The mere fact that you are arguing about “boundaries” and company policy with respect to this farcical fictional comedy is absurd. Need I remind you that Michael once falsely imprisoned a pizza delivery boy. Dunder Mifflin rehired (as a temp) a former officer who was jailed on extortion charges. And you’re talking about company policy?
The humor of this entire arc is built upon Pam’s anticipated revulsion to Michael dating her mother, i.e. we are supposed to expect and on some level understand her reaction. Your posts on this point make it sound as if you’re Michael’s lawyer (or Mom) defending his infractions, instead of someone who gets a joke.
Michael is a cad. Pam is likelable. We’re supposed to identify with her. She’s also pregannt. TV tells me this means she will have amplified emotions. She finds out her cad boss, Michael, is dating her recently divorced mom. This is the platform for some situational comedy. Taking issue with her reaction is like chastizing the chicken for crossing the road.
Oh, my, what a gentleman! In fact, what a catch! I’m sure it’s Pam’s fault for seeing all the selfish, tactless, dishonest, petty, insulting, hypocritical, indiscreet, and shockingly inappropriate things he’s done to just about every woman she’s seen in his perimeter for many years and conclude that maybe–maybe–that’s someone she doesn’t want in her mom’s emotional sphere right now, given mom’s obviously fragile and vulnerable state. And what an unfeeling harpie to think of her mom over Michael’s emotional needs (which have often been proven to be fickle, craven, and monumentally self-absorbed) What a bitch! :rolleyes:
That would presuppose that personal boundries had some sort of rhyme or reason.
The boundaries we set are at our own whims. No real rules set in stone. All our reactions are based on our own internal rules which are neither consistent nor steadfast. It’s called being human and not, as GOB Bluth would say, a robot.
Was she a little over the top?
Sure.
But considering how much Michael tries to insert himself into her life (and I’m sure in some way this is another attempt by Michael to keep things in the “family”) I can understand her resistance. He may feel they are a family, but that doesn’t mean the feeling has to be returned.
Personally, if I knew Michael in the real world I’d hate him. He’s far too duplicitous, narcissistic and incompetent a person to put any faith in. He would by asscoiation or by deliberate action pull me down with him or worse, throw me under the bus.
Just as he has done to Dwight and Jim on several occasions. He is an eight year old with power. When ever he feels threatened he lashes out without any regard of consequences.
You may find him sympathetic, but in the end that sympathy would wear pretty thin if you were the person who his flaws always affected.
She’s not thinking of her mom. Her reaction has nothing to do with any feelings for her mom. She was perfectly willing to make her mom cry. She’s basically putting her mean girl superiority over her mom’s emotional needs (not to mention her mom’s right to make her own choices).
She doesn’t feel superior to him. Pam was the only person who believed in Michael enough to go to the Michael Scott Paper company with him. She thinks he’s a disaster in terms of personal interaction not because she feels superior to him but because of his history of disastrous personal interactions.
He’s made her life difficult in a hundred different ways. She felt betrayed because her mother took up with a man whom she knew had done that.
Aha! I think I see where you are coming from… I think you’re reading different motivations into the characters than I do because honestly I don’t think they are supposed to be the highschool cool crowd and Michael isn’t the put upon socially akward nerd.
Michael has the power in their relationship and up to Jims promotion, he is the one who abuses that power and they have to deal with the consequences. He isn’t an underdog. He is that boss who we all come across at one time in our lives where we wonder how the hell can someone that incompetant and awful get that position while decent hardworking us gets overlooked.
This is utterly preposterous. It has nothing to do with him not being “cool”.
It has everything to do with him being a total disaster personally. She was the receptionist for years, so she knows more about his subterfuge, his evasions, his cluelessness, his passive-agressive cowardice–both at work and his personal life–than anyone else in the office. So he’s a nice guy–BFD! The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and Michael is hardly the selfless guy who simply “means well”. He holds grudges, he wounds easily, he gets jealous and defensive at the drop of a hat, and he’s monumentally inept at 20 things for every one thing he’s good at.
I don’t blame Pam for a second for making the perfectly reasonable assumption that none of this would change, and having him be part of her family would lead to meltdown after meltdown, unnecessary drama and heartache for everyone concerned. Michael can’t keep his shit in his own cage, and it’s usually someone else who has to clean up the mess. And Pam knows that it would almost certainly be her (since that’s been her role for years in the office anyway). Who could blame her for not wanting any of that (especially with a baby on the way)?
Pam’s also probably thinking of the inevitable break up, most likely her mom dumping Michael after getting more of a sense of what he’s like. Michael is going to pull her into the middle of that. Yeah, she’s thinking of herself more than anyone else in the situation, but I don’t think Michael or her mother are thinking about what position they are putting her in. Pam’s overreacting, but she does have good cause to be upset.
Her mom was reeling from being left by her husband and was mistrustful of men in general at that point. Her dating Michael does Pam no harm (is none of Pam’s business at all, in fact), and Pam screaming at her mom over the phone and making her cry was way out of line. It doesn’t matter what Pam thinks of Michael. That doesn’t give her a right to dicate who he can date.
