"The Office" finale
I've really enjoyed the US version of "The Office" since David and I started watching it last season. I've seen a couple episodes of the original British version, but they have pretty different feels, and I like the US version better. The moments on the show that I've liked the most have been related to Jim being completely in unrequited love for Pam.
I have mentioned a couple of times in the past this young woman I knew in Boston, Susanna, way back in 2000/2001. I've been over her for quite a long time now, but it was the most "in love" I've ever been by quite a large margin, so I still think back to it from time to time.
While I was a grad student in the astronomy department at Boston University, Susanna came in as our new librarian, and eventually became the department secretary. She had red hair. She was one of the funniest people I've ever known. She was artistic (a poet and a awfully good singer). We got along very well, and even if I hadn't immediately developed a crush on her, I would have really enjoyed visiting her office to chat and get to know her better. I knew very early on that she wasn't available, as she was living with her longterm boyfriend from college. I asked her about it directly after half-hearing it mentioned at a department function. So, she also knew very early on that I liked her. For a while though it wasn't that big a thing for me, and we became friends. We joked around a lot but we also talked about more serious stuff, both philosophical and personal. She sometimes talked to me about her relationship with her boyfriend. While I'm sure he was a pretty good guy overall, I mainly only ever heard about bad parts, and couldn't help but view him as somebody that didn't really appreciate what he had. With the exception of my friend Jessica -- who I really only became close with in that same year -- Susanna was by far my best friend in the department, even though I'd already been there for two years when she started working. Nobody else had really clicked for me. I have many, many bittersweet memories of my time with Susanna. There are little moments that, even though I know (and knew then) didn't mean that she had any sort of interest, still felt special or intimate in a way that was very precious to me. (The most precious ones don't even appear on the website I eventually wrote which chronicles my many forays into unrequited love over the course of my life. They're too personal for me, even now, to share with people outside of my close friends.)
On "The Office", all the characters work together at a paper company. Jim is one of the office drones. Pam is the office secretary. She has red hair. She's incredibly funny. She's artistic (she draws, but she doesn't seem to share it with many people). She and Jim get along very well, and spend a lot of time each day chatting, both joking around and sometimes talking about more serious stuff. Pam is involved in a relationship (and engaged at this point) with an employee from the company warehouse who doesn't seem to really appreciate what he's got. Pam is by far Jim's best friend at the company. Nobody else really clicks for him. In nearly every episode, there is a bittersweet moment or two where, even though Pam is oblivious to Jim's interest (perhaps willfuly so), it still feels intimate and you can see how precious those moments are to Jim even though he plays them off pretty cooly.
It may not surprise you to hear that those moments are my favorite part of the series.
On tonight's finale for season two, they surprised the heck out of me by having Jim actually tell Pam that he was in love with her. The conversation was handled pretty believably, I thought. She was angry and annoyed and confused. She asked him what he expected her to say. He, of course, didn't really want her to say anything -- he just wanted her to know. He walked off to leave her be.
I was kind of annoyed by this development. It was done well enough, and felt "true" to me, but within the context of the TV show, I'm annoyed. I would have preferred that they leave the unrequited love untouched as one of the show's staple bits, like Jim misleading Dwight, Kelly talking incessantly about wanting to have babies, etc.. It works really well. It's funny and it also injects a little sincere emotion into the show which is otherwise lacking in sentiment except for the occasional time that you feel sorry for the boss, Michael, because sometimes being such a doofus makes him sad.
At the very end Pam is on the phone with her mom telling her what just happened, and Jim comes back into the office -- it's after hours -- and just goes right up and kisses her, and she sorta kisses back for a bit, and then the show ends. And that annoyed me a lot. So much for the realistic treatment, that's just pandering to a sappy audience. I can buy that Pam has some sort of latent interest in Jim, but she has never really acted as if she actually wanted to get together with him. The kiss just doesn't make sense. And because the authenticity of the whole affair has been my favorite thing about it, that really bugs me. Plus it kind of means that the dynamic between Pam and Jim is going to be different next season, and that also bugs me because it was that agonizing portrayal of his interest in her that drew me into the show in the first place.
