I have watched The Office for nine years and will miss it terribly when it ends in May. When Michael Scott (played by the remarkable Steve Carell) left the show in its seventh season, people complained that the show became too uneven. However, I thought the show just became more of an ensemble, playing with its host of crazy characters at the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company and offering up different permutations of wackiness that made for some especially memorable episodes. Now, in its final season, the show is breaking all the rules and delivering brilliantly compelling television.
The original UK Office popularized the "mockumentary" format, where characters are being filmed by some anonymous film crew and occasionally speak to the camera to discuss their motivations or thoughts. It's very familiar now, seen on Modern Family and Twenty Twelve to name a few, but The Office has always made particularly good use of this format. The "talking heads," i.e. scenes when characters are talking directly to the camera, aren't just used for exposition but are often the moments of memorable plot development. One moment that comes to mind is the Season 3 finale when Pam is talking about how she and Jim will never get together because their timing was always off, only to have Jim burst in to ask her out. In the Season 4 premiere, they deny they are a couple, only to be confronted with footage the documentary crew stealthily filmed of the two of them together. This one-minute scene alone is worth a few dozen Emmys.
So it is only fitting that the final season has raised the stakes for Jim and Pam. Their slow-burning romance that blossomed into a full-fledged relationship that led to marriage and a couple of kids has always been a cornerstone of The Office, the storyline that kept viewers coming back for more. Now that the show is ending, the writers are testing that relationship one last time. Two weeks ago, Jim and Pam had a big fight over the phone. Pam hangs up and starts to sob. The camera continues to film her until Brian intervenes. Who is Brian? He's the sound guy of the anonymous documentary crew that has been filming The Office for the past nine years.
It's astonishing that after nine years, the audience is only now acknowledging the existence of the film crew. Of course we always knew they were there, but they seemed like non-entities whose stories couldn't possibly matter as much as the stories of the characters who work at Dunder Mifflin. But it turns out they do. Because as last week revealed, Brian has been developing feelings for Pam over the past nine years, and now that she and Jim are skidding into a rough patch, Brian might become a part of their story.
Jim and Pam can't break up, because their relationship is the one constant on a show that has faced a lot of upheaval. Yet Brian is a pretty serious threat and I cannot wait to see how this story will unfold. More importantly, I cannot wait to see more of the film crew and discover how they have been interacting with the show's characters behind the scenes. As Pam and Brian's friendship demonstrates, the film crew are only unknown to us, the audience. The show's characters have been interacting with them for years and who knows where those relationships might lead?
If you stopped watching The Office in recent seasons, I can only exhort you to watch these final episodes. Start with this one and keep going. And tune in every Thursday night until the finale, because there is nothing more fascinating than watching a brilliant show deconstruct itself with balletic precision as it nears its inevitable conclusion.
The original UK Office popularized the "mockumentary" format, where characters are being filmed by some anonymous film crew and occasionally speak to the camera to discuss their motivations or thoughts. It's very familiar now, seen on Modern Family and Twenty Twelve to name a few, but The Office has always made particularly good use of this format. The "talking heads," i.e. scenes when characters are talking directly to the camera, aren't just used for exposition but are often the moments of memorable plot development. One moment that comes to mind is the Season 3 finale when Pam is talking about how she and Jim will never get together because their timing was always off, only to have Jim burst in to ask her out. In the Season 4 premiere, they deny they are a couple, only to be confronted with footage the documentary crew stealthily filmed of the two of them together. This one-minute scene alone is worth a few dozen Emmys.
So it is only fitting that the final season has raised the stakes for Jim and Pam. Their slow-burning romance that blossomed into a full-fledged relationship that led to marriage and a couple of kids has always been a cornerstone of The Office, the storyline that kept viewers coming back for more. Now that the show is ending, the writers are testing that relationship one last time. Two weeks ago, Jim and Pam had a big fight over the phone. Pam hangs up and starts to sob. The camera continues to film her until Brian intervenes. Who is Brian? He's the sound guy of the anonymous documentary crew that has been filming The Office for the past nine years.
It's astonishing that after nine years, the audience is only now acknowledging the existence of the film crew. Of course we always knew they were there, but they seemed like non-entities whose stories couldn't possibly matter as much as the stories of the characters who work at Dunder Mifflin. But it turns out they do. Because as last week revealed, Brian has been developing feelings for Pam over the past nine years, and now that she and Jim are skidding into a rough patch, Brian might become a part of their story.
Jim and Pam can't break up, because their relationship is the one constant on a show that has faced a lot of upheaval. Yet Brian is a pretty serious threat and I cannot wait to see how this story will unfold. More importantly, I cannot wait to see more of the film crew and discover how they have been interacting with the show's characters behind the scenes. As Pam and Brian's friendship demonstrates, the film crew are only unknown to us, the audience. The show's characters have been interacting with them for years and who knows where those relationships might lead?
If you stopped watching The Office in recent seasons, I can only exhort you to watch these final episodes. Start with this one and keep going. And tune in every Thursday night until the finale, because there is nothing more fascinating than watching a brilliant show deconstruct itself with balletic precision as it nears its inevitable conclusion.
No comments:
Post a Comment