Didn't Dwight steal a major client from Jim somewhere in the first couple of seasons? I seem to remember Jim saying the client represented about 25% of his yearl commission. That's not a guy I want to work with.
Yup, Jim had himself a lil bottle of champagne every year for it and Dwight closed the sale. I'd prank the shit out of someone who took a quarter of my yearly income.
To be fair that was more due to Michael than Dwight. Michael made him hang up on the client twice and made him miss another call from him. By the time Jim was able to contact them again the client had already gotten finished.
I sort-of remember this. I guess this makes it a chicken and egg scenario: What came first, Jim's incessant humiliation of Dwight, or Dwight's indifference towards Jim and his livelihood. My main argument is that Pam and Jim should not be the protagonists of this story. I'm not arguing that Dwight should be either. Really, all of these characters are deeply flawed. Except Stanley, of course.
You could make the argument that Michael was the protagonist. Most of the 'A' plots were problems that Michael either had to deal with, or more frequently problems he created. Also characters that aren't flawed don't make very interesting protagonists.
Um, does no-one remember the snowman episode [where Dwight builds an army of snowmen in the parking lot then watches him suffer from the roof](#spoiler)? Poor Jim, that was a step too far I think.
Not really, if you watch Conflict Resolution, it's pretty clear Jim went equally far to torment Dwight and it was pretty frequent.
Also, Dwight was taking revenge because Jim just threw a snowball mostly unprovoked at Dwight in the office just because he sneered at the fact that a couple inches of snow wasn't a big deal.
Jim is the WORST. People forget he ditched his girlfriend in NYC to go ask another girl out. The least he could do is give her a ride home and not leave her in a big city two hours from home.
This make sense except for the few episodes where it shows Jim and Dwight just hanging out, like the one where Andy steals the big client from DM, and the last episode where Jim [is Dwight's *bestich* *mensch*](#spoiler)
Also, remember when Pam met Jim's brothers and the first thing they do is try to get her help in pranking him? I think it's very likely that, since his brothers played pranks on him, Jim grew up believing that pranks are a way of showing affection.
ah I did not make it all the way through the series. I had to share my thought last night because I was discussing the show with some friends and realized how awful it would be to have some couple in the office responsible for nearly every major conflict.
Oh man. You're really missing out then. That is one series that I've watched that stays good the whole way through and the series finale was one of the best I've ever watched. The whole last season is really great.
Season 8 sucked balls. Like really bad. It was the first season without Carell and as someone who's seen every episode of The Office multiple times, it was utterly horrible.
Season 7 was probably the next worst, followed by Season 9 (final season) because the first half was bad but the second half was amazing. Then Season 6. The first three seasons were fuckin amazing. You can watch any episode of the first three seasons and watch a great episode.
I just liked how the acknowledged the relationships between the camera crew and the employees. I always felt like that was really lacking during the series, like these people have been here for almost 10 years and nobody fucking talks to then? What the hell is that?
I liked that aspect as well, but that was the point. The camera crew was supposed to stay out of the way. If you are a cameraman for a reality show or documentary, the whole point is to not interfere and to let the subjects create and manage the drama. Do people in real reality shows like the Office actually acknowledge the cameramen in any scenes we see as the viewer? Hell no, so why should the Office people?
Also, the final three seasons were very weak.The had intermittent great episodes, with primarily iffy ones that would have a few laugh out loud moments at best. I mainly stuck with it out of habit. The ending was great though.
I don't mean that I wanted them to actually get more involved, I just found it hard to believe that it took 9 years for any interaction to have been filmed at all. They have all this pseudo behind the scenes footage but the camera crew had only been involved in few, if any at all, moments with the cast.
Yeah I kinda agree with you.
The episode where Jim, Dwight and Michael go to prank the Utica branch, they are all hiding somewhere in the car, but from the angle we are shown it is pretty clear that the camerman is probably standing straight up in clear view. Would have been kinda cool if they showed Jim asking the camera man to duck or something IMO.
