"I'm going to cut to the chase here. Do you like magic?"
My week in television, counting backwards...
The Office 4.06 - "Branch Wars"
Oh my GOD, Michael. Michael. MICHAEL.
I think that visit to Utica was the single cringiest thing he's ever done out of taking everything so personally--especially since Jim got caught up in the madness. Stanley can argue that it's all about the money until he's blue in the face, but Michael sees Karen as a vindictive poacher, and Stanley's departure as a theft, and the people in that office really are his best friends and only family, which is a terrible burden for them to bear. It really was indicative of Michael's own attitude toward Dunder Mifflin that he couldn't see Karen's behavior as a business transaction; he had to attribute her motives to personal insult, to wanting to get back at Jim for dumping her, because that's what he would do. And he feels the loss with his entire being--he lies on the floor while he composes the world's most offensive want ad to replace Stanley, just like he lay on the floor while trying to come to grips with Carol dumping him. Recruiting someone from another branch is, of course, something that's entirely out of Michael's reach; the other branches are frighteningly functional and productive, and he's developed a reputation as that guy who hit that woman with his car.
In Michael's mind, the appropriate reaction to Karen stealing Stanley comes straight out of an early 80s National Lampoon movie: a retaliatory prank, revenge on the evil Dean, stink bombs--or, if Dwight has his slightly scary way, real bombs. Michael and Dwight are sharp enough to trick Jim into going to Utica with them, because they realize he won't go along with their crazy plans. Jim is definitely sharp enough to trick them into retrieving his phone, but I loved that while he had the opportunity to escape, there on the roadside, he couldn't quite abandon Michael and Dwight to their own insanity; he had to come along and try to mitigate the damage. That affectionate exasperation, that inability to resist getting sucked in, are why Jim belongs in Scranton and Karen never did.
And Jim was really taking one for the team there, because his visit to Utica, his conversation with Karen, is wretched--especially since he's dressed up like a Super Mario Brother the entire time. He's blunt: he didn't want to see her, he didn't have any reason to see her, he didn't even want to be there, and I would have felt more affronted on her behalf if she hadn't been so confrontationally smug.
There were multiple layers of belonging in this episode, Karen belonging in Utica; Jim belonging in Scranton, even if he doesn't really belong in Michael and Dwight's crazy plans; Pam and Oscar and Toby (who still seems to be working on the Pam Plan) creating their Finer Things Club because they've found in each other people who share their interests in food and literature and culture; Jim not really belonging in the Finer Things Club, not reading the book, but getting invited anyway; Andy looking in from the outside, having no interest in what the club's about but desperately wanting to belong to it anyway just for the sake of belonging.
And in the end, it was all a bluff. I LOVE YOU, STANLEY.
Pushing Daisies 1.05 - "Girth"
There were two things I really loved about this week's episode of Pushing Daisies. (Well, three if you count Emerson in general.) One was the layers to Ned's issues with intimacy; it's not just that his gift makes it impossible for him to touch Chuck, and separates him from every other person on the planet, but that his mother's death and his father's rejection made him an outsider in what should have been his own family. And I adored Olive and Chuck working together, and the way the show took their female rivalry and made it about both women and what they want and what they're struggling with, together and apart.
Chuck 1.06 - Chuck Versus the Sandworm
I am a full-fledged fan of Chuck after this week's episode. The dense layers of geekitude--the sandworm costume, the ComiCon photo with Chuck and Sarah dressed in Star Wars costumes, the James Bond references and Casey asking, "What, is he going to hurt me with his mind?"--were fun, but what really makes this show work are the relationships, and all of that came together this week. There was Chuck's long history with Morgan and the way their friendship is a key relationship in the show; there's the way Chuck's outright longing for Sarah is balanced by Sarah's tiny little gestures toward making the fake real, one piece at a time; there's the fact that Captain Awesome really is awesome, and Ellie and Awesome both care about Morgan because he's Chuck's friend; and finally, we got to see why Chuck and Morgan are friends, that it's not just long habit and history but that Morgan really is a good friend to Chuck. I like that the show doesn't just tell you that these people care deeply about each other, but shows you why.
