The Office - Season 7

I have written so many words about The Office for Player Affinity that I'm not sure how many I have left. But I'll give this season summary a shot anyway. This was a big year for the show, as they said goodbye to Steve Carell, the guy that everybody knows and player of the main character. We don't know yet whether the series will survive long without him, but in any case they did a good job of further establishing the entertaining dynamic the entire cast shares while allowing Michael to leave with a classy and emotionally fulfilling storyline. It's a goodbye that the actor deserves more than the character, as even in the end they never totally sold the transformation of Michael from horrible, misguided boss to a silly yet beloved authority figure. I mean, he's always been more sympathetic than his British counterpart (who actually showed up a couple times this year, proving that the two shows exist in the same universe and that there's a lot of documentary makers interested in paper), but he was still too much of a screw-up to totally earn some of that stuff. I didn't mind though, because it was sweet and well handled.

Steve Carell's departure kind of dominated the show during this time, because while plenty of other things happened this year, that's where most of the attention and discussion was. Jim and Pam were kind of stagnant, but I enjoyed the development of Kevin, Darryl, and Andy among others. Some episodes were a lot of fun, others a bit less so, and that's sort of how it goes with most sitcoms. I do think this season was a bit better than the last couple, both in terms of just being entertaining and in developing story stuff, though most of that was devoted to Michael. The whole ensemble is just really solid now, a bit familiar for the most part but still really likable. I don't find myself really invested in anything that's going on with most of them beyond a general feeling of goodwill towards them, but the cast is big and varied enough that I think they could just coast with that for a lot longer than say, Scrubs did. Personally, I think Andy is the best choice to take over Dunder Mifflin - like Michael, I think he'd have the right mix of goofiness and competence (though maybe in different places) to keep the company from burning to the ground while still bringing a solid amount of chaos to the show. It could be an interesting dichotomy - Michael was a good salesman but a bad manager of people; Andy is bad at sales but might have the empathy to keep a diverse group like this from killing each other. Anyway, we'll see what happens this Fall.

Also, here are my recaps for all of the episodes this year:
Ultimatum
The Seminar
The Search
PDA
Threat Level Midnight
Todd Packer
Garage Sale
Training Day
Michael's Last Dundies
Goodbye, Michael
The Inner Circle
Dwight K. Schrute, (Acting) Manager
Search Committee

The Office - Season 6

I can't say I wasn't mostly pleased with The Office this season, although it's becoming clear that we're closer to the end than the beginning, creatively if nothing else. Steve Carell has said that the next season will probably be his last, and even if the show continues without him I might not. It's not that he's the only character that makes the show work, it's that your star leaving is simply not a good sign for a show's future. I gave a season of Scrubs without Zach Braff starring and got burned. The Office is still funnier than Scrubs was in its last couple years, but I'm not sure that's enough. The show is about Michael Scott and the company he runs. Without him it's just some people selling paper.

Again though, I liked it. There were a couple hour-long episodes devoted to Jim and Pam's wedding and the birth of their child, which not only laid on the sentiment but were among the funniest of the series. They actually found a way to make the relationship between Dwight and Angela entertaining again, and some of the work done by the supporting characters was as strong as ever. I spent most of the time laughing. Not everything was great, though. Andy and Erin are kind of cute together, but the dance around whether they'd start dating seemed like a feeble attempt to emulate the chemistry of Jim and Pam, Michael was possibly too ridiculous at times, and I honestly am not a fan of the whole plot with Dunder Mifflin getting bought out. Though seeing David unemployed was kind of funny. As it seems with all great comedies, half a decade later it's just not as fresh and energetic as in its prime. Still worth checking out every week, though.

Inglourious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino's last couple films, the Kill Bill series and Death Proof, were a bit different than his first few. They feel similar in a lot of ways, but they're ultimately genre films whereas his others were not, although they did pay homage to certain periods and styles. Based on advertisements, I thought Basterds might follow suit, as a sort of road/war movie featuring a band of hardened killers. And parts of the movie are exactly that. But only parts - the basterds are but one aspect of the two and a half hour film, one that I enjoyed immensely and just might have taken Pulp Fiction's place as my favorite by the eccentric director.