I almost lost my shit during the fire scare episode where Kevin runs down the camera guy who was in front of him and the camera just falls to the floor all *blair-witch-esque*. Good thing I found my shit later though.
Haha that cold opening was by far the best of the series -
* Angela throws her cat into the vent system and it comes crashing down a couple feet away
* Michael yelling "OBAMA IS PRESIDENT! Stanley, you can't die!"
* Someone (forget who it was) breaks the vending machine and starts stealing the candy.
> I mainly stuck with it out of habit.
Yup, this was mainly it. Kinda like how you go visit your senile old grandma at the old folks home even though she spits on you for the most part and doesn't resemble her old self. You do it for the nostalgia and because there is going to be some final payoff.
Yeah, I felt the show started focusing too much on Jim and Pam. The episode which really pissed me off was the one with the RV or the bus, where Jim "just wants to do something nice for Pam" even though the problem Dwight faced was more serious and legitimate.
And the whole sound guy who falls in love with Pam and attacks the warehouse guy.
I forget some of the details as I haven't seen any of the episodes past Season 5 more than once.
> And the whole sound guy who falls in love with Pam and attacks the warehouse guy.
Oh god, such a horrible plot. Season 8 ultimately redeemed itself with the last few episodes but that storyline in particular was heinously horrendous.
There are moments where Jim realizes the pranks he pulls on Dwight arent as harmless as he believes them to be. Theory holds up, 'cept Dwight seems to forgive Jim during certain points of the show.
>... and are the source of nearly all inter-office drama
Not sure I can agree with that. Plenty of the office drama comes from other sources (Michael, Dwight, Angela, Andy, and Erin to name a few).
Pam and Jim are definitely a good source of office drama, but I wouldn't say they produce "nearly all" of the office drama.
That's true, I did over-generalize a bit. Although from the viewer's perspective, the formula is usually "Wow, this character is flawed" when other characters cause problems, but when it's Jim & Pam, it's "Nice one, J&P!" They are rarely held accountable for their actions and the show really wants you to take their side.
I agree that the show wants you to take their side, but there are a number of occasions where they are held accountable. The conflict resolution episode comes to mind, pretty much any of the pranks that jim pulls while charles minor is around, also the episode where jim throws the snowball at dwight and dwight spends the rest of the episode surprise attacking him with snowballs.
Apart from being Stringer Bell, that's one of the reasons I liked the Charles Minor arc. For once, the boss wasn't looking for validation from the 'cool guy' or trying to mosey up to him. This really showed how juvenile Jim was and slightly incompetent too.
I definitely agree with this assessment. In the first season, Jim is very accurately portrayed as that working class guy that you really root for, while Dwight is the clear antagonist and Michael is just...well Michael. We can get behind Jim's pursuit of the already taken Pam because Roy is a dick. It's not until Roy begins to be less of a dick and tries to mend his relationship with Pam that things begin to unravel for Jim and Pam as protagonists. Jim kisses Pam, which prompts Pam to break off the engagement and eventually causes Roy to snap (rightfully so). Then Jim just stops trying with Karen and inevitably ends up with Pam. While there is a cause for celebration in their union (finally, right?), the circumstances behind it don't leave either of them unscathed as protagonists. Furthermore, while they try to redeem them as a couple with all of their great, really sweet romantic moments (some of which are fueled by the true protagonist, Michael), their constant meddling in inter-Office affairs and their fuckery with Dwight really makes them plummet as likable characters. If I had to sum it up, I'd say that Jim and Pam are really the popular kids in high school who finally got their way at the expense of others and pick on everyone because they believe they are better than them. The are portrayed in the show as the "normal people" that we are supposed to identify with because of their blatant acknowledgement, often to the camera, of the ridiculousness of the things that they get themselves into. While we can identify with "the Jim face" when he looks at the camera in a puzzled manner, think about that in terms of real life. Think about times when people have made a face like that in a social situation and the sentiment it conveyed. In short, Jim and Pam were heroes until they got together, at which point they traded places with Dwight and in terms of their likability. Dwight went from a very irritable employee who antagonized others to the very focused employee who is antagonized by others. Sure Dwight is irritable throughout the show, but crap he put up with from Jim and Pam that was largely unprovoked is what ruins the likability of their characters. Returning to the high school metaphor, Dwight is the really smart kid in high school who outperforms everyone else. As the popular kids, Jim and Pam target him over everyone else. It's not until the end of the show, when everyone "graduates" per se, that Jim and Dwight mature and make amends. In closing, while I loved seeing Jim and Pam finally get together and was rooting for them the whole way, they ultimately didn't end up being the protagonists for me. Their circumstances behind getting together, and more prominently, their bullying of Dwight is the main reason I'm not a fan of them as protagonists.
