I swear I’m at least on my 5th viewing of the entire series of “The Office” and I really want to iron out exactly why I can watch this show over and over again without losing interest, while also being unable to love any show as much.
For those of you who live under a rock, “The Office” is a TV show that was released on NBC in 2005. The first season, inspired from the British version (also known as “The Office”) , came out to lackluster criticism and overall mixed opinions.
But then something magical happened. They adapted the show for American Audiences. See we MERICANS have a taste for the bombastic. We like things a little zany, a little flashy, if you’re catching my drift here. So when the second season came out, the direction had gone from small stories from an average, mid-sized, paper supply company in Scranton Pennsylvania, to larger world building stories and in depth characters interacting with each others and the world they live in. Things in Scranton Pennsylvania aren’t as quiet as it seems when Michael Scott is running around.
Which brings me to my next point
Michael Scott is Everything
When you think about the office, you may think of iconic characters Like Dwight, the “out-of-touch” beet farmer who’s constantly fighting with Jim, the Office prankster. Or maybe Stanley, the Sassy, Overweight, African American man who just wants it to be pretzel day. But I know without a doubt that when you hear “The Office” you think Michael Scott First.
Some people try to argue that with me. But be really honest with yourself. When Steve Carrell left the show, It wasn’t the same. It might not have necessarily been worse, as developed story lines with Dwight, Angela, Jim, and Pam could expand and find their eventual resolutions, but it wasn’t the same.
I think it just lost that amazing twinkle that made the show so unique. So.. perfect. This is a case of the creative stars aligning on personality types and the development of an absurdist character based on a genius filming processes that promoted improvising within scenes. Michael Scott was developing as a character all throughout the first season, and when they turned him from a mediocre office annoyance to a more complex and absurd character, he became a beautiful enigma.
Maybe it’s just me, but I love Enigmous people. You know what I’m talking about. Those people who just can’t be described as anything other than their name. Whether it be from their defined personality, passions, talents, or just how they look. I have a big fascination with people who are impressively different.
Because I think that at the end of the day, some people want to fit into this approved mould that ads, pop-culture, and echo-chambers bombard you with constantly online. And while I think social acceptance can be great, it never really feels right when you’re being something that you’re not. Be yourself, wear what you love about life (or don’t love) on your sleeve for the world to see!
That’s what’s so great about Michael Scott. He isn’t the smartest person in the world, he isn’t even the smartest guy in the office. He isn’t the most impressive salesman that the world has ever seen, He has trouble with relationships with both friends and women. He has a hard time with personal boundaries and he constantly slacks off at his job and bothers others, but he has all of these little redeeming moments from all the cringe inducing moments he creates in his office.
You learn a lot about his character as the show goes on. You find out he came from a divorced home, how he was bullied in school, how he had to spend many years working for a company that often wasn’t great to him. Yet despite all this, he still defends himself quite fiercely. I’ll explain it this way:
In the second episode of the first season “Diversity Day”, the Office has a diversity acceptance speaker come in and teach everyone about being more conscious about what they say in the office space. As the speaker goes on, it becomes clear that he is there because of an incident that happened with Michael. Michael becomes outraged when people discuss his in-office performance of one of Chris Rock’s Early comedy routine. And without diving into opinions on jokes and race, The routine would be pretty offensive in today’s standards if a white man performed it.
However, Michael refuses to believe he had done anything wrong, and firmly choses to refute the idea that he could be, in any way, racist by saying that joke. He then does what only Michael Scott would do. He gathers everyone for another meeting, this time ran by him, on his own version of cultural acceptance. He makes a video that doesn’t do much for his case, then has everyone wear cards on their head to practice talking to other people from different nationalities.
He, of course, encourages people to focus on cultural niches when talking to one another, which is really the opposite of what the original speaker had taught. By the end of this meeting he uses a super racist Indian accent with Kelly, who is Indian, to the point where she slaps him. Realizing he had finally gone to far, we see Michael reflecting on what he believed to still be a successful meeting and signing off on his Corporate forms that he had learned his lesson with the name “Daffy Duck”.
And that’s just one example of how Michael Refuses to let people change who he his. For better or worse at times. He believes himself to be a free thinker, an artists, someone creative. He really is unconventional, and that’s a partial reason why his branch of the company does so well.