Tarantino has previously called Basterds a spaghetti western in WWII, and "Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France" was once a considered title for the movie, and ended up as the name for the first chapter. Yeah, he's back to the chapters thing, and the film is a story in five parts. The first two are twenty minute vignettes that could work as shorts on their own, and basically establish the major players. There's Hans Landa, AKA "The Jew Hunter", the primary antagonist and quite possibly Tarantino's best character ever. Christoph Waltz turns in a completely stunning performance that got him an award at Cannes and should earn him some nominations next Spring. Shosanna Dreyfus is a French Jew who escaped death and runs a cinema. Lt. Aldo Raine is played to great humorous effect by Brad Pitt and leads the basterds, a unit of American Jews, to disrupt the Nazi war effort inside France. After these introductions, the next three chapters introduce, develop, and resolve the main plot - a new propaganda film (directed in real life by Eli Roth, creator of the Hostel series and starring as the enjoyably menacing and slightly crazy basterd known as "The Bear Jew" by the Germans) is being premiered in Paris, and a plan is concocted to burn it to the ground while a bunch of important Nazis are still inside. As you might guess with a Tarantino movie, there are multiple forces at work and things don't go quite as planned at any point.

As is his trademark, the movie features lots of long, leisurely conversations. The entire first chapter is a single scene where we learn to absolutely fear Landa, and all he does is drink some milk, smoke from an absurd pipe, and talk to a French farmer. There's a moment where they switch from French to English in a slightly clunky way, and you might think it's just the film excusing having foreign characters speak what the audience can understand. But it's just a clever subversion, as there's a specific reason the switch is made and the rest of the movie sees the majority of its dialogue be spoken by French people speaking French, German people speaking German, or whatever is appropriate. There's some humor in the subtitles too, as occasionally an obvious word will remain in its original language, such as "merci" appearing instead of "thank you". I was a bit surprised at the amount of foreign dialogue, but I appreciated it. The movie sure as hell ain't historically accurate, but it does feel fairly authentic, and the use of language goes a long way. Whereas Tarantino used dialogue in other films to mostly entertain the viewer and establish character, here it's all about building tension. A quite lengthy sequence in a German bar might have been interminable in less able hands, but I loved every minute as it slowly goes from funny, to uncomfortable, to downright dangerous. You can tell where it's going, but every step there can be excruciating.

I've seen a couple people praise the acting but dismiss Tarantino's direction, which seems foolish to me. You're not going to get a lot of good performances out of actors if you don't know how to direct them, unless they're seasoned thespians or something. When it's this universally good throughout the movie, maybe the guy behind it all deserves some credit. I mean, look at Diane Kruger. She's been in her share of movies, both in Hollywood and Germany, and she's never impressed anyone to my knowledge with anything but her looks. And here she is in Basterds, perfectly capturing the 40's movie star persona in one scene and completely desperate and disheveled in the next. She was seriously great, and she's just one of many, many actors you can say that about. The movie is shot pretty beautifully and traditionally by Tarantino, although it also has several touches of flair like the brief cutaway sequences narrated by Samuel L. Jackson and anachronistic music because while it doesn't make sense, damn it, this is his movie and he'll do what he wants. The soundtrack is mostly (entirely?) made up of songs taken from other movies, primarily those westerns, and it works pretty damn beautifully with the mood he creates. One scene in particular with Melanie Laurent, who's alternately charmingly sympathetic and frighteningly vengeful as Shosanna, as she prepares for something while a David Bowie song plays in the background is a great encapsulation of this. The brief gun fights are fairly normal if enjoyably chaotic and rapid, but it does tend to linger on some other violent moments, usually to brutal, darkly humorous effect. The climax is wonderfully explosive and hellish. The final scene, with Pitt in the same form he's been in the whole time and BJ Novak (most recognizable from The Office) as his calm companion, is a perfect ending to a film I seriously loved and can't wait to see again.

The Office - Season 5

The Office's latest and longest season was pretty consistently good throughout, though it felt like it was funnier later on when less time was spent dwelling on relationship woes and more time just trying to be funny. Jim and Pam are more or less set by this point, so now a lot of the weight for that stuff is on Michael's shoulders as he continues to have crummy luck. There was a resolution to the Dwight-Andy-Angela arc that was both satisfying and pretty funny, finally putting that to bed too, and the continued rivalry yet growing respect between the two men is interesting. I don't know what the long term plan is for the show, but there is a sixth season coming and I'm looking forward to the continuing escapades of Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch in this troubling economy.

