Grid Effect

I am late to posting about last Thursday’s The Office, mainly because I was somewhat disappointed with the episode. It had some humorous antidotes and definitely moved the plot along, but unfortunately I am not interested in any plots coming out of this series.

I watched a Jerry Seinfeld interview last night on Sit Down With David Steinberg, and he said that while developing episodes for his hit series, comedy was the primary concern. Most series that followed Seinfeld concerned themselves with constructing sound plot devices (Ross and Rachel) or rehashing old jokes (”We were on a break”).

I am probably overly-critical of this series because I laughed pretty consistently throughout Thursday nights half hour. But as I have mentioned before I have set the bar really high for Gary Daniels and the rest of the writing staff. So when the episode revolves around the budding relationship of Roy and Pam, it is really distracting. And seeing their relationship falter yet again as a result of Pam’s new “self-empowering” tactics kind of bored me (Though it was damn hilarious when Kenny out of nowhere picked up a chair and hurled it at the bar).

The other two relationships on the show (Jim-Karen, Michael-Pam), have no staying power. Karen’s prank on Jim was just bizarre, and did she take into consideration he didn’t seem too care? I don’t want to call it mean-spirited because that just seems melodramatic, but there are degrees of pranks that would be deemed “off limits”, particularly when a significant other is involved. But again, the state of any relationship on this show puts me to sleep. I guess I’m just confused, are we supposed to like Karen or hate Karen? If this were The Wire it would make more sense, but this is a half hour sitcom on NBC, it isn’t that complex.

Michael’s behavior reached new cringe-worthy heights this week. Jan’s motivations are befuddling, Why would she drag Michael into a bathroom for sex immediately after he embarrassed the two of them in front of company executives? I know her therapist told her to embrace some of her unhealthy tendencies, but in order for this to be explained (Because again, there are certain threshholds that one restrains from pulling) we need to be introduced to her shrink at some point.

Also, nothing Creed said was funny, but his mannerisms with greeting a group of minors in a bar that he had produced fake ID’s for, was definitely in character. I like how he manages to only get one scene every week and it’s always memorable.

Only a couple decent lines:

“Why don’t I want to go? I don’t know any of these people, its an obligation. I don’t like talking about paper with my free time. Did I use the word pointless?” -Jim

“You don’t have to Jan, this contract says it all.” -Michael, after Jan said she doesn’t love him.

I would like this show to stick to the Seinfeld adage of comedy always taking precedent, but I feel it’s drifting away from that. Anyone else have any thoughts? Am I being too critical?