The Office Series 1
I don't know which series won the award but the 1st series was brilliant. Absolute genius. (And the direction will affect a lot of future TV, you'll see.) A devastating, very, very funny reproduction of the hell that is boring office work.
The 2nd series was a disappointment, in that it made the boss a caricature and pretty much exonerated the place itself for the utter agony, boredom and horror experienced by staff among its walls, by definition. Still crazily funny - but the writing lost its directional surety.
...Note un-American economy of storytelling (only 2 series X 8 episodes each!) and compare with rubber-stretched bonanzas such as Friends.
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