M. ([info]m_supercomputer) wrote,
@ 2007-10-05 12:16:00
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Current mood: pleased

The Office and 30 Rock!
OMG, DWIGHT AND ANGELA CAN'T BREAK UP. Apologies for the capslock, but - man! I can't believe that's the relationship I'm crazy overinvested in, but they really are perfect for each other. I mean, yes, fine, Jim and Pam are completely adorable as a regular happy couple, and I can't even blame Angela for dumping him, but. Sad!

Also sad: *Toby* doing something dickish and unlikable, because I never thought that would happen.

And is there any man in that office that doesn't have some kind of thing for Pam? I think at this point it's just Stanley (happily married & mostly hates everyone there anyway), Oscar (gay), and Dwight, who's, well, Dwight.

Michael being dumb enough to drive his car into a lake worries me a bit. He's always been pretty stupid, no one's arguing that, but that's really too broad to work on this show. Don't start drifting into mediocrity, show!

But, overall, awesomeness. Ryan the self-involved poseur with Kevin and Andy as his fanboys! (Andy: "He smells what I think Pierce Brosnan probably smells like.") The feral barn cat! (Dwight: "We call him Garbage, because that's what he eats - garbage! *baby voice* Yes, you do!") Creed dying his hair with toner! Kelly lying about being pregnant and not understanding why Ryan would be mad about it! Ryan sleazily trying to hit on Pam! Jan being sane! Jan and Ryan's bitchy putdown fight - "I love your little beard. You should keep it *forever.*" Something about the deadpan delivery just *killed* me. And the Dwight/Angela bits were of course really well done, they were just so *depressing.*

Also, all of you should totally watch 30 Rock - I think it's the funniest comedy on TV now, no question. I love it to little bits, so I have no comments except, Liz! Tracy! Jack! Kenneth!! Yay!

And quote time:

Jack: All of my summer replacement shows were big hits: America's Next Top Pirate, Are You Stronger Than a Dog?, MILF Island --
Liz: MILF Island?
Jack: Twenty-five super-hot moms, fifty eighth-grade boys, no rules.

Jack: Lemon, women your age are more likely to be mauled at the zoo then get married.

Jenna: What, you never pretended to be a bride when you were a little girl?
Liz: No,I did. I just never romanticized it.
*flashback* Young Liz: [holding up two teddy bears] This is my husband, Saul Rosenbear, and this is his son Richard from a previous marriage.
Liz in the present day: And then he cheated on me with a lamb.

Liz: This is my year. Floyd's moving on, I'm moving on too, I'm just doing it in my own order. I'm gonna get the wedding dress, & then I'm gonna have a baby, & then I'm gonna die, & then I'm gonna meet a super cute guy in heaven.

And some of my favorites from previous episodes:

Jenna: There is no way that I am working with that guy. Do you know that he once got arrested for walking naked through LaGuardia?
Liz: Yeah.
Jenna: And that he once fell asleep on Ted Danson's roof?
Liz: Yeah, Tracy has mental health issues.
Jenna: He bit Dakota Fanning on the face!
Liz: When you hear his version, she was kinda askin' for it.

Jack: The Italians have a saying, Lemon. 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer'. And although they've never won a war or mass-produced a decent car, in this area they are correct. In five years we'll all either be working for him...or dead by his hand.

Tracy: So, here's some advice I wish I woulda got when I was your age: Live every week like it's Shark Week.

Liz: [about her assistant's scantily-clad appearance] That's it. I gotta talk to her about her clothes, she can't dress like that.
Pete: [defensively] Well, yes, she can! People like the way she dresses!
Liz: Oh, c'mon. It's distracting, it's inappropriate.
Pete: [desperate] You're inappropriate, you jerk, with your big stupid face!

Tracy: I could talk about how the moon is a spy satellite put there by Oprah and Minister Farrakhan, and not the Minister Farrakhan you are thinking of.

Dr. Spaceman: But, what can you do? Medicine's not a science.

Tracy: This is untoward! This is not "toward!"

Jack: When I was your age, I was putting myself through college in Boston paddling swan boats for the tourists.
Kenneth: Is that a euphemism for some kind of sex worker?

Kenneth: That lady you European-kissed last night was actually a gentlemen.

Jack: Good lord! The worm - that's so degrading. Are its origins German?

Tracy: [as Jefferson] Pray who be this Tracy Jordan thou speakest of?
Frank: Uh, President Jefferson, we got a problem.
Tracy: Speakest!
Frank: That horse ate your wig.
Tracy: Well, stand guard by his rump and await it in his droppings!
Lutz: Or we could probably just go get a new wig?
Tracy: Aha! I like you young man; you shall run my university.

Colleen: Tell him his mother's here! And she loves him! ...But not in a queer way!


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[info]magnetmind
2007-10-06 12:00 am UTC (link)
First things first: I <3 Jim + Pam. Seriously, I have not been this emotionally invested in a TV couple since Xena and Gabrielle. And unlike Jim and Pam, they were pretty much always together. Had things not worked out between Jim and Pam, I don't know how I could have gone on.

More importantly, I <3 <3 <3 the writers for thus far avoiding so many stupid sitcom traps. They could have tried to string the romantic tension out for the whole series (or at least for years to come), with Pam and Jim never both being single at the same time, but they didn't. After getting them together, they could have gone the "will they be discovered?" route, with Pam and Jim both determined to keep their relationship a secret, but the truth came out about as quickly as it would in real life. Ryan was quickly dismissed as a potential romantic rival. (I loved Jim's quiet "I guess he can't get any girl he wants.") And I don't think they're going to try the pregnancy scare trick, since they already spoofed that with Kelly's surprise announcement.

For once in the history of television, it looks like they're actually going to let the big romantic tension couple have a happy relationship and just get on with the rest of the show.

