Confessions of a Relapsing TV Addict: "The Office"

I hadn’t been devoted to a TV sitcom since “Friends” went off the air.

You know, that was some show, to be honest – sure, it had its peaks and valleys, but it was one of the funniest sitcoms I had ever seen, in its prime. I still remember half the lines from most of the episodes. “The One With The Embryos” is probably still my all-time favorite. No lie – I could probably still recite the entire script to that episode line-for-line. I even have a “Friends Trivia” book. I can probably crack that open and correctly answer 90% of the questions. I’m still embarrassed to say all that aloud. So, why, may you ask, am I?

Well, that’s simple – “Friends” was a show I was in love with. It was a show that would always make me laugh, and I could really connect with. Back then, when I was a TV addict, “Friends” was probably, to a certain extent, my favorite drug. Maybe it was the fact that I had to focus more on my studies, or maybe it was the fact that I had picked up newer, more productive hobbies than watching TV. Whatever it was, I thought that, after “Friends” went off the air in 2004, I would never find a sitcom that would give me that fix again. Thanks to NBC – and, surprisingly, YouTube – I found my new fix.

I guess it was around May of this year when I stumbled upon “The Office” on YouTube. Many of you can understand how easy it is to get lost in YouTube – the viral videos, the interviews, the TV clips. You can waste hours on that site watching absolutely nothing. But, I digress. I stumbled upon a “Jim and Pam” video – a music video edited with scenes from “The Office”, commemorating the complicated relationship between two of the main characters – and it began to intrigue me.

Then, while going through these videos, I stumbled upon a certain block of videos that depicted entire episodes of the show. They were edited to 10 minute clips, revolving around the self-proclaimed “JAM” (Jim/Pam) relationship. On weekends I should have been writing essays and doing assignments, I spent hours watching these clips.

Ultimately, I watched every single episode. After that, I was hooked.

You know, I think it was the perfect “more-than-friends” dynamic between the characters of Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly that initially got me hooked. I guess I can call myself a hopeless romantic, and the whole relationship between Pam and Jim really spoke to me. Considering the only relationship I ever had grew from a close friendship (and I name no names), the interactions between Jim and Pam made me a bit nostalgic. I was extremely empathetic to Jim’s longing to be with Pam, only because I felt like I’ve been in situations and experiences like that before. I also loved the malleable emotional tension in their dynamic, which, I think, is completely relatable to just about anyone who had ever been in love, or is in love. It gets you invested in the characters, and just makes them very genuine.

It’s also about the extremely subtle comedic goings-on in the series. So much of the show’s comedy comes from the realistic uncomfortable situations the show goes through. The way each character delivers a line, or the way they react to a certain line or situation – the comedic subtleties, if one catches it, are absolutely priceless.

It truly is an ensemble sitcom – while Michael Scott (Steve Carell), Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) are considered the main characters in the show, it’s all of the secondary characters – Ryan Howard (yes, like the Philadelphia Philly) the temp, Kelly Kapoor, Creed Bratton, Kevin Malone, Angela Martin, Meredith Palmer, Oscar Martinez, Toby Flenderson, Jan Levinson-Gould (minus the Gould), Roy Anderson, Darryl Philbin, Andy Bernard, Karen Filippelli – that round out the entire series. From the conflicts to the chemistry, every aspect of each character brings an ingredient to the comedic smorgasbord that is “The Office”.

I suppose you probably know someone who reminds you of each of the characters on this show, which adds to the comedic genius. Because of this, you can laugh at the hilarity of every situation that each character takes you, thinking that you’ve been in situations like that at some point in your life. Even the ridiculous situations aren’t hard to relate to and laugh at, only because most of the characters would play off of the situations in real ways.

For me, also, the women of “The Office” – particularly Jenna Fischer, Angela Kinsey, Melora Hardin and Mindy Kaling – are just attractive. I mean this in a number of ways – not just, to quote Michael Scott, “Their hotness, per se.” The fact is, these women are all cute and funny. For me, I find a cute and funny girl to be doubly attractive – watch Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey in candid interviews, and you’d probably see what I’m talking about. Personally, I’ll have to admit – I have a huge crush on Jenna Fischer. She’s really cute, and the subtle comedy she brings out in every aspect of Pam is utterly hilarious.

It was funny – I later read reviews on IMDb about “The Office”, saying how unbelievably bad the show was. I suppose this was during its first season, when it was trying to gain its footing in the Land of Sitcom-dom. Most of the negative reviews were comparing the show to its native British counterpart, which I thought was unfair. Sure, it was an American spinoff – but that was no reason not to give the show a chance. You should read some of the snap judgments people had about the show – considering its current critical and commercial success, the comments seem rather ignorant, and quite ridiculous.

Anyway, I have seen every single episode. I own DVDs of all three seasons, and I have listened to the episode commentaries and watched the special features literally hundreds of times. I have even recently got addicted to one of the show’s websites, Office Tally, to sustain the addiction I have had for the past couple months. Much like “Friends” almost 12 years before, I can recite many of the funniest lines from the show, and could answer much of the show’s intricate trivia. Again, I am not proud of this, but it shows how much I love the show. Ultimately, I had never been looking more forward to a new season of a particular show than I did with “The Office” since the times of “Friends”. With the commencement of Season 4 last Thursday, I look forward to the further development of the show, and the relationships that drive it, as the weeks and months go on.

It is that, to steal a line from “Grease”, that I am hopelessly devoted to.