The First Post and NBC's The Office

(It should be noted that I wrote this first post on March 21, 2010. I didn't immediately post it because it was more of a test run and I got very busy soon after writing it. The episode I review is relatively old, but the sentiments are still relevant. Enjoy.)

It was my fiancée that first encouraged me to write this blog. Actually I shouldn’t say she encouraged me to write this blog in its current incarnation. More accurately, she encouraged me to write something. The seed of this blog was a conversation we had while grocery shopping a month or two ago before I started teaching. Her concern was that, in the hours I was not working, I was consuming a great deal of media (T.V., movies, books, video games, etc.) but not giving back. It was, actually, eerily similar to a conversation from the movie High Fidelity (2000) between the protagonist and his girlfriend (I do realize it was a novel before becoming a movie, I’m just not certain the same conversation took place in the book as well). In a nutshell, protagonist’s girlfriend urges her cranky, snobby, music-store-owning boyfriend that he should start a record label to put something out there rather than just sitting back and being a critic. Granted, I’m certainly not cranky, snobby, nor a music store owner, but after considering my fiancée’s words, taking the past month or two to mull it over, and reading the blogs of some good friends, I decided to start what you have before you. It is true that I'm not exactly putting something new out into the world (there's a city filled with people far more talented at that than I am not 100 miles away), but honestly, I just really like talking about this stuff.

So, for my first review of the first entry of my first blog, I’ve decided to go with a good standby: NBC’s The Office. This episode, entitled New Leads, deals with more of the changes brought about by Dunder Mifflin’s purchase by Sabre with the main story revolving around the elevated position of importance the sales staff has moved into since the acquisition, and their subsequent fall from grace in the eyes of their officemates when they start getting too big for their britches.

While certainly not a brilliant episode, seeing such beta personalities as Phyllis, Stanley, and Andy start pushing around the other people in the office is pretty entertaining. Even Jim seems to be letting things go to his head as he also pushes Michael for the new sales leads Sabre corporate is supposed to be sending them. With all this setup, it’s equally entertaining to see Michael’s creative solution to the problem. Since I want to keep this blog a spoiler-free zone (at least relatively), suffice it to say it is fitting. My only issue with the episode, which really functions as a microcosm of the series itself, is how quickly the office dynamic regains its sense of normalcy. Or at least what passes for normalcy in this particular office.

Over the past year, I’ve come to feel that a show should really strive to change its stakes periodically. While this can be a risky move for any show, simply pushing things along as they are indefinitely is not only a sure-fire way to make people lose interest, but it’s also a lost opportunity to tell some really great stories. In the case of the Office, the merger with Sabre (really more of a buyout) was handled both well and not so well. Good in that it preserved the core dynamic of the show (Michael = bumbling, yet endearing; Jim and Pam’s romance; off-the-wall antics from the wonderful side characters, etc.) which probably makes the NBC suits sleep very well at night, and in that it introduced some interesting new characters and possible situations. Bad in that the changes were either cosmetic (new corporate bosses, but really how different are they?), or they brought things back to the way they were before (Jim is no longer co-manager).

While the series is still quite enjoyable (as was this episode), I can’t help but wonder if perhaps the show should be nearing its end sometime in the foreseeable future. If the show’s writers are really having that much trouble making changes that stick to the show’s dynamic, then perhaps it may be better to end the show sooner rather than dragging it out beyond its relevancy. My guess is that kind of decision is still a few years out for The Office seeing as how Michael, Dwight, and Andy haven’t yet paired off and settled down with worthy female counterparts (speaking of which, any chance of getting Amy Ryan back on the show?). Until then, I don’t doubt the show has enough stories to keep it going at a level of quality at least meeting that of other television sitcoms, if not exceeding it. What remains to be seen is how long the show can keep going at such quality levels without making those big changes. For now, though, I'll be content to keep tuning in, and enjoying.