The Office running thread

Right, if Creed becomes a main character he immediately gets much less funny.

 

"I watch you sleep" was a criminally uncelebrated line from that song many disliked.

 

If I were producing a show, I'd throw out bullshit clues like this all the time and then never actually follow up on it.

So, basically, I'd be the guys who did Lost.

 

Touching on a few points...

1. Seinfeld was fucking terrible its final season. Not just its final episode, but the entire final season. Just godawful. Watch those episodes again and you'll see a show that totally phoning it in. The Merv Griffith Show is the only episode in Season 9 that's even close to the show's previously established highs. So the idea that Seinfeld never stopped being funny is absurd.

2. At the end of Diversity Day, which is the second episode of the entire series and in actuality, the first episode of the Americanized version (because the pilot is a essentially a cover of the British version) Pam falls asleep on Jim's shoulder. He misses out on a sale that normally nets him 25 percent of his annual commission (because Dwight steals it from him) and yet the show ends with Jim saying "all in all, it was a pretty good day" because of Pam falling asleep on his shoulder. That's literally the last shot of the episode. Not a joke, just Jim grinning his ass off about the receptionist. The suggestion that this show had some kind of Curb Your Enthusiasm non-sentimental vibe to it and that it completely betrayed that doesn't hold up to actual facts. Sure, the comedy became more broad over time (which it had to do to stay on the air) but right from the beginning, the show had a heart to it. I could name 10 of the best episodes of the series, and they'd all have major, major sentimental moments in them: Office Olympics, The Client, Booze Cruise, Casino Night, A Benihana Christmas, Beach Games, The Job, Survivor Man, The Deposition, Dinner Party, Niagra.

3. I've made this point with Dick before, and I'll make it again with you, Stoney. You want an Office that could not exist on the air. In order for the show to survive, for it to not get cancelled, it had to be a bit more broad with its humor. And while that may be frustrating at times as a smart viewer, I imagine the writers and actors and directors and producers who are still employed as a result of that choice are basically ok with the decision. There have been some bad episodes this season and last season. Basically everything with Sabre has sucked. I'm not going to deny that. But I find it a little weird how pissed off it makes people here. If you want subtle humor that's probably too smart to last, please start watching Parks and Rec. And if you're already watching it, force some friends to watch. It needs your help. It's a bit of a tough standard we hold sitcoms to these days. Ever watch the final few seasons of Cheers? They're not good. And yet no one remembers them. They just remember the good stuff. But no one back then was saying "Put this show out of its misery."

4. I have mixed feelings about the Michael departure. Could breathe some life into the show, or it could be more awful guest stints like Will Ferrell's. I thought the moment with Jim and Michael was a genuine one, especially in light of conversations he and Michael had in Booze Cruise, Benihana Christmas, Survivor Man and Niagra. There is some real affection there. And Jim is also kind of joking when he says "you're the best boss I've ever had" because, for the most part, he's the only boss he's ever had. But he learned to understand and even help Michael through some of his crazy.

 

Cogent analysis.

 

One more nice touch to the show that I left out of my last post. Michael's line about the people you work with being family was a nice callback to the original Office and in direct contrast to the way Tim viewed the people he worked with:

Tim: The people you work with are people you were just thrown together with. I mean, you don't know them, it wasn't your choice. And yet you spend more time with them than you do your friends or your family. But probably all you have in common is the fact that you walk around on the same bit of carpet for eight hours a day.

Michael: The people you work with are just, when you get down to it, your very best friends. They say on your deathbed you never wish you spent more time at the office, but I will.

 

I'm fairly confident that Jim -- on nights when his wife is asleep and he's watching the end of the Phillies game in the den -- fantasizes about Karen and all the times he whipped off her pantsuits and had his way with her. And I'm fairly sure Pam is secretly driven mad by the suspicion that these fantasies exist, and thus, works that much harder in the sack to keep them at bay. So ultimately it's a win for Jim.

 

Bump. I figure our Office grumps needed one more opportunity to walk back their "it's never been a sentimental show!" claims before tonight's episode. So have at it.

 

No, no. I think your post is accurate. I had an earlier post on here - not too many pages ago - in which I said that the Jim and Pam stuff in the early going kind of planted the seed of sentimentality that later blossomed fully, because it drew in that audience.

I think it's probably more an issue of degree than kind. The show had some sentimentality and some cynicism in its early years. I think that they balanced it well. Yeah, life can suck. But there are rays of sunshine through the rain that make it worth it. Even work. Best comparison I can think of: That one iron a round that I stick that keeps me returning to the clubhouse on Saturday or Sunday morning.

I understand the argument that broadening the humor and indulging the sentimentality is the only reason the show could stay on the air. But I like to discuss it merely as art, not commerce, while conceding that - practically speaking - commerce had to play a role.

 

I thought this comment from someone on the Onion AV Club was quite perceptive about the "Goodbye, Michael" episode. I sort of disagree that Jim would have been fine with Pam, but he makes a good point about Michael and Pam's friendship, dating back to when he showed up at her art show, which was proof that he was actually a pretty good guy deep down.