Grid Effect

As great as it is to have a full slate of television to watch at least two nights a week, between having four different series’ to recap here, my usual detail at my work in addition to this tax audit; I’m not saying I’m capable of murder right now, but, well…lets just leave it at I’m not capable of murder. Three more recaps today, we’ll try to do so in a timely fashion.

The Office episode last night kind of highlighted the tonal issues that many seem to have with Michael Scott. Over the course of the series, many feel his antics have reached a point of annoyance or deemed him completely unforgivable. While we slowly adjusted and began to find him more tolerable even as his behavior worsened (it was at its peak when they kidnapped that pizza boy), many didn’t. And the writers seemed to have intentionally pinpointed  how unrealistic and intolerable his behavior is for an actual office setting.

When they brought in Amy Ryan at the end of last season as their new HR representative from corporate, the intention was obviously to turn her into a love interest for Michael, given the dichotomy between him and anyone who attempts to maintain a semblance of order. In other words, everything that happened last night was bound to happen at some point: Butting heads over office behavior, disagreements over disciplinary actions, etc. Making the leap though, and turning them into an “item” is a little far-fetched if they insist on having both of them on camera for an extended period of time.

It shouldn't happen, but probably will.

It has worked in the past with the realtor because most of their relationship happened off-camera, so we could suspend disbelief long enough to actually by into the fact that Michael has a level-headed girlfriend. With Jan, she is obviously desperate and lacking options, and her courtship of Michael was always more manipulative than anything else (and still currently is). But with Holly who is neither manipulative nor “normal” in the classical sense, instead she is just something of a dork, they have exemplified the problem with Michael. Because while Holly is nothing short of a full blown geek and occasionally awkward, Michael is borderline unstable and socially dysfunctional.

Any actual romance between the two would result in one of two conclusions: 1) It is short lived. After Holly understands Michael’s regular office demeanor she would have to leave him, either as the HR rep, his girlfriend or both. The two couldn’t actually work together given the, um…differing opinions on leadership style and office conduct. and 2) Michael actually reforms. This isn’t Mad Men or The Sopranos, so their isn’t any theme in place along of the lines of “people never change”, but is The Office still The Office with a buttoned down, straight and narrow Michael, who is basically Lumberg from Office Space?

They seemed to hint at that last night when Michael forced his staff into the conference room (that is after threatening to kill everyone) and Holly read her binder without any interruptions or “suggestions” from Michael to keep everyone “entertained”. Having Michael stand-up for her after his “How do you tell someone you care about: ‘I told you so’”? camera interview when corporate sided with him to let Meredith continue sleeping with their supplier for discounted paper was a nice touch to take the series in a different direction. If that is indeed what they are trying to do. But lest anyone (especially Holly) forget that Michael was the cause of the problem in the first place.

Other notes from this “Business Ethics”:

-Good to see Meredith highlighted in all her depraved glory, she seems to be the most frequently slighted character in the subplots and episodes that encompass the entire office. To be honest, we’re not sure how much of her we could handle if she got as much face time as Angela. Her line about why she wanted the Outback coupons (”it just made me feel good about myself”) was probably one of the funnier yet simultaneously more depressing lines in the series to date.

-Jim’s prank, well, it wasn’t really a prank just an elaborate and casual fuck you to Dwight; was some of the better interaction we’ve seen between the two pretend rivals. We also like how it ran into Angela’s affair with Dwight, and his gleefully evil mugging to the camera.

Overall, we enjoyed “Business Ethics”, namely because it was loaded with good lines, showed a remarkable understanding of the characters and the acting was superb (it’s always been good, but the arrival of Amy Ryan seems to have forced everyone to pick up their game).

Between Mad Men, It’s Always Sunny and Survivor, we’ll try to get to two of them today.