Not true. Constantly increasing wackiness makes for bad comedy, yes, but like I was saying, comedy thrives on surprise, so you have to do something different from what you did last week. A lot of the time, that translates into greater silliness. I’m not saying it’s a good thing, but sometimes it looks like a natural law.
Having recently watched Season 1 again, I kind of agree. I think that unbelievable buffonery is always a problem that the writers have had with Michael’s character, although the frequency with which it occurs is probably getting worse. I’m able to chalk stuff like “Baskeball” up to the show being young and finding its legs, whereas I’m less inclined to buy something like Michael putting himself in a straight-jacket as a magic performance for his employees.
It’s always been a problem I have with the show, really. Though I love it when the humor is dry and down-to-earth, I think that it too often veers into zaniness, and when that happens it totally loses me. The thing with the animal gods from the season premire, for instance, was like the show hitting a brick wall.
To each his own. I would tend to agree with your overall comments, BUT for some reason Steve Carrell’s delivery of the hypothetical animal gods just slayed me.
The thing is, though, that while Ricky Gervaise’s character was dim and oblivious, he was more believable as a real human being rather than simply an over-the-top caricature. He wasn’t so far beyond the realm of the normal as to require complete suspension of disbelief. Michael Scott, on the other hand, is a lot more unbelievable.
I still watch The Office, because i like a lot of the other characters, and because there are still enough funny lines, even from Michael, to make me laugh. But it’s actually a lot of the minor characters i find most appealing. Kevin cracks me up. So does Creed. I wish Kelly got more lines. And Angela is also really good.
I wish there was just a tiny bit more balance in these percentages. Not much. Maybe 90/10. I wish they would surprise us with just a bit more positivity - I loved that he was a good hockey skater, for example.
You know what I DO hate. How mean he is to Toby. It’s just TOO MUCH! Poor Toby. :mad:
I wonder if the buffonery of Michael Scoot was perhaps amplifed by the increasingly detatched and ironic commentary of Jim and Pam. Did anyone else think their main purpose last night was to serve as something of a Greek chorus for the usual office antics?
I know this has been Jim’s role for a while–especially when his matter-of-fact commentary underscores the idiocy of Dwight–and Pam’s character has always been a stand-in for the audience reaction over the latest crazy scheme, but last night these two were particularly over-the-top. Pam’s consolation to the disabled-from-vomiting Michael during the fun run was the topper for me; I’m surprised the two of them didn’t ascend bodily into comedy heaven afterwards.
I think the writers really need to start giving them a few of their own idiosyncrasies and leaven what could become a very preachy role: The fun couple everyone else is secretly jealous of.
I even liked the initial “giving sacrifice to some sort of animal” line, but I thought the descriptions of the various anial gods went on foreeeever.
*Edited because I got this thread confused with the thread about the season premire. Whoops!
I agree with those who say that his behavior stretches back to the beginning of the series. I feel like the writers, however infrequently, give us explanations as to why he hasn’t been canned.
[ul]
[li]The early episode when Michael met at corporate with the other branch managers and showed his “Faces of Scranton” video (or something like that ) set to U2 showed that even though he might be bizzare, enough of his counterparts are incompetent enough (the guy who showed up without his sales stats) to keep Michael from getting the boot.[/li][li]He hadn’t asked for a raise in something like over a decade, which probably makes him “cost effective” even if he is flawed.[/li][li]He was Ryan’s supposed mentor, who is now at corporate[/li][li]During the job interview Jan stole Michael’s I’m crazy and should be fired thunder[/li][/ul]
It’s those moments that ground the show enough in reality for me to keep me watching… that and the rest of the cast. That being said, I understand what people are saying. I don’t know if this is something new about Michael, but it can definitely be frustrating some times.
I’ve only seen two episodes of the show, the one where they play basketball and when one of the guys is put in charge of picking a health insurance plan.
To be honest, I’m not sure what people see in the show. Maybe I’m missing something or it’s just a type of humor that doesn’t appeal to me but I don’t find the show all that funny.
Hell, “Diversity Day” is the second episode, and it’s hard to imagine more dense, stupid, bumbling behavior than a manager quoting a comedy routine including the word “nigger,” then “making it better” by having all the employees pretend to be of various ethnicities and encouraging a game of IDing them by trotting out racist stereotypes.
You know, come to think of it, most of us have probably been distracted enough while driving to hit someone, if the circumstances had been correct. It’s arguable that running over Meredith is one of the most *normal *things he’s done!
And I think his reactions to the Meredith situation fall into his usual categories: pathological need to be liked and considered a good guy; attendant need to try and slough off any negative that might be attached to him (e.g., downsizing, switching health care plans); insatiable need for attention; and general cluelessness about how the world works (e.g., buying his condo, “dinkin’ flicka,” jumping off the roof).
I love the show but I cannot watch this episode again. His behaviour is just too painful to sit through. I’d argue that this was the “peak” of his character and nothing that has been done since has been as bad.