There were are a couple really good guest stints by The Wire alums Amy Ryan and Idris Elba, the former of which exponentially increases the cringe-worthiness of Michael thinking he's funny and the latter providing an actual obstacle to Jim for the first time in his career. The storyline where tension with corporate causes Michael to start his own company was pretty fun, and provided one of the best episodes as he and Dwight engaged in some corporate cloak and dagger. Dwight really had some great moments this season, like the time he started a fire in an attempt to test his coworkers' survival skills and the rare moments where he and Jim have a common goal. The show's really too wacky to be believable at this point, but I've always watched it for its more outlandish moments, and it continues to be one of the better comedies on television.

The Office - Season 4

Season four began with a slight shift in the series' dynamic. Jim and Pam, previously held apart by circumstances and other relationships, got together, and managed to make it through the whole season without anything terrible happening, although things don't always go perfectly. They're both funny, highly likable people who get along very well, so it's nice to have a facet of the show that doesn't make you cringe. There's plenty enough of that coming from Carell, who's still great as Michael even when you almost want to look away from the more brutally embarrassing things he does. There's an argument that his hellish relationship with Jan has gone from funny in a painful way to completely unbelievably awkward, but I still found all their interactions to be more entertaining than anything else.

The show stretched more in the season with more episodes than ever before outside the office itself. That's really where the show shines the most, but you do need some variety. There's some fun to be had running marathons, having the worst dinner party ever, and especially a night spent at the bed & breakfast on Dwight's family farm. While I still think Gareth from the BBC original was great, Dwight's become one of the best supporting characters in any sitcom I've seen. Every scene he's in is great. There are some plot developments with Ryan in his new job in New York, and Andy's increased role screwing up everything for everyone else. The season finale was hilarious throughout, but a big downer in a few ways. It did end on a good enough note though that I'm already waiting for the next batch of episodes.

The Office Vs. The Office

The Office is currently a mockumentary comedy on NBC, but almost everyone knows it's based on a British show of the same title. They have the same premise, a small branch of a modestly sized paper company is run by an idiot who tries too hard to be friends with his employees. They have similar plotlines, including nearly identical pilot episodes and the constant threat of the branch being shut down, which doesn't matter much to the boss if it means a promotion. All of the main characters and some of the minor ones in the US version are basically the same as or variations of ones from the UK. That's about where they end. Their senses of humor are similar, but perceptibly different. The UK version ended quickly, after only two short seasons and a special. The US show is still chugging along, with over fifty episodes in the bank and a whopping order of thirty more for the fourth season, which will start filming next month. This huge disparity in length affords the US one more freedom for exploring different ideas, obviously, but that doesn't mean they still can't be compared. The hip, elitist viewpoint is that the UK version is superior, but I'm not so sure about that.

The UK show is drier than the US one, which tends to get goofier. Both are famous for their humor that can cause cringing as much as laughter. Not because it's bad, but just what's happening is so painfully embarrassing for these believable people that it can get hard to watch. The narcissistic boss is always trying to force all eyes upon him, as he tries to take authority where none belongs to him. Characters confess their love and get rejected. Well, that's not actually humor, it's just part of the show that adds to the realism. Not all romance works out as wonderfully as we'd hope, and there are obstacles to overcome. As said before, the shows pretend to be actual footage from a real company, and a lot of the jokes come from the interviews where characters' strange mannerisms and beliefs become exposed, and they're quite often the best parts of an episode.

Since the shows have recurring plot threads but focus mostly on character-based humor, the bulk of the comparison has to be made there. A lot of the comparisons will favor the US version, since it has had more time to develop characters and humor. It might not be quite fair, but really, which show has a better chance of satisfying you, a 12 episode one or one of at least 80?

