Die Kantoor Season 1 Review – South Africa’s Hilarious Version of The Office Trades Paper for Polony

The U.S. version of The Office remains one of the greatest and most successful sitcoms of all time, even if the British version came first. Unsurprisingly, there have been multiple attempts to localize the mockumentary for different markets, including South Africa with Die Kantoor (which is the Afrikaans translation of The Office for all those who failed Mrs. Snyman’s class in high school). At some point, this starts to feel akin to American Idol or The Voice, where every country tries to do its own version but it becomes formulaic in its approach. Die Kantoor Season 1 isn’t immune from these trappings, but holy polony, this is actually funny.

Die Kantoor takes place at polony distributors Deluxe Processed Meats in Klerksdorp. The manager of the branch is Flip (Albert Pretorius), who sees himself as the Rassie Erasmus of polony. While there’s certainly a bit of Michael Scott in his personality – especially the need to be the center of attention and loved by all – he’s obsessed with Leon Schuster’s candid camera gags, which he enjoys pulling on his staff members. Flip thinks of himself as utterly hilarious, while most of the staff either groan or cringe at his antics that border on HR nightmares. The only one who seems to cackle at Flip’s jokes is Tjaart (Schalk Bezuidenhout), who isn’t quite Dwight Schrute here but he’s a braggart and the pseudo-tough guy of the office.

The first episode of Die Kantoor Season 1 wastes no time in putting a local spin on a popular episode of The Office: “Scott’s Tots.” In this version, though, Flip promises to build a rugby field for a special needs school in the area after seeing the opportunity to create a legacy for himself. There’s only one problem: he hasn’t received corporate approval for the project, so how does he go about fulfilling his promise here? Let’s avoid spoilers and just say that it becomes the office’s problem as well.

What works well about Die Kantoor is its authenticity, as this feels like a typical South African office environment in terms of its characters and behavior. Anyone who has worked for a local company knows the kind of jokes that go around the place – South Africans aren’t very PC and generally say what’s on their mind. Consequently, Die Kantoor is able to get around a lot of scenarios and gags that wouldn’t go down well in a modern-day version of the U.S. Office. Having said that, the show handles the topics with delicacy too, as characters are often called out for unacceptable behavior and comments by others.

Pretorius’ Flip and Bezuidenhout’s Tjaart prove to be a riot a minute, as these two office clowns are nothing short of entertaining whenever they’re on screen. The running gag of Flip asking Tjaart to sit down is low-key hilarious, because everyone knows that one guy who wants to stand all the time. Carl Beukes deserves a shoutout for his scene-stealing performance as Kayle too. He’s the weird English-speaking guy at Deluxe Processed Meats, whom no one really likes or wants to give the time of day to. Beukes commits to this role by making Kayle even more eccentric, and his attempt to pick up Emma (Daniah De Villiers) with his story about buying a coffee machine in Johannesburg turns out to be one of the funniest and most memorable parts of the second episode.

The only downside of Die Kantoor is when it tries to mimic the same archetypes of The Office. Joubert (Gert du Plessis) and Emma are undoubtedly the Jim and Pam of the show, with Joubert even having the same shaggy and gangly appearance as Jim. It’s a little obvious and telegraphed to the point in which you wonder if it was necessary to do this to these characters. They’re interesting on their own, with each possessing a unique personality that’s different from Pam and Jim, so surely, they don’t have to follow the same path as their American counterparts, right?

So many have tried to recreate The Office‘s success – The Paper and the Australian version of the show come to mind as recent examples – but have turned out to be about as memorable as a potato. However, it’s South Africa’s Die Kantoor that feels closest to the original magic of the sitcom. There’s a spark and hilarity here that’s undeniable, as it absolutely nails the experience of a local office – warts and all. Die Kantoor needs to learn to trust in itself more, realizing that its biggest strength lies in its uniqueness not sticking to the course of what came before.

Die Kantoor Season 1 airs on kykNET and Showmax.

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