I think the burden of romantic drama has now shifted to Dwight and Angela. Dwight is no quitter, and I predict he'll make several more attempts to win her back. Maybe it will even work out between them in the end.

I don't feel that anyone other than Jim and Toby has ever had a serious interest in Pam. (Ryan didn't seem to care anything about her before, so I don't think his dinner invitation meant much.) Andy's initial interest seems to have faded after a couple of episodes. He, Michael, Kevin, and Creed would probably all agree that she's "hot", but in the fishbowl of life at the office there are really only three reasonably attractive young women...and two of them are extremely irritating. Pam wins the role of Office Babe by default.

Andy seems to understand the basics of the fishbowl principle, hence his pleasure at Jim and Pam's relationship -- "Jim's off the market. Guess who just became the best looking single guy in the office?" Although he probably wouldn't be so happy if he stopped to think about what single women remain.

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[info]m_supercomputer
2007-10-08 10:41 pm UTC (link)
They did do a really great job avoiding most of the pitfalls, and I am loving the Jim/Pam-cuteness. But, hm, I can't say I'm not a bit worried for the show. Probably prematurely, but still. The somewhat formulaic Karen-Pam tension and them making Karen so much less sympathetic at the end, combined with Jan's really sudden breakdown, made me wonder if they were getting a bit off-track. Especially considering that, earlier in the season, Karen and Pam had a nice friendship and rapport - and Karen didn't really need to become more unlikable to make Jim realize her prefers Pam. Relatively minor, but still seemingly a bit of a pattern.

I'm reassured by Jan's calmly commanding scene with Ryan, though - hopefully this means they plan to build her back up. And Karen's supposed to come back for a few episodes, so hopefully they plan to close up her story on an up note for her, because I thought she was such an awesome character.

Maybe Andy becoming the most attractive single guy in the office means Kelly/Andy, which would be *excellent.* You just know they love the same movies and songs, and he'd totally love doing all the good boyfriend stuff Ryan was such a jerk about.

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[info]magnetmind
2007-10-10 02:33 am UTC (link)
I didn't feel that Karen even became really unsympathetic, although I did manage to miss last season's finale TWICE so I don't know what she did then. But I think any ordinary sitcom would have given Karen some terrible flaw early on that would make the audience hate her, or at least played up some major incompatibility between her and Jim (like maybe he wanted kids and she didn't). Instead they made her a cool, smart, attractive woman who Jim might have been happy enough with if he wasn't already in love with Pam.

I think the increasing tension between Karen and Pam was realistic, because Karen was gradually realizing that this was the case. If Jim's feelings for Pam had truly been unrequited that might have been one thing, but Karen had reason to suspect the truth about Pam as well. So I can see why she'd become increasingly frustrated and unhappy, especially since she'd transferred to Scranton to be with Jim.

I had also been worried by Jan's descent into madness, and was very pleased to see her more like her old self last week. Maybe she's ditched that therapist that always seemed to be giving her bad advice.

Kelly/Andy would be HILARIOUS, although I think they're probably too much alike for it to work long term. I can totally see Kelly breaking up with him for being too clingy and talking non-stop about stupid stuff!

And although I know this will never happen, it occurred to me while reading your post that Jan/Karen might be an interesting combination. I mean, Jan must be re-evaluating her previous life decisions, Karen's newly single and seemed open-minded about the whole schoolgirl fantasy thing...

I'd feel bad for Michael of course, but if he managed to send a photo of THAT to all the guys in packing then he'd probably be their hero!

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[info]m_supercomputer
2007-10-10 02:24 pm UTC (link)
The only Karen scenes that really bothered me were both in the finale. First, they had Karen talking-head that Pam is "kind of a bitch," which is kind of understandable from her perspective but seemed like they were trying too hard to turn audience sympathy away from Karen, to me. And then in New York, Karen was interviewing with the CFO when Jan came in and had her breakdown, and Karen was openly grinning/amused. Then, afterwards, Jim said, "Oh, I feel kind of bad for her," and Karen laughed and said, "Don't, she's nuts!" So, there was this kind of previously-unshown meanness there that kind of bothered me when it was already obvious which way Jim was leaning.

And, true, the show is generally really good at avoiding these kind of overkill moments, and I do respect that they made Karen such a generally positive character. I guess that made those two things especially jarring, because I didn't expect it of them.

Hee! Now if they don't do a Kelly-is-unable-to-take-Andy's-clinginess thing, I will be very sad.

Ooh, Jan/Karen, I could see that. They would totally take over the world if both of them were on their A-game.

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[info]magnetmind
2007-10-06 01:27 am UTC (link)
Oh, I thought Michael driving the car into the lake was excessively stupid too, but on another forum I read there were some good points made:

1) There have been real cases of people following their car navigation systems into a body of water, albeit not quite as boneheadedly as this.

2) This may have been a case not of Michael being an outright idiot, but Michael doing something idiotic to make a point. Could he have driven the car into the lake on purpose so he'd have an example of technology gone wrong? It didn't really seem that way to me, but this is a man who was willing to jump off the roof to make an even sillier point so it's not totally implausible.

Even advocates of #2 felt it was still a stupid scene that detracted from the episode, but this interpretation does make it seem less ridiculous.

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[info]m_supercomputer
2007-10-08 10:26 pm UTC (link)
Hm, that does make sense, I just wish it'd been made clearer on the show if that was their intention. I guess it's mostly an expectation problem - the show's so great with the realism most of the time that this just stood out extra-glaringly.

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[info]m_supercomputer
2007-10-08 10:44 pm UTC (link)
...and that should be "that *he* prefers Pam." Freudian slip, possibly, since I do ship Pam/Karen just a bit.

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