The Regional Manager: David Brent Vs. Michael Scott

Ricky Gervais' Brent is hailed by many as one of the funniest sitcom characters ever, which I can buy if I don't totally agree with it. I would say he causes more laughs than Steve Carell, to be sure. Both of them tell a lot of jokes that are intentionally (by the makers, not the character) unfunny, and can be annoying at times. But Brent is more often (intentionally) unintentionally funny, just by his sometimes sickening bragging and arrogance that whizzes past the border of self-delusion. It is often, again, more painful than hilarious (The scene where he tries to upstage his rival boss' dancing with some moves of his own is a perfect example), though he still has plenty of great lines that make you kind of hate him and love his humor at the same time. But although he is funnier than Michael, I'd have to say I like David less. He's funny, but he's still an arrogant jerk. Scott is less arrogant and more of just an idiot. He is frequently in similar situations of being an attention freak, but it just seems more benevolent to me. He does unbelievably stupid things, but they're always out of a misguided attempt at doing the right thing. Also, the show bothers to give him some redeeming and sympathetic moments, and he's actually good at his job. He tries too hard with his employees and avoids paperwork, but he's a brilliant salesman. He's probably not right for upper management, but he has some good characteristics.

The Salesman/Good Guy: Tim Canterbury Vs. Jim Halpert

This one's kinda hard. Neither is too attractive or too ugly. They're likable, funny guys. They're probably a little too mean to their respective prank victims, but it's understandable. I think I'm gonna have to with Jim, because some of his actions are more defensible and he's done a lot of really funny things to mess with Dwight.

The Receptionist/Love Interest: Dawn Tinsley Vs. Pam Beesley

Both Dawn and Tim were actors I already recognized from some funny movies, so that was interesting. They're pretty similar (obviously), and have some personal problems, but I think Pam deals with them better. Do you see a pattern here? Dawn seems to constantly be crying, while Pam is a little reserved but still can have some great ideas and triumphant moments. This is shallow, but she's also more attractive. Things were finally starting to happen the way they should at the end of the third season, so I'm looking forward to what happens.

The Boss' Assistant: Gareth Keenan Vs. Dwight Schrute

Gareth was played by another actor I recognized. They're both pretty funny, with their backgrounds providing them with a unique perspective of their work. I like how they're both the only ones devoted to their boss, yet the boss does not return the affection, finding them annoying. Dwight has a lot of great moments, but I have to go with Gareth. His skewed view of women and incongruous military background provide many hilarious scenes that cannot be ignored. He's definitely my favorite character from the UK show. His spiel about poisonous frogs is one of the best television monologues ever.

Intern/Temp: Ricky Howard Vs. Ryan Howard

Ricky's part is pretty limited, but while he's around he manages to be a likable, funny guy. Ryan is never that funny, and he's always put off by what's happening around him. His reactions and a lot of what happens to him is humorous, but as a character he doesn't do much. Also, he comes off as a jerk a bit too often. Ricky doesn't do much but he's not bad.

Warehouse Worker/Receptionist's Fiancé: Lee Vs. Roy

Neither is developed that much or that interesting. Their purpose is to be an obstacle in the good guy's path. From the time that's spent on them, Lee comes off as more of a complete jerk, while Roy definitely has bad tendencies but also has visible good parts to him. I'll take Roy.

Boss' Old Work Buddy: Chris Finch Vs. Todd Packer

I like David Koechner, but he comes off as too much of an ass as Packer. Finch is an ass too, but he is still visibly annoyed by David's personality, so he wins major points for that. Chris.

Fat Accountant: Keith Vs. Kevin

Kevin has a lot of good scenes, but I just don't like the way his face moves. His character's a little too juvenile to really be that interesting, too. Keith's role is very limited, but he does a lot with what he has to work with. They both have the tendency to say and ask a lot of embarrassing things without any trepidation, but Keith's nonchalant attitude is just funnier.

Corporate Supervisor: Jennifer Taylor-Clarke Vs. Jan Levinson

This isn't really a contest. Jennifer just serves the plot, Jan is actually a character. Her relationship with Michael is a confused and interesting one, and her continual breakdown throughout the third season is noteworthy.

That's about it for notable equivalent characters. There are other similar events, but they aren't that important. The US version has several other characters added in to flesh out the cast, and it seems like a richer world. It might not be as clinically funny as the UK version, but I still like it more. It's a warmer, more likable show, and I look forward to it's return.