On Losing My Family

[thisnewday]

Finished binge-watching The Office: An American Workplace a few days ago, and it felt like I'd lost my family.

Cringy and pathetic, yes, like some of the characters on the show. But real in the time of Covid and in the fading light of old age.

Finding some consolation, some relief from the threat of panic, by reading Andy Greene's The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s.

A reality-based bandaid on a fictionally-based wound. But seems to be holding for now.

Also tried to find consolation in the first movie of the Pitch Perfect trilogy and it was AWFUL.

Someone said it was "loosely based" on the non-fiction book by Mickey Rapkin--which I read and didn't think was all that great either.

But if "loosely" means like watching a sick dog take a sloppy dump on your front lawn, then that nails it...

LPK
Dreamwidth
1.10.2022

Comments

[halfmoon_mollie1]

I hated that program. Mean spirited, mean people being mean for the sake of being mean.

[thisnewday]

Yeah, I kind of felt the same way about it, at first. Watched one episode and put it back in the box for, literally, a couple of months before I decided to try it again. And, even then, not sure why I did.

I think what kept me at it, second time around, was the relationship between Jim and Pam. And, as the show progressed and the characters became more fully developed, I also started to see some redeeming qualities in some or most of them. (Robert California being a VERY disturbing exception.)

And I think that's supported, somewhat, by what I've been reading in Greene's book about how the show initially struggled to establish it's own identity apart from the British version which preceded it.

For sure, there continued to be those cringe-worthy moments but, while quite intentional, they seemed a bit more refined and moderated, at times, by the writers' and directors' more nuanced understanding of the characters.

Anyway, that's my brief and still-evolving take on it.

On a side note, it occurred to me as I was thinking about this that I had actually experienced a sort of preview of "The Office" some years ago as you related your experience working for the SU College of Law!

Hope you're having a good day...