The Office running thread

I like Andy's character.
Kelly's character is just pure crazy and annoying. Ugh. I am they way with Kelly that you are with Andy.. When's Kelly's on I can grab a snack.

 

My take is like IJAG's. Andy, to me, is like Michael lite (which is kind of how they set him up in the beginning). He says some really funny stuff, but he tends to go right up to the funny/awkwardly not funny line, and more often than not crosses it. Both Andy and Michael are about 50/50 really funny/really uncomfortably terrible to me. Michael, being more extreme, tends to have funnier highs but worse lows.

Kelly, to me, is like Creed, or what most people say Creed is. For a while there, he was perilously close to Quagmire territory - you half expected someone to come into frame and say "That's our Creed!" every time he had a line. They've brought him back from the brink, though. He was hilarious this week. Kelly is like a more consistently funny version of that - she just says the most randomly awesome shit. Like when they were having the grammar debate (object/subject, I think, or maybe direct/indirect object - something with objects, anyway) in the conference room in season 4 and she pops in with "Ryan used me as an object." She cracks me up just about every time.

Also, girl sexy.

 

I think, and I truly believe this, that the "Ryan used me as an object" is one of the five best lines in the entire series.

And Circus, your description of what Creed was becoming, is dead solid perfect. The idea that Creed was ever "the show's most underrated character" was insane, since everyone I know was always say "Creed is so awesome. He is so underrated."

 

So Pam totally lied about what the letter said, right? That will have to be revisited or addressed at some point.

 

Andy works well because he's an overly nice sycophant who has a dark, angry, aggressive side hidden underneath his boisterous lameness and geniune desire to please everyone. Ed Helms has bought into this character from Day 1 and can display facial expressions (an important part of The Office's humor) better than anyone on the show minus Steve Carell (who has mastered this craft) and Jenna Fischer (more subtle).

Mindy Kaling's an extremely talented writer, but I don't think her acting ability matches up with Helms as Andy. Still, I think her character is an effective spoof of young women who are emotionally undeveloped and obsessed with pop culture. She has some great one-liners and her stuff with BJ Novak was always hysterical. I kinda miss Ryan's presence on the show because they had top-notch, awkward chemistry.

 

As I said earlier, I am really starting to like Kelly. And I think the reason for that is the stuff with Ryan and Darrell is over. I just don't like her as a love interest, and I can only tolerate her in small doses, which is what we've been getting lately. She's had some great one-liners in the last several episodes.

And I think Andy's great. They go a bit too far with him at times, with the overwrought songs and whatnot, but overall he's pretty funny. I liked him better in the beginning when he was sucking up to Michael all the time, but he still has some great moments.

 

So ... Holly gets transferred to Nashua because Wallace finds out that her (an HR rep) and Michael are dating. Naturally, she would go to Nashua and then start dating a salesman there!

Thumbs down on this episode.

Subplots of Kelly's birthday and Angela's cats were equally stupid.

 

Loved this episode. In less than a year, this has become my favorite show on TV.

I'm catching up by watching old shows on TBS interspersed with the new Thursday shows. Makes for kind of a bizarre juxtaposition of past/present snice it's all new to me, but it's a satisfying way to learn about the characters' backgrounds.

This past Tuesday had one of the great Jim pranks on Andy, who had spent hours getting his cell phone ring tone just right. Working with Pam, Jim steals the phone, throws it in the ceiling, then gets Pam to call it and drive Andy nuts when he can't find it. Along the way, Jim tells his girlfriend at the time that he still has feelings for Pam, so I see how that relationship unwinds. And that's after seeing Pam tell said girlfriend (who is now pregnant and in another relationship) that she's now engaged to Jim on last week's Thursday show. So it comes together nicely, even if its out of sequence.

Any one else relatively new to the show getting caught up on plot and gags and character development like this?

 

Michael is starting to become a bit, shit, way over the top. This episode was very strange.

 

That's pretty funny. I do remember that the episode you speak of, "The Return", is one of my favorites in Season 3. There's a lot of great stuff that happens: Dwight begins working at Staples and Michael goes to get him back after having to deal with unbearable Andy kissing his ass; Andy records his own ringtone (singing all four parts of "Rockin' Robin" a capella) and Jim hides the phone in the ceiling; Andy flips out and punches a whole in the wall; Oscar returns from his "gay-cation" and they throw a Mexican-theme fiesta for him; and Karen asks Jim if he still has feelings for Pam and he says yes.

 

He's always been written this way. Watch "Hot Girl" or "The Dundies" or "Sexual Harassment" from the beginning of the series. He may have been even more over-the-top then.

 

I know that's his character as I've watched every episode. Maybe his over-the-topness in this episode got me wondering more because overall, the episode wasn't very good IMO.