[QUOTE=DtC]
Kudos to B.J. Novak for both writing and performing what started as kind a throw away character into a compelling and believable heel. He’s very realistic. Everybody has worked with or for this exact type of douche.
[/quote]
100% agree; last night’s episode was an especially good example because he was able to be so smug and slimy in a fairly limited scene with Michael (we don’t, for example, see his face in the private conversation).
Ryan’s character is fairly well-done; he’s not over-the-top, yet we can see in hundreds of tiny details just how slimy he is.
[QUOTE=ftg]
If they could only make Michael a bit smarter (once in a while). There was a really good chance for “payback” near the end of the deposition. If both the Big Boss and Jan didn’t think much of Michael, then why was Jan the one that was fired? Her assessment wasn’t out of line with the Big Boss’s so maybe she was not so crazy after all.
[/quote]
I think the ending of the deposition did display how smart Michael was by not taking the payback route. Looking at it objectively, D-M (outside of Jan’s when she was acting as his boss) really hasn’t treated Michael that badly. Yes, the testimony from the corporate guy might have pained Michael, but the words were fairly apologetic (“what do you want me to say? He’s a nice guy…”), the guy was visibly sqirming with discomfort when it was read, and he made an unsolicited effort to apologize afterwards. On the other hand, Jan’s lawsuit was frivolous–Michael was testifying mainly to please her–not telling him in advance about using his journal was pretty snaky, and she was rather dismissive of his feelings in the lunchroom scene.
The hilarious double-entendre aside, when Michael says “you expect your company to screw you, you don’t expect your girlfriend to,” he’s acknowledging not just the hurtful things each may have done to him, but the level of cruelty involved with each. Jan’s exasperated evaluation was far worse than the stammering admission that Michael wasn’t seriously considered for the corporate gig, and that covers only part of what Jan did to him in this process. I see a lot of shame in Jan’s uncomfortable car-ride home with Michael; she’s clearly not angry at him, though she may be a bit disappointed, and perhaps a little disgusted with herself.
[QUOTE=Caricci]
You know what? I may have to stop watching this show if Michael doesn’t stop being so mean to Toby. I just can’t stand it and it doesn’t make any sense to me either. Michael is an adult and Toby has never done anything to him that I can see. It’s beginning to ruin it for me.
[/quote]
C’mon, it’s like a 30-second bit in each episode, and these kind of personality clashes happen all the time in an office setting. I like the fact that there’s no real explanation for Michael’s animosity, although Toby can be something of wet blanket.
My fear is that they won’t be able to do much more with it if they don’t let Toby get even once in a while in a way that he can rub it in to Michael. Something like in the “Casino night” episode where Michael goes “all in” on the first poker hand of the night, Toby calls him, and Michael is annoyed because he immediately lost. The Toby post-interview–where he says he “felt good” about beating Michael–is what I’d like to see more of.
That said, having Michael just silently and slowly push Toby’s tray to the floor as Toby was trying to comfort him was just a perfect response.
[QUOTE=gigi]
“That’s what I thought” from Kellie actually made me vaguely sick. (It doesn’t help that I know Mindy Kaling used to make fun of a friend of mine in school and I have to overcome that IRL dislike of her.) I don’t expect The Office to change, though; I can accept that it’s part of the point. But it was horrible.
[/quote]
The humor here is that she’s the last character you’d expect that from (despite some flashes from earlier this season). At the same time, her analysis of the distinction between “smack” and “trash” talk is exactly the kind of vapidity I *would * expect from her character. That said, I don’t think her smack/trh will stick around too long; she’ll be back to her over-ebullient self once the writer’s strike ends.
