The Office Goes to Middle Earth

This is a little belated, but two Saturdays ago Martin Freeman hosted Saturday Night Live.  You likely recognize his name, but in addition to starring as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit (and as Dr. Watson in Sherlock), he was in the original BBC version of The Office with Ricky Gervais, playing the role of Jim.

I figured that for sure they'd do a Hobbit sketch, and was hoping that they'd do something with The Office.  Little did I suspect, though, that they'd put them both together.

The sketch isn't hilarious, but it's amusing, whimsical and very well done.  Freeman has the Jim character down pat, and gets the eye-rolls and slightly off-camera looks spot on.  And Bobby Moynihan does a wonderful job as Gervais (playing David Brent).  He's not doing a direct impersonation, since after all he's also playing Gandalf and Ian McKellan, but he has the Gervais mannerisms down, and whoever wrote the sketch got the David Brent dialogue impeccaably.