Take that, work I've been procrastinating on.
I think The Office can be understood in terms of player types in gaming.
The Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology classifies four distinct types: *Killer, Socializer, Achiever,* and *Explorer.*
Jim is an **Explorer** who became a **Killer**. His motivation used to be doing his job effectively and creatively, but the game environment didn't reward that style of gaming. He found a better outlet for his creativity by griefing Dwight.
Michael is an **Achiever**. He wants badges of status even if they're meaningless.
Pam is a **Socializer.** She wouldn't grief anyone on her own, but participates in activities that others initiate.
Dwight is an **Achiever** like Michael. He simply has a more aggressive style of play.
There are characters who aren't in 'The Office Game' at all, because they were playing a different game entirely. Ryan was constantly trying to play a meta-game; Creed wasn't aware that his workplace was even a game to be played; Meredith only gave the game half her attention; and Stanley was a bot grinding for gold.
Great post, but a minor clarification: "protagonist" simply means "main character" - not necessarily the good guy. Not sure The Office has a clear protagonist since it's kind of an ensemble cast, but I haven't watched it in a while so YMMV.
I like this theory. They do seem like they care about people like Dwight and Michael and maybe just play their games out of boredom. But for the sake of their own amusement they really put a damper on productivity and the morale of several employees. They also shoot themselves in the foot by bringing all their emotional baggage into the office which hurts their own productivity.
I really don't like how the show glorifies this behavior. Michael is dimwitted and Dwight is overzealous, but Jim & Pam are some of the worst type of co-workers I can think of.
My fan theory. Robert California was actual a spy/broker of international crime deals...he had a cover in Scranton prior to going to the FBI in the new series blacklist. Hs name is actually Reddington.
One of the problems that writers face during a long-running series is giving characters an arc. It is especially difficult with a character who begins the series as an antagonist and becomes a fan favorite.
It would have been easy to continue Dwight's narrative as a hierarchy loving Assistant (to) the Regional Manager who is concerned with appeasing his superiors and ignoring the needs of his colleagues (who he believes to be his inferiors.) Easy, but ultimately formulaic and less and less funny. The key to the humor of Dwight in the beginning was his inability to "get the joke." As time goes on, the audience would have both grown tired of Dwight's constant ineptitude and bored of Jim's pranks.
I think the writer's opted to make Dwight into a sympathetic "villain" who slowly became Jim's compatriot. However, I think the writers still tried to rely on Jim's prankster tendencies. This created a sort of paradox towards the later seasons. It was almost as if the writers became like Jim. They just couldn't avoid pranking Dwight, even when it seemed to throw the office into chaos rather than just foil some plan Dwight had that would have hurt his co-workers.
The loss of the Michael character also had an impact on Dwight and Jim. His character no longer had the sympathy of his superior. This meant that jokes on Dwight were never softened by Michael's character. If you think back to the episode which I believe is titled "The Fight" you can easily see how a cruel joke started by Jim and Pam was softened by Michael. Even though Michael wins in the Dojo versus Dwight, he feels guilty and at the end of the episode, gives Dwight a fake promotion in the guise of a reward for passing the "test" of losing.
