One of the million little things that makes the American version of The Office so special is the incredible expressiveness of John Krasinski’s face.

He grimaces, he is terror-stricken, he is confused. He is lovestruck. He has fifty different smiles. There’s the wide open pure joy one, or the smiling bravely through barely concealed anger one. And several times an episode, he turns his face towards us and makes a face meant for us alone.

In the British version, the documentary-slash-reality-show style aesthetic made a lot more sense - men with cameras were following everybody around for a BBC series. That might have been the idea initially, with the American one, but by now there’s no explanation or purpose for these people to have their day-to-day lives filmed by a whole crew.

And yet - it gives Jim a reason to turn to us, whenever something happens, and make a face.

There’s something almost Shakespearean about it - the aside, the wink at the audience, the personal acknowledgement that lets the viewer know that he/she is part of this wonderful world, where soul-numbing corporate life is made liveable by love and comedy, where bosses are clueless but harmless, where suffering in silence is only a temporary condition.

That he’s handsome as hell doesn’t hurt.

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