The Office Season 8: It Kinda Seems Like the Left Side is the Side to Be On

i think you're onto something, but i was more reminded of Pam's original engagement to Roy when she met Jim

Yeah that's a good point, especially given that the show is winding up it would make sense that they would put that type of parallel to Pam's original romantic situation up

I just wish they hadn't done this with a magic handsome boom mic operator that we've never heard of before until he white-knighted his way onto the show for three episodes in a row

agreed; the best they could do was have that somewhat awkward line about "following someone for 8 years" to get close

yeah. this feel's super forced. i hope they handle it well.

and as tough as things are, one spat w/ Jim during a stressful time shouldn't have her running into the arms of a good looking guy who holds a microphone.

I thought they'd actually done a decent job showing the stress ramp up into a serious relationship problem, and Brian as a sympathetic person whose relationship to Pam we'd never seen before actually fit in well with other versions of this story I've seen on actual reality shows, where the person working on the show who starts a relationship with a cast member eventually gives up their job and becomes part of the show (the Dave/Kira relationship in RW:Seattle, Kandi/Todd on RHoAtlanta). The thing I didn't buy is the acceleration of the romantic temptation.

I totally thought the Jim Pam blow-up was realistic and I see it as a real problem...I just don't get the idea that we're supposed to believe she'd be running into someone else's arms over that. She did it before and I see that parallel, but Roy was an asshole and Jim worked it for years and years.

what am I doing here. I have work to do.

you and me both

Eh those last two eps were ok. Feels like it's getting more into convoluted territory once again. Jim moved out of the house w his wife and kid and got a second place? Either this is one of those startups that is massively successful and makes a profit from day one or selling paper part-time at DM is really paying the bills.

I really don't care about the boom operator. Feels like they are needlessly fabricating stories.

From what I understand, he and Darrell are splitting that little apartment, until they can get full-time jobs in Philadelphia and presumably move Pam and the kids.. Jim only found out this episode that he would only be paid part time at Dunder Mifflin now.

o i thought they already had full-time jobs in philly. why would you get an apartment for a part-time job?

If it's a few hours a way and you're there half the week and working late hours and it's a 1-bedroom shared by 2, it's not the worst idea ever.

according to google it's a 2-hr drive. iirc, rent that's just outside philly ain't that bad

I liked the Junior Salesmen episode, but I think the Vandalism episode was awful -- a mediocre script made worse by Lee Kirk's direction.

the other thing that made no sense to me is that blatant vandalism like that of an art project commissioned by the company should have gotten dude fired or severely reprimanded before he attacked Pam; it would have made more sense if dude had yelled something about her defacing his truck after getting him canned

but if he got fired she probably wouldn't have bothered to deface the truck, so... but that would've made more sense in a way

yes, wikipedia confirms that the vandal was in fact, Bram from Lost

(xpost)The inquiry scene w/Pam, Toby & Nelly was really lame and (even for this show) unbelievable.

but if he got fired she probably wouldn't have bothered to deface the truck, so... but that would've made more sense in a way

it would have made sense if she and Dwight went out to deface the truck before they found out dude was getting canned

It was rash and out of character for Pam to deface the truck, but she is looking for ways to feel impulsive and free-spirited. She doesn't have Jim's cleverly-planned pranks to amuse her, so she goes to Dwight for a partner in crime, and gets sucked into his ill-thought vandalism. (She's resistant at first, but without someone loving and appreciative of her to calm her down, she indulges the only affirmation of *any* of her feelings she's getting at the moment.)

