The Office Options

[Crabby Appleton]

I have been a fan over the years of The Office, but I am losing interest. The series was very funny in the beginning as over-the-top caricatures of office personalities we all have seen got themselves into trouble week in and week out. Recently, however, the series has become, for me at least, much less funny as the characters have become so loopy and unlikeable that it is hard to watch. It is as if the writers are running out of ideas and have pushed the personalities into being caricatures of the original caricatures. For example, the Michael Scott character, the dimwitted and cluelessly out of touch boss, has become such an exaggerated version of himself that rather than being funny, he often crosses the line and becomes offensive. Perhaps it is just me growing tired of the series, but it seems like the quirkiness crosses over into nastiness too much of the time.

[s4t]

Michael Scott has always been over the line and offensive! (IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) I have to cover my eyes half of the show......

"WRONG BABY!!!!"

[dutch13]

I have been a fan over the years of The Office, but I am losing interest. The series was very funny in the beginning as over-the-top caricatures of office personalities we all have seen got themselves into trouble week in and week out. Recently, however, the series has become, for me at least, much less funny as the characters have become so loopy and unlikeable that it is hard to watch. It is as if the writers are running out of ideas and have pushed the personalities into being caricatures of the original caricatures. For example, the Michael Scott character, the dimwitted and cluelessly out of touch boss, has become such an exaggerated version of himself that rather than being funny, he often crosses the line and becomes offensive. Perhaps it is just me growing tired of the series, but it seems like the quirkiness crosses over into nastiness too much of the time.

Last week, they had Pam putting off going to the hospital to deliver her baby for as long as possible........because of her health insurance. Even after her water broke, she wanted to wait 8 hours until after midnight to get the extra day in the hospital. I wonder how much influence Liberal NBC had on that storyline.


Once Jim and Pam got married......their characters became less funny. If not for Dwight and Andy (and sometimes still Michael Scott), I wouldn't even be watching any more.

[Severian]

I'm afraid I've not watched the show regularly or in a long time, but if I want to see an offensive boss character there's enough of them in real life. But what you describe seems to happen often, writers seem to run out of ideas and degenerate into juvenile and silly BS. This is particularly prevalent in science fiction shows. I remember Dark Angel, started off really well, post cyberpunk apocalypse type of show with a hot genetically engineered super soldier babe, but the plots got sillier and more inane until they were worthless. Unfortunately, expecting any kind of adult writing out of Hollywood types as a default is pointless, their fallback position always seems to be a massively drug fueled infantilism.

[Ginger00]

Last week, they had Pam putting off going to the hospital to deliver her baby for as long as possible........because of her health insurance. Even after her water broke, she wanted to wait 8 hours until after midnight to get the extra day in the hospital. I wonder how much influence Liberal NBC had on that storyline.


Once Jim and Pam got married......their characters became less funny. If not for Dwight and Andy (and sometimes still Michael Scott), I wouldn't even be watching any more.

I caught that little diss of health insurance.

It seems that when characters start having babies, it gets less funny. Thank God it wasn't twins. I didn't think the hour one about Pam having the baby was that funny. But overall, I still think The Office is good. Hope the other episodes leave the baby at day care and just continue with Office pranks.

[Mr. Naron]

Last week, they had Pam putting off going to the hospital to deliver her baby for as long as possible........because of her health insurance. Even after her water broke, she wanted to wait 8 hours until after midnight to get the extra day in the hospital. I wonder how much influence Liberal NBC had on that storyline.


Once Jim and Pam got married......their characters became less funny. If not for Dwight and Andy (and sometimes still Michael Scott), I wouldn't even be watching any more.

I don't think that had anything to do with NBC'c bias. There are HMOs out there that really do more bean counting than healing. Kaiser out here in CA is one of them. We use Blue Cross and they're starting to act like Kaiser. My wife is in the hospital right now with a huge kidney stone and a bad infection on top of it. Her doctor was overruled by the medical group rep when he wanted her to stay in an extra day for antibiotics. It was all their bean counting that prevented them from finding the problem THE FIRST THREE TIMES WE WENT TO THE ER. Don't get me started on her doctor.

The problem is, Obamacare would be 100 times worse. HMOs are little versions of Obamacare. I want to punch someone in the neck.

As for The Office, I'm still a huge fan. I loved the birthing episode. When Pam breast fed the wrong baby I was on the floor. I can totally see that happening.

[dutch13]

I don't think that had anything to do with NBC'c bias. There are HMOs out there that really do more bean counting than healing. Kaiser out here in CA is one of them. We use Blue Cross and they're starting to act like Kaiser. My wife is in the hospital right now with a huge kidney stone and a bad infection on top of it. Her doctor was overruled by the medical group rep when he wanted her to stay in an extra day for antibiotics. It was all their bean counting that prevented them from finding the problem THE FIRST THREE TIMES WE WENT TO THE ER. Don't get me started on her doctor.

The problem is, Obamacare would be 100 times worse. HMOs are little versions of Obamacare. I want to punch someone in the neck.

As for The Office, I'm still a huge fan. I loved the birthing episode. When Pam breast fed the wrong baby I was on the floor. I can totally see that happening.

Wow, I am going way off base from THE OFFICE.......but it is not the insurance companies fault. The hospital is asking them to pay tens of thousands of dollars........because they will. The hospital has to charge those exhorbinant rates because the government won't pay for services rendered on medicare and medicaid patients.


The insurance companies will be out of the health insurance business within 10 years if Obamacare passes.......because COST is not being addressed. Medicare and Medicaid already underpay the hospital for services rendered.......now with the $500,000,000,000.00 in cuts, the costs associated with health care will only increase for insurance companies....which will force them to to focus on other forms of insurance.