I could ramble on about Michael for a whole post, so Maybe I’ll do that instead of having this thing be longer than a DMV line.
Developing A World
One of the biggest things is how the show goes about its way of getting you information about characters in unique ways. The single-person interview style worked with why there would be cameras in the building. This alone already creates a scenario that you could believe to be the real world, a real documentary. Then you learn more and more about each character slowly as they react organically to daily chaos in the office.
You learn that Pam is an artist, Darrell loves Jazz and the Blues, Dwight loves karate, Kelly is a blabbermouth, creed is almost pure comic relief and is the most absurd person in the show, Stanley wants to retire in an old light house where nobody knows that he lives there, Phillis gave away a child when she was younger, Angela loves cats, Kevin loves poker, Andy has Daddy issues and the list goes on.
Most episodes focus on a few characters each time and do a nice job revolving everyones progress around Michael, who often throughs that progress through an absurd ring of chaos. We watch these people grow, learn, and change from season to season. The producers did a genius time gap between every season to see sped up ramifications of what happened from previous seasons. It’s a solid narrative tool because fresh ideas can be executed now that a time gap allows new stories to be had.
Now I can’t bring up developing characters if I don’t bring up Jim & Pam, the arguably Main characters of the show. But I thought Michael was the main character? See that is where you are wrong. For all intents and purposes, The Office is a show about the Love story of Jim and Pam. It’s easily the most focused on aspect of the show, especially once Michael leaves it. You see the focus switch to them more and more until he’s gone. The main arch of the last season is them tackling their marriage and personal issues through and through.
I’ll do another post with more on all of the characters soon!
Jim & Pam
The office tackles complex subjects like Love and friendship fairly often in the show. There are a couple of in-office relationships that happen during the season, but none as focused as Jim & Pam.
Jim starts the show as a mild-mannered young adult who doesn’t enjoy his job very much, but loves goofing off and having fun. In many ways, you can see some parallels between Michael and Jim in terms of motivation and personality, but Jim is certainly more charismatic, good looking, and smart. He starts the show off as just a kid goofing off, but as his interactions with Pam increase and they develop their friendship to the point where being just friends isn’t enough, it causes both of them to really consider what they want in life.
Pam isn’t a confident or outspoken person in the beginning either. She gets walked all over by Michael as a receptionist and by her Fiancé, Roy. Pam was in the trap that many of us fall prey to. We’ve been conditioned to believe that marriage is an inevitable and important milestone when you start your young-adult life. Get married have kids right? However, some people put more emphasis on just checking off the list than finding somebody they actually want to spend the rest of their life with. I mean Marriage today is at a 50% Fail rate. That fact is even brought up in the show. Pam was in that fallacy of wanting to marry someone that really wasn’t great for her.
The relationship was ok, but they didn’t get along. He wouldn’t talk to her, spend real time with her, and drank too much. It takes a long time for both Jim and Pam to realize that they need to take their chances, Jim tries but pam doesn’t realize how big Jim is in her life until he isn’t in it anymore and she cancels the wedding. Eventually they end up together and it’s great, and Roy even ends up finding that perfect woman for him that turned him from a slop with a DUI to a successful businessman.
And I think at the end of the day, we want somebody who’s gonna help us be the best version of ourselves. I believe love is like a Yin-Yang thing. There’s gotta be balance, you have to have traits that support each others differences but find enough in common to relate to one another. I think the final couples in the office reflect that. Jim and Pam help each other grow and become successful adults with two kids. And even though they have their problems when Jim gets his job in Philly, they still make enough compromises with each other out of love and respect to make the relationship work.
Their Love Story isn’t some fantasy, it’s a relatable story about two people realizing how much they care for each other and doing whatever they can to be in each others lives. It’s not some cheesy happily ever after, (even though the series ends with them pretty well off) its a story about real people dealing with real problems and finding solutions to make everything work out. It’s not perfect, but it’s something real.
And that’s why I think so many people relate with that. A lot of people think their relationship is #goals, and honestly it’s not far off for me either. It’s crazy to think some story could be such a role model of relationships for so many. But when the stars align for a show bigger than life, it’s bound to happen.
Well, I think I’ve rambled enough to send the point that I love this show for so many reasons. I’ll do another part on this sometime soon because I think it’s cool to have these thoughts down on paper.
In the mean time, take it easy,
Joe
Thinking About Stuff With Joe 