iQiyi International in collaboration with Longhouse Films debuted the first two episodes of their Malaysian workplace sitcom My Ofis a couple of weeks ago. The show has been described as Malaysia’s first office sitcom and follows Jasper (Kahoe Hon), a young man, who is forced to give up his dream of becoming a musician for working in an advertising office, My Ofis. The show features a multicultural cast of talented Malaysian actors from Aeril Zafrel, to Alvin Wong and Phraveen Arikiah.
Over the last couple of years, there has been an emergence of many great workplace sitcoms. From the likes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Superstore, Ted Lasso, and more recently Mythic Quest. Then there are local workplace sitcoms like the reboot of Kopitiam, Kopitiam: Double Shot. With this in mind, it has been really exciting to see what Malaysia has to offer to the genre.
The first two episodes of My Ofis were a solid start to the show. The cast is great in their roles, with Alvin Wong and Phraveen Arikiah especially shining out for me. It was very cool to see iconic Malaysian landmarks peppered through the episodes and hear the characters speaking Manglish. This may or may not have to do with the fact that I live overseas and desperately miss home.
Yet there were a few things that made it hard for me to truly connect to the show. For example, a lot of the humour, a huge aspect of most sitcoms, fell flat for me. There were many moments while I watched the show when I couldn’t tell if I was supposed to find the bits funny. This may have to do with the fact that the show relies on slapstick comedy at times, a form of comedy I am not overly fond of.
The other issue that I had with the show was the fact that while I enjoyed the characters, I didn’t feel like I could particularly connect to them. I don’t know if I have been living overseas for too long, or perhaps if I am too much of a coconut, but none of the characters felt truly relatable. They all seemed way too over the top, with antics that were too overdramatic. The other thing that I couldn’t help but notice was the clear colourism in the show. Many Malaysians have darker skin, and yet that reality is not depicted in the show.
The characters also had me thinking and asking various questions. For example, Sherwyn Pang plays Lucy a social media influencer, who is depicted as sexy and slightly crazy. Lucy really reminded me of Seleb (Melissa Campbell) from Kopitiam: Double Shot, who was also depicted as a boy crazy, sexy, and a social media influencer.
Thus, I could not help but wonder if this was a common stereotype of young Chinese women, and what was the ramification of depicting/sexualising them as such was.
The other question I kept on asking was in terms of Pearly Chua’s characters. Do Malaysian offices hire cleaners to clean during office hours? And if so does that not disrupt the business and work hours of the company?
The other issue I had with the first few episodes was the editing of the videos. A huge part of the first couple of episodes is Jasper’s band and the song (The Odd One Out), yet the way that the scenes cut/transitioned to the songs felt stilted and awkward.
On the subject of the song the Odd One Out, the press has talked a lot about the “a k-pop style” of the theme. Jasper’s band, BTX, is a clear reference to the K-Pop band BTS. So this begs the question of the show’s “All persons fictitious disclaimer” works in the show. Specifically due to the fact that BTX is a clear reference to BTS. So while the band may be fictitious, the resemblance to a person living or dead can’t be coincidental, since it was an intentional choice by the writers.
Lastly, the concept of My Ofis being incorporated with e-commerce via QR Code is an interesting evolution to product placement in media. It also is an interesting way to bring in capital seeing iQiyi is a free streaming service. However, we live in a capitalist world, so the inability to escape that in the show definitely soured the show for me.
ERICA TALKS SH*T 