Borderline.

• Author: Boehm, Eric
• Position: TV - Television program review - Brief article

Any fan of The Office who has ever dealt with the Transportation Security Administration will find a lot of similarities, and a lot to like, about the British series Borderline. Rather than riffing on the mundane and awkward hilarity of corporate daily life, Borderline mines an equally deep (and, at the moment, more politically relevant) vein: bureaucracies charged with enforcing immigration and customs law.

The mockumentary-style sitcom follows a small group of customs agents stationed at the fictional Northend International Airport as they deal with an overbearing boss, intolerable coworkers, and confounding orders from the Home Office. In one episode, the boss explains new security guidelines instructing them to give extra scrutiny to anyone who seems "out of the ordinary."

"What qualifies as 'out of the ordinary'?" asks Andy (Borderline's version of Pam Beasley, the relatively normal girl trapped...