy was specifically written to be hated. Fans had to root for Jim and Pam to get together and for Pam to break off her engagement with Roy, so Roy had to be a real piece of work.
It’s a testament to David Denman’s talents as an actor that he made fans hate Roy while never playing him as an outright caricature of a bad guy.
Best: Jan Levinson
Jan was not a particularly likable character, because her treatment of Michael in their relationship was borderline abusive, but she was always hilarious — both when she worked at Dunder Mifflin and after she was fired.
Whether she was winning Michael back with breast enhancement surgery or pining after her alarmingly young assistant Hunter, Jan never failed to raise a few chuckles — and groans — from fans.
Worst: Cathy Simms
Oh boy, do Office fans hate Cathy Simms. She was brought in as Pam’s replacement for when she was on maternity leave the second time and ended up being recruited for Dwight’s special project in Florida.
While they were down in Florida, Cathy told her friend that she planned to have an affair with Jim and break up his marriage. There was no redeeming quality in this terrible character.
Best: Karen Filipelli
Since Karen Filipelli kept Jim and Pam from getting together throughout the third season, The Office fans tend to disregard her. But she’s a great character who was played brilliantly by Rashida Jones.
Karen was basically a female Jim, pulling her own pranks and darting her own looks to the camera. After leaving Scranton, she landed on her feet as the regional manager of the Utica branch.
Worst: Nellie Bertram
Adding Catherine Tate to the cast may have been an attempt to bring some of the British charm of the original series to the American remake, but that sensibility didn’t fit into the zany world of Dunder Mifflin.
Her adoption storyline and the friendship that she developed with Pam, inspiring her to come were pretty heartwarming, but on the whole, Nellie wasn’t a great character.
Best: Holly Flax
Over the course of Michael Scott’s seven-season character arc, fans saw him in both the most toxic relationship on television and the most wholesome one. After years of thinking he couldn’t do better than Jan, Michael met HR rep Holly Flax, who’s every bit the dorky amateur comedian he is.
Amy Ryan isn’t an exclusively comedic actor, having played dramatic roles in The Wire and Gone Baby Gone, but she’s absolutely hysterical in the role of Holly.
Worst: Brian The Sound Guy
Brian the sound guy wasn’t a bad person. In fact, for all intents and purposes, he was a pretty good person. When Pam was crying, he stepped in to comfort her. When Frank the warehouse dude tried to attack her in the parking lot, Brian jumped in to save her.
The main problem that fans have with Brian is that he’s a character at all. Just because the mockumentary format implies that the crew is there, they don’t have to get involved in the storylines. Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Best: David Wallace
It was always a delight when CFO David Wallace showed up. The fact that he was a regular professional as opposed to having some wacky personality trait is what made him so funny.
David was often the straight man opposite Michael’s goofiness. They had a fun dynamic marked by David’s frustrations with Michael’s idiocy and his admiration of Michael’s surprising success as a manager.
Worst: Todd Packer
Based on Ralph Ineson’s character Finchy from the British original, Todd Packer is the Scranton branch’s traveling salesman. And it’s a good thing, too, because it means that most of the time, he’s out of the office and nowhere to be seen.
Packer is just as hatable as Finchy. David Koechner played the role perfectly; it’s just that the role was a brazen, mean-spirited, misogynistic jerk who was despised by everyone he encountered — except Michael Scott.