I recently completed my binge of the comedy sitcom, The Office, on Netflix. I have to be honest, when the show was on air, I did not give it consideration, mainly because I was still in high school at the time, and had totally misunderstood the premise of the show. I remember thinking to my "uncultured teenage" self, "who would want to watch a show about a bunch of old folks working in an office, what could possibly be funny about that??". Needless to say, I watched a lot VH1 back in my high school days. I'm not sure if the show finally caught my attention because I, myself, am now the same age as the two characters of the main storyline, and have had my fair share of office work, or that I can now appreciate decent story writing, but after seeing it appear in my suggested titles category on my Netflix account I finally decided to have an open mind about the show. Well to be totally honest, I had previously binged The Mindy Project as well, and was a bit curious to see where Mindy Kaling had received her first big creative start. Eitherway, I believe, all of these incidents worked in unison to inspire me to sit on my sofa a couple of hours throughout the course of four months to consume Greg Daniels' series.
On the surface, the series is considered comedic, with Michael Scott's inadvertent obnoxious attempts to boost workplace morale, Jim and Pam's whimsical pranks, Dwight's obsession with power, and the rest of the characters' shenanigans. Below the comedic surface, the show is laced with drama; with some characters incessantly searching for love, while others continually deny or sabotage their love relationships, office rivalries, a looming and ultimately economic downsize, and the personal baggage that often times clocks into work along with our characters.
However, at a deeper look, the series was an insightful portrayal of human behavior, in terms of how we build relationships, make decisions, process thoughts and feelings, and eventually evolve.
Though, not all the characters in the series got their just due, in terms of character development and story. For instance, most characters' stories do revolve around their love lives, and some characters like Dwight, Andy, Oscar and Ryan having very interesting storylines that extended past just their love lives. However, it was interesting to see how the prudent Angela Martin, becomes lenient with her morals. (though she was always a hypocrite), or how wallflower Phyllis becomes more outspoken and confident (both personally and in sales). I will say that some characters were just done dirty in terms of "character underdevelopment" or "character regression" (if those are even literary terms). For instance I didnt care too much for the fact that Kelly, (Mindy Kaling's character), was first being introduced to us as a young professionally oriented worker, but then within the same season quickly became portrayed as a boy obsessed "adolescent-like" primadonna, or how Kevin, though he initially was being portrayed as the office's underachiever, just continually regressed into a fumbling airhead. Ah, but I guess every show will have those sorts of "character regressions", in order to make it view-worthy.
In any case, for those of you who are like me, or how I used to be, and are unsure of the comedy of this show, or if you are convinced this show will not provoke you to laugh, I hope my perspective will help you reconsider as I do recommend it as a worthy binge!
