The Office

So I just have to say, I {heart} The Office. There are really no television shows that I go out of my way to watch nowadays, especially since I typically have no time to actually watch them. But The Office is the only one that I actually sit down and make time for if I'm home on a Thursday night.

I wasn't bowled over by it when it first aired--I didn't find it very funny and thought it was really just kind of boring at most. But goddamn if it hasn't improved vastly since then.

The main reason I like it, other than the fact that it makes me laugh out loud at least twice every episode (that's my touchstone for a quality sitcom), is that its characters are both office-stereotypes and yet also complex characters, and I think the writers' ability to interweave the two is impressive. Each character has identifiable and stereotypical qualities of a person you might bump into in your office-place, and yet the show doesn't let them rest at just that (as, say, Office Space did)--it lets them fill these stereotypes, but it also exposes the complexities behind them (which is even more interesting to me because it exists as a reminder that all the people I work with--all the stereotypes and nicknames they fill--are *real* people with *real* lives outside of this place). It shows that these people are human, despite the fact that they might irritate the piss out of you or act super-lame all the motherf-ing time. And I find that really quite cool, especially for a sitcom. And especially for a sitcom that still manages to succeed at being funny, despite moving beyond flat, stereotypical characters.

The other main reason I like it is that it has developed one of the most fantastic television romances I think I've seen in a long time (if ever). I have never ever ever tuned in to a show simply because of soap-operatic necessity (the folks who keep up with the whole OC scoop--Tina slept with Bo and then shot him and ran off with her lesbian lover Regina--quite frankly frighten me a bit in their compulsiveness), but I absolutely love the two main characters on The Office and their office-romance and try to tune in each week because of it.

E (who also watches the show when he can) and I have discussed how we suspect(ed) the show will lose a bit of its driving force if they actually ever hook up, but I was really f-ing pleasantly surprised Thursday night because the male character (Jim) finally revealed to the female character (Pam) that he was in love with her, and IT WAS SO WELL-DONE THAT I SERIOUSLY ALMOST CRIED. No shit. And I am so not a crier. But I think I may have sniffled a little.

Truly, it was one of the finest romantic moments I've seen on television, mostly because it was one of the most honest and non-melodramatic ones I've seen. It was understated, and in being so, was heart-breakingly accurate in capturing the desperate emotions involved in being smitten with someone. If you didn't catch the season finale, you must get your ass out there and do so. And if you haven't gotten suckered in to the whole office-romance, you must catch up on the season, because it truly is one of the most frighteningly accurate (and skillfully done) portrayals I've seen.

I actually had to remind myself, They are imaginary people, L. They are not really real, you big stupid idiot.

But hey, that's what novels and tv shows and movies are supposed to do, no? Make you engage with the characters and get wrapped up in their lives, no? Make you hope that they *do* end up together, no? I am rationalizing my lame-ass geekiness, no?

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