Business is always personal. It's the most personal thing in the world.

[lianhanshee]

Oh, Joss, I love you, but every time TV makes me cry, somehow you're behind it.

I guess I got kinda excited about office_meta because I wrote a ton under the cut.

Comments

[gyda_gwen]

I am slowly thinking that The Office is starting to jump the shark. I didn't find this episode funny at all, although I did appreciate the parallels which you did a great job dissecting.

I guess my question is: ultimately, how long is the show going on? When the main focus is Michael's awkward situations and Jim/Pam... after 50 episodes, yeah, it gets old. I just don't find it nearly as fresh anymore. In fact, I find it rather predictable. You always know there will be a Jim/Pam moment, always an awkward Michael moment. It's just that you don't know exactly how it will be.

I think the problem with American TV shows is that they focus on longevity rather than quality. I don't think the Office has tanked completely, but I am growing a little concerned about where this is all going. If we have 5 episodes left on the season, and 22 more coming up if they're doing a season 4... that's way too much in my opinion, as far as quality's sake goes.

Then again, I just watched Extras, so it got me thinking about how short BBC series are compared to American ones. Ricky Gervais made a comment about them Americanizing Extras, and he said something like, "Steve Carrel could play me again, and they could do 50 episodes." What's funny over the course of 15 episodes doesn't necessarily translate to funny and original over the course of 50.

But, having said that, I still do love The Office.

[lianhanshee]

There were definitely not as many laugh-out-loud moments for me in this ep, but like you, I really did appreciate the narrative structure, especially compared to some of the eps recently. Ben Franklin, for instance, was kind of boring from a structural point-of-view, not much to analyze or think about, because it was so straight-on. Even most, if not all, of the humor lacked the subtlty that I love so much about the show. I guess that's more Mindy Kaling's M.O. considering she's the one who wrote The Injury, which I loved for its laugh-out-loud storyline, but again, it wasn't exactly subtle or narratively rich. So for me, it's those kinds of eps where I fear the show might start to jump the shark, because it veers so far away from the original point of (both of) the series, which for me is about everyday life and the way they tell the story of everyday life (with subtlty in the narrative and the humor; the British version had the bonus of a POV that everyday life really is dreary and there's no reason to lighten it up, because that's real). I do like the added optimistic/brighter POV that's generally more appealing to American audiences, but the more it's "Americanized" the less special a show it would be for me, and I'd think it had jumped if it strays too far away from the mock-doc look at everyday life. I'm not there yet, but I'm willing to give it to the end of the season to see how they resolve the Jim/Pam and Michael/Jan stuff, because sometimes all the drama seems a bit unrealistic. At the same time, I think they've done well to resist caving and having too much happen in one episode -- I've liked the pretty slow pacing although sometimes I'm surprised at how much is given away in one episode. I love that there are weeks where we actually don't get any Jim/Pam interaction (or Michael/Jan, for that matter), like Business School. I think an important part of a romantic storyline is about the two people individually, especially here where the characters are flawed and it would be so unrealistic for everything to work out peachy in a really expedient way.

It's funny, I had a conversation the morning after this ep with a coworker where we both agreed that as crazy as we are about the show, we really hope it stops after another year or two -- five seasons, tops. I'm totally with you on that. I really, really hope Greg Daniels has an idea of how to end it, and that they're writing from that viewpoint. It's probably wishful thinking.

I cancelled HBO once I got Center Ice, but when Extras and Rome are on, I'm kinda wishing I hadn't. Are there torrents for that kind of thing? Or actually -- I've been meaning to ask you this -- how do you get to see the games and good TV in Germany? Cause I'm totally impressed. I'm only a couple of hours from Philly and I get Center Ice and read philly.com, yet I always feel like I'm so out-of-touch with the rumors and what's really going on with the team and yet you're totally on top of things, 6 time zones away! I must know your secret.