The Office

When The Office arrived on BBC Two in the summer of 2001, British sitcom convention was quietly, permanently rearranged. Gone was the studio audience. Gone were the punchlines. In their place: a static camera, a fluorescent-lit paper merchants, and a middle manager convinced he was the funniest man in Slough.

David Brent, Ricky Gervais's masterpiece, became a national mirror. Every viewer knew a Brent. The show's genius was pity, not mockery: Tim's suppressed longing for Dawn, Gareth's earnest militarism, and Brent's terrible, terrible dancing were all rendered with a documentary tenderness that made the cringe unbearable and unmissable in equal measure.

Only fourteen episodes were ever made: two short series and a two-part Christmas special that remains one of the finest closers in television history. Its influence is everywhere: from the American remake that ran for nine seasons to Peep Show, Fleabag and every mockumentary made since.