It's Official
Like any show that deals with relationships, The Office, which just had its season premiere, could be hard to sustain, since things have to move forward, but when they do the show can lose the dynamic that made it appealing to begin with.
The following will contain spoilers, if anyone cares.
Fans wondered what might happen to series regular Ryan who, last season, left the Scranton branch, became a bigshot VP and then was arrested. The show's solution to keeping him around was to return him to the office and make him the receptionist. This is pretty silly.
Also, it looks like actor Rich Sommer might be a regular. For a while it even looked like he might be yet another competitor for Pam's affection. But then Jim finally proposed. This is where sitcoms often get in trouble, since it's the pursuit that's the fun part. One would expect there'll be trouble ahead, so perhaps Sommer's not out of the picture yet. The main reason I brought him up, though, is he's better known these days as Harry Crane on Mad Men. It's always fun when those actors pop up on other shows with newer hairstyles.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:07 AM
3 Comments:
As a fan, I followed the Jim-Pam thing (c'mon, she's so damn adorable and he's a middle finger to the work ethic) but I find myself resenting the plotty stuff taking away from the silliness. Its OK whatever they do with those two as long as it doesn't interfere.
Ryan as receptionist is stupid but it gets him back in the mix, so the plot stretch isn't all that important.(How about the other stretches where most attractive intelligent women are clinically insane and somehow attracted to the goofball boss) Interesting now how the only reasonable character representing common sense (used to be Ryan Jan and Toby at different times ) is Oscar the gay accountant. My sense is he will get whacky this year
The Office has seemed to realize the problem with resolving the Jim-Pam relationship -- which was effectively done when they got together at the beginning of last season. The series dealt with this by making the Angela-Dwight-Andy triangle the center of tension for all of last season. I found this ingenious. (It's hard to believe that they could make us care, even a little bit, about 3 such difficult people, but they pulled it off, in my opinion.)
It seems clear that Jim and Pam's engagement will not be smooth-going, and more plot-twists will occur -- probably their relationship will involve significantly more tension this year than it did last season.
I thought the Ryan-as-receptionist line was within reason. They have well-established Michael as extremely sentimental and attached to former employees in general and Ryan in particular. Ryan is home, presumably living with his parents and has to work. The temp-job was his not very long ago, and if they want to send him where he has been requested, he pretty much has to go. Perhaps the most unlikely things would be (1) the temp agency would re-hire someone with a criminal record and (2) Dunder Mifflin would accept Ryan back on the payroll in any capacity.
Overall, I think the series has dealt pretty smartly with the inherent problem of dragging out a two-season plot (English version) over a much longer timeframe.
Not just two-season plot. The British version had twelve episodes (plus a special)--which was essentially David Brent's rise and fall. In fact, one problem I have with an ongoing Office is how the lead incompetent guy doesn't get fired.
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