The Office- thoughts on why it sucks!

To begin, I've been a huge fan of The Office. I've seen them all, most of the webisodes, and even most of the deleted scenes. I own the first three seasons of the show and love those seasons. However, I have been majorly disappointed in the show in the past two years and can pinpoint one event that was the beginning of the end: casino night when Jim kissed Pam.

I remember that night clearly. I know that most people loved it because of the tension building all season, but when it happened I looked over at my friends sitting on the couch and announced the obvious, "this isn't funny. The Office is supposed to be funny. This just isn't funny!" What I was announcing at the time was the beginning of the end, but I did not have the insight to predict this problem.

Here's the genius of the show: office life is absurd! I work in a church office and I can still say that office life is absurd. You spend hours and hours around these people and yet barely know them. You get glimpses into their lives by what they put up on their walls or the kind of clothes they wear or the conversations that you might have with them, but for the most part you have office type relationships: awkward conversations at the copier, questions on expense reports, exchanged emails void of personality, and the occasional conversation about the weekend.

The first two seasons of The Office highlighted this absurdity with genius. Michael Scott was the one character who didn't seem to get that office friends are not really your friends. They are who you work with and then you don't spend your free time with them. Now, church office work is different, but serving on a large church staff there is some serious truth to that. I will never spend time with some of the staff at Asbury, and that is fine. I will pass them in the halls and say hello and try to think of something else to saw while we both realize that we don't really know anything about each other except for what we do.

Jim kissed Pam. We saw more of just a glimpse into their personal lives at that point, which is all an office mate might get. We saw into the depths of their feelings. We saw a part of them that they hadn't shown anyone else. We saw beyond their shallow office self, and saw what they really desired and hoped for- things you would never really see in your officemates.

Now the show didn't unravel all at once. Season 3 was still pretty good, but it was getting increasingly personal. The saving grace in season 3 was the downsizing and the mixing of new officemates that we didn't yet know and getting a glimpse into their lives. Season 4 and 5 have all been all about personal relationships, not office relationships. Where has the absurdity of office life gone?

Jenna Fischer in an interview on NPR said that when she auditioned for the show she showed no personality. Her audition was a "job interview" in character for a receptionist job. She gave one word answers and appeared very disintersted. Hence, Pam. Work Pam is exactly like this. She hates her job, is engaged but you get the feeling that he is a loser, and is bored in life. All of this you get pieced together through work Pam. I have no idea what real Pam is like. However, now there is no work Pam. She is gone. And I haven't laughed at her character since work Pam disappered.

If you watch season one of The Office it is just like the Brittish version. Maybe season 6 needs to be just like season 4 of the Brittish version as well: cancelled.