EDITED TO ADD.......I enjoy watching THE OFFICE in syndication as much as Seinfeld because it is the old consistently funny episodes without political statements embedded into them. I wonder if Ricky Gervais really has any input on the show any longer.

This post has been edited by dutch13: Mar 10 2010, 08:24 PM

[Mr. Naron]

Wow, I am going way off base from THE OFFICE.......but it is not the insurance companies fault. The hospital is asking them to pay tens of thousands of dollars........because they will. The hospital has to charge those exhorbinant rates because the government won't pay for services rendered on medicare and medicaid patients.


The insurance companies will be out of the health insurance business within 10 years if Obamacare passes.......because COST is not being addressed. Medicare and Medicaid already underpay the hospital for services rendered.......now with the $500,000,000,000.00 in cuts, the costs associated with health care will only increase for insurance companies....which will force them to to focus on other forms of insurance.



EDITED TO ADD.......I enjoy watching THE OFFICE in syndication as much as Seinfeld because it is the old consistently funny episodes without political statements embedded into them. I wonder if Ricky Gervais really has any input on the show any longer.

Like I said, it will get way worse once the government is in control. But here's the thing: HMOs were created by legislation in 1973. The conditions a company agrees to when they create get into the racket is to provide the same benefits and charge the same premiums to all their policy holders. Plus they have to structure themselves as a non-profit. When a company like Blue Cross decides to offer an HMO policy, they are climbing into bed with the federal government. So, it is the company's fault because they are they are acting just like a government operation.

It's amazing that our health care system has lasted this long, and the main reason it has is because people have had the freedom to stay out of the HMO system. Well, that's about to come to an end.

I also watch the syndicated episodes. Tuesdays are great because TBS runs three hours of The Office.

[GRITS]

I still laugh, but I have wondered if we witnessed The Office jumping the shark this season.

As for The Office, I'm still a huge fan. I loved the birthing episode. When Pam breast fed the wrong baby I was on the floor. I can totally see that happening.

Yes, that was hilarious!

[Old Bitter Craig]

the biggest issue with the show recently is the morphing of the primary characters.

Jim was the main guy we were supposed to relate to, but as he went from slacker prankster to co-Manager (see how often he encourages others to get back to work this year... even on the birth episode) it's changed the dynamic in the show to focus the "funny" on other characters - notably Andy stepping into his own a bit alongside Dwight, who continues to be the foil.

also factor in the changing dynamic of his relationship with Pam... the "will they/won't they" tension that usually works in shows like this (Frasier, Cheers, even Chuck) is also gone. it opens new doors to new story arcs, but is a fairly seismic shift in the show's direction.

so long as the secondary characters continue to be funny (particularly Dwight in that last episode), it can avoid devolving like "Friends" did. (I was not a big fan of the show, but watched it with the wife. marital compromise. but at least the early episodes were funny, catching some of the later episodes it seemed like it was just a soap opera with lots of more serious moments and less and less jokes).

[dutch13]

the biggest issue with the show recently is the morphing of the primary characters.

Jim was the main guy we were supposed to relate to, but as he went from slacker prankster to co-Manager (see how often he encourages others to get back to work this year... even on the birth episode) it's changed the dynamic in the show to focus the "funny" on other characters - notably Andy stepping into his own a bit alongside Dwight, who continues to be the foil.

also factor in the changing dynamic of his relationship with Pam... the "will they/won't they" tension that usually works in shows like this (Frasier, Cheers, even Chuck) is also gone. it opens new doors to new story arcs, but is a fairly seismic shift in the show's direction.

so long as the secondary characters continue to be funny (particularly Dwight in that last episode), it can avoid devolving like "Friends" did. (I was not a big fan of the show, but watched it with the wife. marital compromise. but at least the early episodes were funny, catching some of the later episodes it seemed like it was just a soap opera with lots of more serious moments and less and less jokes).

Good analysis.

[Timothy]

the biggest issue with the show recently is the morphing of the primary characters.

Jim was the main guy we were supposed to relate to, but as he went from slacker prankster to co-Manager (see how often he encourages others to get back to work this year... even on the birth episode) it's changed the dynamic in the show to focus the "funny" on other characters - notably Andy stepping into his own a bit alongside Dwight, who continues to be the foil.

also factor in the changing dynamic of his relationship with Pam... the "will they/won't they" tension that usually works in shows like this (Frasier, Cheers, even Chuck) is also gone. it opens new doors to new story arcs, but is a fairly seismic shift in the show's direction.

so long as the secondary characters continue to be funny (particularly Dwight in that last episode), it can avoid devolving like "Friends" did. (I was not a big fan of the show, but watched it with the wife. marital compromise. but at least the early episodes were funny, catching some of the later episodes it seemed like it was just a soap opera with lots of more serious moments and less and less jokes).

I'm a relatively new fan of the Office, so I don't know how it used to be. Shows have to evolve to avoid just having the same things happen over and over.

I've liked all the recent episodes except for the one where Michael Scott has to renegade on his promise to fund a group of kid's college education, that one wasn't funny but just sad.

[Mr. Naron]

I'm a relatively new fan of the Office, so I don't know how it used to be. Shows have to evolve to avoid just having the same things happen over and over.

I've liked all the recent episodes except for the one where Michael Scott has to renegade on his promise to fund a group of kid's college education, that one wasn't funny but just sad.

I found that very funny as an educator. The assumption is that if Michael had not made his idiotic promise, most of those kids would have dropped out.

[nokddng]

I'm a fan of the show but I do agree it has changed. I think it jumped the shark when Pam and Jim got married. I hated the whole co-manager storyline. The characters that I love watching are Dwight and Andy. I like Erin..she's a good addition to the cast. That whole mention of healthcare on the birth episode totally went over my head..it didn't even cross my mind.

I'll still continue to watch and buy the DVDs when they come out.