This is why I love Michael Scott. He may be a complete buffoon most of the time, but that 3% is just wonderful. When he landed that sale from Don Cheadle’s character, you can see in Jan’s smile “That’s why we keep him around.”. The old video of young Michael on the kids’ show nearly broke my heart. This 3% shows us exactly why he is how he is and where he is. It adds a huge dimension to the character, and redefines all of his buffoonery.
The escalation of his antics isn’t surprising. Comedy can either progress along the absurdity curve and risk being too over-the-top, or remain at the same level and risk becoming stale. At least the The Office’s writers are taking the more daring route.
Nitpick: Max the Immortal, that was Tim Meadows, not Don Cheadle.
(Channelling Dwight) False. That was Tim Meadows. (EDITED: beaten like a pinata.)
Yes, exactly. There’s something childlike and charming in Michael, despite his incredible immaturity and clueless insensitivity. Personally I would up the percentage to 10% at least, especially over the course of season 3. Look at the positive attributes seen that season:
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He’s continually shown himself to be an excellent salesman. In The Convention he successfully wrangled a deal with Hammermill, despite their previously having been exclusive to Staples. In The Initiation, he also got a huge deal with “the Cos” even while being understandably distracted by Pretzel Day. He was also doing very well on the sales call in Traveling Salesmen, until Andy screwed things up that is.
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He managed to charm Jan even though she pretty much has no respect for him whatsoever.
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Despite being such a pig to Phyllis in Women’s Appreciation, Michael’s also shown a lot of naivete and innocence. In WA he’s revealed to have had only three sexual partners, and he showed his discomfort with Jan’s sexual kinks (but he went through with them anyway, presumably because he wants so to be loved). I thought his dependence on “his girls” during the mall scene (and in The Job’s conference room scene) was incredibly touching.
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His obvious love for children and family, seen in Cocktail when he tells Jan how much he wants the whole thing – tickling, ketchup fights, etc.
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His genuine support of Pam by being the only person to encourage and appreciate her art exhibit, as seen in Business School. (Oscar showed up to the art show too, but he wasn’t nearly as supportive.) His telling Pam how proud he was of her was one of the most touching moments ever.
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In The Job, look how supportive of Jan he was, and also even after the embarrassment of being told he wasn’t going to get the job, he was able to stand up for Jim and Karen, generously telling the CFO that either one of them would be a great choice.
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As jerky as he can be to Dwight (who, let’s face it, earns a lot of Michael’s scorn), in The Return Michael showed loyalty and apologized to Dwight for not trusting him.
Really there are redeeming moments for Michael in almost every episode, and it helps that Carell is so brilliant at showing the needy, wounded side of the man. I can’t imagine thinking he’s a bad actor – to the contrary, anyone who can take a character from using a finger as a penis obliviously imitating a flasher to genuine, innocent vulnerability when revealing that his girlfriend still loves him though she shows videotapes of him to her shrink shows amazing range.
So with all these moments evidenced in S3, including some of the latest episodes, I don’t see last night’s episode of buffoonery as being proof of a trend. Yet.
(BTW, if anyone’s only seen the show’s first season, you should give it another try – it really doesn’t grow into something amazing until S2.)
My mistake. God, I’m such a racist.
Actually, if there’s one aspect of The Office that has really disappointed me since late last season, it’s Jan’s transformation from serious professional with a few issues into a full-on crazy person.
I really liked it when she was Michael’s immediate superior, and they weren’t going out. The interplay between the two characters was always fun to watch. She’s much less interesting now, i think. I guess they might try to pick up the slack with Ryan, now that he’s made the move to Corporate, but i miss Jan’s earlier persona.
I just watched the first three seasons on DVD over the past few weeks, and Michael’s behavior last night seemed pretty consistent to me. Michael and Dwight are my two least favorite characters. They’re funny when used sparingly; unfortunately they aren’t used sparingly. But the show is worth watching for the rest of the crew.
The DVDs have a lot of extra scenes, by the way. Several minutes of footage for almost every episode. Of course they do include a lot of extra Michael Scott monologues.
I almost stopped watching after the first couple of episodes, because it seemed like a weak imitation of the UK version. It got much better.
The first season was pretty shaky in my opinion. I didn’t really care for those episodes until I’d seen most of season 2 and season 3. Give some of the season 2 episodes a shot - by then, the humor was a lot more refined, the heart of the characters got much deeper, and the general feel was more comic and less “cringe-inducing”.
Jesus Christ. Tonights episode just solidified what I said. I thought the whole thing where he brought in the founder of DM and his speech were totally assinine and unbelievable enough, but when he drove his car into a lake because his GPS told him to even though Dwight kept telling him not to…give me a break.
Jim and Pam are becoming unlikable too due to being very high faluting and snooty.
They better move forward with the Keving and Creed storylines or this season will suck.
He drove the car into the lake on purpose. He was trying to make a point about technology by exaggerating how literally he followed the directions. I don’t think his intentions were communicated very well by the writing, but I do believe that’s what it was.