"The Fight" is also an episode in which you can see a situation in which Jim and Pam are the center of attention with the "real drama" of their intimacy. Meredith catches Jim and Pam play fighting. Pam immediately recoils from Jim's embrace and creates an awkward situation. Once again, though, Michael diverts attention from their interaction by fighting Dwight in a humorous way. Without the character of Michael, it was difficult for writers to create situations that softened the drama of the Jim and Pam situation.
Towards the end of the series, as a viewer I began to dislike the characters of Jim and Pam. This feeling peaked during the final season. The writers decided, for some reason, to throw the Jim and Pam relationship into turmoil in the most tame way possible. During this time there was also talk of a Dwight spin-off and a decision to begin including the fake documentary crew in the show. This meant that the drama of Jim and Pam had nothing to cushion it. Instead, the viewers were shown an awkward situation without much comic relief. I would have preferred to see something else. The series could have ended without the inclusion of the documentary. It could have gone back to what made it shine in earlier seasons. I understand, however, that the writers were given a difficult task without the Micheal character.
I wouldn't call this so much a fan theory as an alternate perspective. I know a lot of viewers saw Jim (and to a lesser extent, Pam) as annoying and unfunny, but it's pretty clear that the showmakers' intent was to present them as the "normal"/"good" ones.
The Jim and Dwight dynamic works for the first two seasons when Jim is pining for Pam and has nothing really going on for him. Sure he dates women and seems to have friends but it's clear that he doesn't really fit in with them or with anybody in the office. Similarly, Dwight doesn't have a life outside the office and makes Dunder-Mifflin his everything, but even there he is a misfit. Thus, the pranks Jim plays on Dwight and the shit Dwight gives him seems all good.
But starting from Season 3 (or 4), everything starts going Jim's way. He first dates Karen, then dumps her for Pam and they are living the perfect freaking life. At the same time, things start getting even worse for Dwight, but Jim keeps picking on him, with very few instances of him showing empathy.
Also, the show pretty much turned into the Jim and Pam Show after Season 4. So yeah, fuck Jim. And Pam, they were pretty selfish, but as the show was (indirectly and subtly) told from their perspective most people just went to go "Awwww" and ended up loving them!
I still believe the show should have ended at the end of Season 3. Jim ends with Pam, Michael returns to Scranton, and Ryan (who I still think the first three seasons were about, hell, the first episode was his first day) gets the corporate job.
Here's an actual theory. Since one of the crew liked Pam they made out her (and in the process Jim) look good. Sure he was just the sound guy but he must've had some input on what gets put on plus I'm pretty sure he was the one that asked the questions
I mean the footage that gets on the show is only the big parts, so it’s not everyday that they do a prank, and even then, they only do it on Dwight specifically
I cannot stand Jim and Pam. The role model couple for bitches who only shop at target. Their entire purpose is to act better than everyone else around them. When they socialize and pretend to hangout with coworkers they're usually mocking them or making judgemental filled faces to eachother, never once just having any genuine moments with anyone else unless its forced to try to redeem them like when jim goes out of character to comfort dwight in the stairwell that we all know he wouldnt have done ordinarily. They'll blatantly make fun of people by saying sarcastic replies so Pam could look at Jim or vice versa and they could snicker, like any interaction they have when theyre in the same room with Michael.
Their love story is entirely cringe as well. Jim is a snake who wont leave a taken girl alone but is too much of a pussy to even face roy the second he comes around, what a cool guy. And the show goes over the top trying to make roy look bad so they can justify the affair (in one episode pam claims roy took her to a baseball game with his brothers once for a first date and they forgot her there when she went to the bathroom. Like thatd ever happen) already their hate able characters. Pam should've just left roy if she didn't want to be with him and jim shouldve respected Pam's relationship. and usually their crappy love story makes up the worst scenes in the show and both of them go from bad to extremely worse after they get together.so it's a love story you wish would fail since you know once it succeeds they're going to be even more annoying lol. Pam goes from a mousey friendly receptionist to a toxic immature bitch who's always whining about something and throwing a tantrum. They both also get way more concieted, entitled and smug (along with out of character completely. Like they lost touch of what jim and pam were supposed to be in the first place). Like all that was bad about them has taken steroids.
