I was a late convert to The Office, and even after I started watching the show with my family, or sandwiched in next to 30 Rock, I was always something of a skeptic. The show's bitterness and idiocy never really set well with me, even as I've ended up with some affection for some of the characters. But I think the thing that's bothered me most, especially as the seasons have passed and they've worked past their early insecurities and incompetences, is why Pam and Jim didn't get the hell out of Scranton? I understand that the show needs them, I understand that Pam was an underachiever for a long time. But they're not really in that place any more, something that contributes to what I see as the show's growing weakness. That said, I thought their wedding was wonderful:
Of course it makes sense that their coworkers would try to replicate something that was a genuine and surprising phenomenon, of course it would involve Dwight making his personality manifest in the form of a literal kick to someone's face, and of course Jim and Pam would find a way to both accommodate the nonsense and find their way around it. Their wedding was, for the first, the moment I could accept that Jim and Pam have chosen this nutty tribe as their own. But I also think it suggests that they might find a way beyond it at some point; they are not so down-trodden as to let their wedding get completely hijacked. I understand that The Office is popular, but I wonder if it might be smart for NBC, and for Pam and Jim, to find a way soon to move on.
(I'll be back on a full posting schedule tomorrow, folks. Hope everyone is enjoying their Columbus Day off, if you get it, and time-and-a-half if you don't.)