The Office is Terrible

The office is SO BAD. How did they screw this up?? The hour long thing was an awful, awful idea. The last two episodes started ok, then Michael starts acting craaaazy, Dwight tags along, then all the rest fall into stereotypes of themselves. God. I feel like the writers were only paid for 30 minutes of show, and the rest was put together with submissions from an online contest or something.

What made this show so great was the depth of the characters personalities. Michael isn't just an irrational goofball, but he's actually a talented salesman and genuine human being at his core who means well. Jim and Pam are more than just relationship people. Dwight it nuts, but there are limitations to his personality. All the rest of the side characters need to stop being so predictable. The only person really making it work this season is Kelly Kappour, who seems to nail every scene she's in.

So NBC has screwed up Heroes, Friday Night Lights and The Office. So far. What is the explanation for this??

UPDATE: One moment from last night's episode that is still sitting with me. Kevin is getting a "confessional" interview, talking about the quality of the pizza place Michael ordered from by mistake. There was an amusing bit about ordering from the wrong place with the similar name, etc. Ok so far. Then they cut to Kevin, and he is all set up to knock this bit out of the park. Deliver one great one-liner and keep it going. The he says, "(The pizza) Tastes like...a circle of garbage." A circle of garbage?!? What the hell is that?? That's the best you can come up with? There are half a million things funnier than a circle of garbage. That's just lazy writing. FWIW, the episode dropped steeply downhill from there. I'm losing hope it will ever recover.

Comments

[Mike]

Just my two cents, but I think Michael's arch is turning out to be similar to David Brent's on the BBC version as similar events unfold. Both freak out as the workplace environment they miraculously got promoted within becomes obsolete. They both have to deal with hipper/younger/more relevant new managers. So they both freak out and go craaaazy. Season 2 of the BBC version became pretty uncomfortable towards the end as Brent became more desperate. I think Michael is probably headed in the same direction, for better or for worse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsvkEn-6Y5w

I also don't think Michael/David could ever be considered "talented" at anything related to their jobs. Many of us have worked with people who are inexplicably in positions of power despite demonstrated lack of talent. They somehow advance up the bureaucracy until change (new leadership, etc) exposes them and threatens their way of life. I always thought of David/Michael as a hyper-version of that person.

I do agree that characters like Angela and the chubby guy are very stale. Creed might be going a little Kramer on us.

[Jeff]

I haven't watched the British series in a long time, so I don't remember how extreme David's fall came. But that makes sense if it is loosely following that.

Michael has always had his moments...Visiting Jan's art exhibit, winning back the client at Chilis (and getting Jan to fall in love with him.) It seems this year that the writers are just coming up with an ill-though out scheme for him to get into, no matter how off the wall, and then watch it play out. Predictably, I might add. Driving into a lake because GPS said turn? Holding a pizza delivery boy hostage? These are not funny or clever. They just seem desperate.

[Freddy]

Great read on the show's decline.

Yeah, the show has hit the wall this year. Hard. Michael and Dwight have become annoying caricatures. This is perhaps the sort of thing Ricky Gervais wanted to avoid by wrapping up the BBC version after two short years. It's a rare sit-com ("Seinfeld") that has a solid long run.

Feels like they're featuring Carrell because he's more identifiable from his movie work, movies which in turn generate in-show ad buys (says the cynic in me). "Hey, Michael's in another movie!"

Did an order come down to lose Angela's religious identity? Never mentioned now. Kelly has been great this year.

The explanation is that NBC Universal is mostly run by flat-out idiots. Really. No wonder GE is eager to sell the unit. But no one is buying into soon-to-die traditional mass media, just as no executive with any wit would go into the mass tv business.

At least 30 Rock was ok yesterday.

[tom]

The best show running on thursday nights is "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

Dayman!

[jerry]

I always felt the characters were in danger of being too concentrated in their stereotypes, and I agree it's crucial that Michael maintain his mysterious competence in spite of himself. It reminds me of early Simpsons episodes and how the characters hadn't yet taken on their predicable traits.

i actually liked the when they had him michel working a second job, it created an alternate universe inwhich he was popular and understood
it would have been cool to see where they could have taken that

[ben 10 oyun]

thanks for all admin
owe you gratitude..