One of the only TV shows that I try to reliably catch every week (as opposed to tivoing and then maybe watching, maybe not) is The Office. Once upon a time, I didn't like the show at all. In fact, actively avoided watching it. It made me uncomfortable. Specifically, the character of Michael made me uncomfortable. But the Dwight-Jim dynamic, and especially the Jim-Pam relationship drew me in, and now I'm addicted. The season finale is tonight, and I have to admit that I'm not sure the long months of strike were very kind to the show. These short spring season episodes have been weak, and they've been sending me into that very uncomfortable places, the ones where I really hate Michael, and thus really hate the show. Even the Jim/Pam thing can't save the show when Michael is really bad. And it seems that the writers have been sinking him back into that old sort of character, where he's downright mean, and his stupidity doesn't seem stupid but malevolent. I thought last week's episode was terrible, just plain awful. All these weird separate storylines that never went anywhere, and Michael being a mean jackass. The kind of mean jackass that I'd rather not spend time watching on TV. I can't get emotionally invested in a character that awful. Just can't. At least with the dinner party episode, his bumbling-ness wasn't so much mean as just...bumbling.
The Office's comedy is supposed to be more real-life, which is maybe why the meanness doesn't play, for me. I also reliably watch 30 Rock (Sam, in fact, is a 30 Rock superfan. He loves loves loves Tracy Morgan.), and that humor is not based on real life. I mean, they're not seeking to turn Everyman experiences into comedy. They're exploiting their own medium for fun, more like...metahumor. Sometimes I think I like that kind of humor better, because when someone is mean to Kenneth the Page, it doesn't feel so bad. Kenneth is utterly ridiculous in every way, as is Tracy and Liz Lemon and the whole lot of them. Phyllis, from the Office? Doesn't feel so very fake to me. It's exaggerated life, for sure, but it's still based around the idea that you might know one of the people who work in the office (and I hope it isn't Michael, though buffoons like him do exist). And thus, for me, it gets uncomfortable.
But I must say, both shows have made me laugh very hard. I don't watch much other comedy on TV; frankly, Sam and I don't watch much else reliably on TV. Law and Order, and a whole slew of Travel Channel and History Channel shows, Top Chef and PR, Bill Maher when he's on, Weeds and Big Love, and....that's about it. There isn't much else that's making me laugh. (Hardest laugh since strike: Liz Lemon as Cathy: "Chocolate chocolate chocolate. Ack!") So it's not like I'm dumping these shows. I am worried, though, that if an Office spin-off materializes, it'll be to the detriment of the Office. And that makes me sad. I'd hate to see the show descend even farther into mean-Michael territory because the creator's attention is stretched. I guess we'll have to wait and see how things shape up in the fall.
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