The show is great, and I'll definitely still like it regardless of what happens with the two of them, I just wish what had happened was nothing.
I have mentioned a couple of times in the past this young woman I knew in Boston, Susanna, way back in 2000/2001. I've been over her for quite a long time now, but it was the most "in love" I've ever been by quite a large margin, so I still think back to it from time to time.
While I was a grad student in the astronomy department at Boston University, Susanna came in as our new librarian, and eventually became the department secretary. She had red hair. She was one of the funniest people I've ever known. She was artistic (a poet and a awfully good singer). We got along very well, and even if I hadn't immediately developed a crush on her, I would have really enjoyed visiting her office to chat and get to know her better. I knew very early on that she wasn't available, as she was living with her longterm boyfriend from college. I asked her about it directly after half-hearing it mentioned at a department function. So, she also knew very early on that I liked her. For a while though it wasn't that big a thing for me, and we became friends. We joked around a lot but we also talked about more serious stuff, both philosophical and personal. She sometimes talked to me about her relationship with her boyfriend. While I'm sure he was a pretty good guy overall, I mainly only ever heard about bad parts, and couldn't help but view him as somebody that didn't really appreciate what he had. With the exception of my friend Jessica -- who I really only became close with in that same year -- Susanna was by far my best friend in the department, even though I'd already been there for two years when she started working. Nobody else had really clicked for me. I have many, many bittersweet memories of my time with Susanna. There are little moments that, even though I know (and knew then) didn't mean that she had any sort of interest, still felt special or intimate in a way that was very precious to me. (The most precious ones don't even appear on the website I eventually wrote which chronicles my many forays into unrequited love over the course of my life. They're too personal for me, even now, to share with people outside of my close friends.)
On "The Office", all the characters work together at a paper company. Jim is one of the office drones. Pam is the office secretary. She has red hair. She's incredibly funny. She's artistic (she draws, but she doesn't seem to share it with many people). She and Jim get along very well, and spend a lot of time each day chatting, both joking around and sometimes talking about more serious stuff. Pam is involved in a relationship (and engaged at this point) with an employee from the company warehouse who doesn't seem to really appreciate what he's got. Pam is by far Jim's best friend at the company. Nobody else really clicks for him. In nearly every episode, there is a bittersweet moment or two where, even though Pam is oblivious to Jim's interest (perhaps willfuly so), it still feels intimate and you can see how precious those moments are to Jim even though he plays them off pretty cooly.
It may not surprise you to hear that those moments are my favorite part of the series.
On tonight's finale for season two, they surprised the heck out of me by having Jim actually tell Pam that he was in love with her. The conversation was handled pretty believably, I thought. She was angry and annoyed and confused. She asked him what he expected her to say. He, of course, didn't really want her to say anything -- he just wanted her to know. He walked off to leave her be.
I was kind of annoyed by this development. It was done well enough, and felt "true" to me, but within the context of the TV show, I'm annoyed. I would have preferred that they leave the unrequited love untouched as one of the show's staple bits, like Jim misleading Dwight, Kelly talking incessantly about wanting to have babies, etc.. It works really well. It's funny and it also injects a little sincere emotion into the show which is otherwise lacking in sentiment except for the occasional time that you feel sorry for the boss, Michael, because sometimes being such a doofus makes him sad.
At the very end Pam is on the phone with her mom telling her what just happened, and Jim comes back into the office -- it's after hours -- and just goes right up and kisses her, and she sorta kisses back for a bit, and then the show ends. And that annoyed me a lot. So much for the realistic treatment, that's just pandering to a sappy audience. I can buy that Pam has some sort of latent interest in Jim, but she has never really acted as if she actually wanted to get together with him. The kiss just doesn't make sense. And because the authenticity of the whole affair has been my favorite thing about it, that really bugs me. Plus it kind of means that the dynamic between Pam and Jim is going to be different next season, and that also bugs me because it was that agonizing portrayal of his interest in her that drew me into the show in the first place.
The show is great, and I'll definitely still like it regardless of what happens with the two of them, I just wish what had happened was nothing.