Brian is obviously into her, and we don't know for sure if she's consciously aware of that - but if she is, it also makes sense to team up with the only male in the office that she has a connection with, where that connection is 100% non-sexual/romantic, to try and distance herself from having to acknowledge it and decide how she feels.

blatant vandalism like that of an art project commissioned by the company should have gotten dude fired or severely reprimanded

Seemed clear that HR's policies just didn't allow for this, as Frank knew the inquiry was toothless. Fair enough too, you wouldn't expect a paper company to pre-plan for a situation where their least efficient employee would get to spend months and months periodically slacking off in other employees' workspace to piss about with an unwanted, pointless, and awful "art project," let alone then protect the slacker.

cheers for the andy update, djp

the whole jim/pam drama thing feels waaaaay too manufactured to be believable. not that the situation itself isn't believable, but the show has just let them be happy and normal and BORING for like twelve thousand years, and now suddenly it's the final season and oops a crisis. it doesn't help that neither fischer nor krasinski seem to be doing any actual acting 99% of the time.

i'm not angry or entitled about this, but i think it could have been handled far, far less synthetically if the production hadn't let them just sit and fester for so long.

In fairness they killed the actual fight

, but the show has just let them be happy and normal and BORING for like twelve thousand years

sure - they've stagnated in their happy family bubble of accepting job situation and having kids, now that stasis has been disrupted and its causing conflict that they're not practiced at dealing with

totes legit imo

in actual life it's legit, but in the narrative of a long-running show it feels forced (especially as they were basically forgotten about for so long, in favour of andy/erin or dwight's antics or whatever)

coupled with what i mentioned upthread about pam's lost potential, both as a creative person or as an interesting character, and it's just an annoying arc to be running with now

fuck that was a badly structured sentence

they were basically forgotten about for so long

bcz nothing interesting was happening with them!

(or irl bcz they were Daniels/Schur's story, and now Daniels is back. but babies and happiness are boring, or at least don't take place in the office, so I'm fine with it - their periphery to the plot was not one of the significant weaknesses of the Lieberstein years.)

bcz nothing interesting was happening with them!

that
is
my
point

they made a decision to give those two happiness, which is nice, but contentment = dull

so they stopped focussing on them, which you're also complaining about!

now something interesting* is happening with them, and they're focussing on 'em again

* (maybe, I'm v leery about the whole Brian element)

not every episode of Cheers was about Cliff's relationship with his mother, or who Carla was banging

Jim was acting like such a jackass towards Daryl that I was rooting for Pam to cheat on him by the end of the episode.

Surprise clarity and forwardness from Kevin at the senator's party. The smirk Angela gave as she was leaving was perfect.

i don't want to come off like i'm overselling how good this season is, because it's not great, just such an improvement over the past few seasons that it feels "great" by comparison, but i kinda feel like this darker direction is p brave for a show that built like half its audience on "aww Pam & Jim". i'm just hoping it builds up to something worthwhile because the boom guy is pretty forced and the vandalism episode was like season 6 level terrible.

not every episode of Cheers was about Cliff's relationship with his mother, or who Carla was banging

they were never central characters

I hope Kevin speaking the truth becomes recurring. He also did it in the conference room about Erin and Pete flirting.

kevin's truth-from-tactlessness has been a recurring thing i think

It's great that they gut such mileage out of the "these people didn't really give Kevin alot of credit but later realized he was a true bro!" but really they should just follow him for a day instead. Or Creed, or Meredith, for that matter. Or Toby. In fact all the supporting characters in the office seem like passed-by opportunities for episodes that may not have to deal with Jim & Pam but would be a hell of a lot more interesting, funny, and original.

As I had hoped, the "now that I am executive producer my new husband shall direct" episode was just a blip. Good one last night, and Andy's return was handled extremely well.

yeah, that was great. it was nice how wassname told erin he wanted her to be happy, and that's what made her see sense. really lovely writing.

curious to know how catherine tate feels about being an extra.

New Michael!

I mean ok maybe it's because I'm watching drunk and alone on Valentines Day but this show seems extra depressing tonite

yup it was, but it felt more coherently depressing than usual? if that makes sense

Probably because they're trying to make every relationship on the show look hopeless, then pair that with valentines day.

They should bring back Holly and Michael just to ruin their relationship too.

Really loving Bob in this. The new Michael!

He was really good, but it had the meta-effect of reminding me that the Michael Scott schtick is kind of tired at this point (much like Pam's eventual feelings)

Every week increases my hatred of Jim.

Every time they try to "expose" a Jim quirk he just comes of douchey.