And finally, comment editing. Woo!
The Office 4.06 - "Branch Wars"
Oh my GOD, Michael. Michael. MICHAEL.
I think that visit to Utica was the single cringiest thing he's ever done out of taking everything so personally--especially since Jim got caught up in the madness. Stanley can argue that it's all about the money until he's blue in the face, but Michael sees Karen as a vindictive poacher, and Stanley's departure as a theft, and the people in that office really are his best friends and only family, which is a terrible burden for them to bear. It really was indicative of Michael's own attitude toward Dunder Mifflin that he couldn't see Karen's behavior as a business transaction; he had to attribute her motives to personal insult, to wanting to get back at Jim for dumping her, because that's what he would do. And he feels the loss with his entire being--he lies on the floor while he composes the world's most offensive want ad to replace Stanley, just like he lay on the floor while trying to come to grips with Carol dumping him. Recruiting someone from another branch is, of course, something that's entirely out of Michael's reach; the other branches are frighteningly functional and productive, and he's developed a reputation as that guy who hit that woman with his car.
In Michael's mind, the appropriate reaction to Karen stealing Stanley comes straight out of an early 80s National Lampoon movie: a retaliatory prank, revenge on the evil Dean, stink bombs--or, if Dwight has his slightly scary way, real bombs. Michael and Dwight are sharp enough to trick Jim into going to Utica with them, because they realize he won't go along with their crazy plans. Jim is definitely sharp enough to trick them into retrieving his phone, but I loved that while he had the opportunity to escape, there on the roadside, he couldn't quite abandon Michael and Dwight to their own insanity; he had to come along and try to mitigate the damage. That affectionate exasperation, that inability to resist getting sucked in, are why Jim belongs in Scranton and Karen never did.
And Jim was really taking one for the team there, because his visit to Utica, his conversation with Karen, is wretched--especially since he's dressed up like a Super Mario Brother the entire time. He's blunt: he didn't want to see her, he didn't have any reason to see her, he didn't even want to be there, and I would have felt more affronted on her behalf if she hadn't been so confrontationally smug.
There were multiple layers of belonging in this episode, Karen belonging in Utica; Jim belonging in Scranton, even if he doesn't really belong in Michael and Dwight's crazy plans; Pam and Oscar and Toby (who still seems to be working on the Pam Plan) creating their Finer Things Club because they've found in each other people who share their interests in food and literature and culture; Jim not really belonging in the Finer Things Club, not reading the book, but getting invited anyway; Andy looking in from the outside, having no interest in what the club's about but desperately wanting to belong to it anyway just for the sake of belonging.
And in the end, it was all a bluff. I LOVE YOU, STANLEY.
Pushing Daisies 1.05 - "Girth"
There were two things I really loved about this week's episode of Pushing Daisies. (Well, three if you count Emerson in general.) One was the layers to Ned's issues with intimacy; it's not just that his gift makes it impossible for him to touch Chuck, and separates him from every other person on the planet, but that his mother's death and his father's rejection made him an outsider in what should have been his own family. And I adored Olive and Chuck working together, and the way the show took their female rivalry and made it about both women and what they want and what they're struggling with, together and apart.
Chuck 1.06 - Chuck Versus the Sandworm
I am a full-fledged fan of Chuck after this week's episode. The dense layers of geekitude--the sandworm costume, the ComiCon photo with Chuck and Sarah dressed in Star Wars costumes, the James Bond references and Casey asking, "What, is he going to hurt me with his mind?"--were fun, but what really makes this show work are the relationships, and all of that came together this week. There was Chuck's long history with Morgan and the way their friendship is a key relationship in the show; there's the way Chuck's outright longing for Sarah is balanced by Sarah's tiny little gestures toward making the fake real, one piece at a time; there's the fact that Captain Awesome really is awesome, and Ellie and Awesome both care about Morgan because he's Chuck's friend; and finally, we got to see why Chuck and Morgan are friends, that it's not just long habit and history but that Morgan really is a good friend to Chuck. I like that the show doesn't just tell you that these people care deeply about each other, but shows you why.
And finally, comment editing. Woo!