Missing your office? Best movies to stream and TV shows to binge

Offices are strange places. Whether they’re open-plan or sectioned off, big or small, full of your friends or people who don’t even know your name, the odd truth is that there are very few places where the majority of us spend more of our time. As a result, they can come to feel like home. A testament to this is the overwhelming amount of people who are yearning for their workspace back right now. So, forget making the office feel like home. It’s time to make home feel a little more like the office. Get your tie on, brew up a cuppa and browse our best movies to stream and TV shows to dig out in these uncertain times, to make you feel like you’re back in the office. 

Let’s get this one out of the way early. It’s Office by name, and most definitely by nature. Whether you’re a fan of UK or US - Gareth Keenan or Dwight Schrute - what we can no doubt all agree on is that this comic creation captures like nothing else what it’s like to work in an office. In a time when that environment seems so far behind us, it’ll remind you of everything you loved – and hated – about sharing a desk.

Both versions of The Office are available to stream on Netflix

Deciding between The Thick of It and its feature-film sibling In the Loop was never going to be easy, but the TV show wins it simply by being available in abundance. In the Loop may well be one of the best movies to stream right now, but we may be looking at a long time indoors, so best to know you’ll have plenty to get through. Plus, what better way to put the chaos into perspective than to be a fly on the wall in an office that always seems on the brink of disaster? If only foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker could give COVID-19 a stern talking to.

The Thick of It is available to stream on Netflix

Where Wolf of Wall Street is a nasty film with a handful of likeable people (it’s hard to resist DiCaprio and Hill’s charms, regardless of their characters’ actions), Glengarry Glen Ross – in many ways its spiritual prequel – is crawling with narcissists, yet somehow manages to leave you wanting more. The 90s corporate-America time bubble it exists in, plus two career-best performances from Al Pacino and Alec Baldwin, make this a must-see.

Glengarry Glenn Ross is available to rent via Prime Video

The jury’s out on whether this one can count as office based. Counter-balancing the perpetually employed Mark Corrigan, after all, is Jeremy Usborne, British TV’s unmatched layabout. Yet, considering his preferred state is in bed watching Bob Ross paint landscapes, even his occasional stints in music studios or tagging along at Mark’s office seem to him like a gruelling routine. And since the whole show is about seeing through the character’s eyes, it’s only fair that it stays on the list.

Peep Show is available to stream on Netflix 

One of the many sitcoms to build upon the blueprint laid out by the aforementioned The Office, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a hit of silliness in a genre (mockumentary, that is) that can sometimes take itself a little too seriously. Dating back to The Lonely Island days, it was always obvious that Andy Samberg would one day be a household name, and with Brooklyn Nine-Nine soon to be in its eighth season, he may just have sealed his fate.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is available to stream on Netflix

Think ‘Extras meets Amelie’ and you’ve pretty much got Call My Agent. The show – set almost entirely inside one of France’s most successful talent agencies - follows the trials and tribulations of its employees whose commitment to poaching the biggest stars from their rivals’ projects is undeniably impressive. So successful is the show that it features some of France – and now Hollywood’s – biggest names such Monica Bellucci and Jean Dujardin. It’s easy to find on Netflix, where it rivals some of the best movies to stream that the platform has to offer.

Call My Agent is available to stream on Netflix

The plot of Office Space is bonkers: Man hates his job; man gets hypnotised in an effort to combat his misery; hypnotist dies before he can take man out of his ‘trance state’. It may sound unbelievably far-fetched but give yourself over to it and it’s pure wish fulfilment. Why is the film one of the best movies to stream right now? Well, because it’s a testament to how far staying calm can get you, and if that’s not the message that the world needs right now, then I don’t know what is.

Office Space is available to rent via YouTube or Google Play