Tracy Morgan and Daniel Radcliffe lampoon sports documentaries and reality TV

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.To my mind, there is one thing the US version of The Office did better than the BBC original, created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. This, I assure you, is a big deal because I worship at the altar of those flawlessly written British episodes.

The one thing I actually prefer about the American version is John Krasinski’s smile to the camera.It isn’t original, of course. The mockumentary format demands that characters occasionally react for the camera—throwing an eyeroll, a sigh, a smirk—instead of just the characters around them.

From Phoebe Waller-Bridge on Fleabag to Sofia Vergara on Modern Family, we’ve seen many a version. While Martin Freeman is super as the exasperated Tim Canterbury in the original The Office, he’s too resigned to his lot, despairing even as he breaks the fourth wall, as if it can’t be helped.Krasinski’s Jim Halpert, on the other hand, mugs for the cameras as if eager to include anyone in sight, from those holding the camera to those editing the footage—not to mention a possible audience.

He really wants to let us in on the joke.Jim’s lopsided “oops” face has been my gold standard, but the genre might have a new champion. The Fall And Rise Of Reggie Dinkins, a crackling new comedy streaming in India on JioHotstar, features Daniel Radcliffe as a disgraced documentarian trying to capture the complex life of a disgraced football player, and Radcliffe wears a desperate, feverish incredulity on his face as he looks at the camera.

His vantage point is unique because he’s both behind and in front of the camera, and he needs us to buy in. His eyebrows, his face, the veins on his neck all seem to be asking us, the viewers, whether we can believe what we’re seeing