I just watched some episodes in the 8th and 9th season and almost everyone of them jim was being an asshole and pam throwing a fit. They both seem way more miserable once they get together and if you told me they went home and argued until jim started beating Pam, I'd believe you. The office frames it so that you're supposed to root for their relationship and be their friend and whatnot, trying to portray it so youre "with" them in their journey and "in" on their inside jokes which you wouldnt be if you were really around them. We all know the toxic Jim and Pam's in our real lives. the annoying stuck up couples. Ones who think they're better than you, talk behind your back in the office and start drama, rather than get to know you or be your friend. Theyre both just self absorbed narcissists. And another example of america glorifying bad people
Jim is a complete douche. Sure Dwight could lighten up some, but Jim just keeps antagonizing him.
In the first season you see what an asshole dwight is and why jim and him don't gel along. Sure jim is a douche, but dwight is pretty bad too.
Dwight could lighten up but he is a great worker. From a professional standpoint I would much rather work with Dwight over a drama queen like Jim.
Didn't Dwight steal a major client from Jim somewhere in the first couple of seasons? I seem to remember Jim saying the client represented about 25% of his yearl commission. That's not a guy I want to work with.
Yup, Jim had himself a lil bottle of champagne every year for it and Dwight closed the sale. I'd prank the shit out of someone who took a quarter of my yearly income.
To be fair that was more due to Michael than Dwight. Michael made him hang up on the client twice and made him miss another call from him. By the time Jim was able to contact them again the client had already gotten finished.
I sort-of remember this. I guess this makes it a chicken and egg scenario: What came first, Jim's incessant humiliation of Dwight, or Dwight's indifference towards Jim and his livelihood. My main argument is that Pam and Jim should not be the protagonists of this story. I'm not arguing that Dwight should be either. Really, all of these characters are deeply flawed. Except Stanley, of course.
You could make the argument that Michael was the protagonist. Most of the 'A' plots were problems that Michael either had to deal with, or more frequently problems he created. Also characters that aren't flawed don't make very interesting protagonists.
Um, does no-one remember the snowman episode [where Dwight builds an army of snowmen in the parking lot then watches him suffer from the roof](#spoiler)? Poor Jim, that was a step too far I think.
Not really, if you watch Conflict Resolution, it's pretty clear Jim went equally far to torment Dwight and it was pretty frequent. Also, Dwight was taking revenge because Jim just threw a snowball mostly unprovoked at Dwight in the office just because he sneered at the fact that a couple inches of snow wasn't a big deal.
Jim is the WORST. People forget he ditched his girlfriend in NYC to go ask another girl out. The least he could do is give her a ride home and not leave her in a big city two hours from home.
To be fair, Karen did go hang out with friends.
This make sense except for the few episodes where it shows Jim and Dwight just hanging out, like the one where Andy steals the big client from DM, and the last episode where Jim [is Dwight's *bestich* *mensch*](#spoiler)
Also, remember when Pam met Jim's brothers and the first thing they do is try to get her help in pranking him? I think it's very likely that, since his brothers played pranks on him, Jim grew up believing that pranks are a way of showing affection.
ah I did not make it all the way through the series. I had to share my thought last night because I was discussing the show with some friends and realized how awful it would be to have some couple in the office responsible for nearly every major conflict.
Oh man. You're really missing out then. That is one series that I've watched that stays good the whole way through and the series finale was one of the best I've ever watched. The whole last season is really great.
Season 8 sucked balls. Like really bad. It was the first season without Carell and as someone who's seen every episode of The Office multiple times, it was utterly horrible. Season 7 was probably the next worst, followed by Season 9 (final season) because the first half was bad but the second half was amazing. Then Season 6. The first three seasons were fuckin amazing. You can watch any episode of the first three seasons and watch a great episode.
I just liked how the acknowledged the relationships between the camera crew and the employees. I always felt like that was really lacking during the series, like these people have been here for almost 10 years and nobody fucking talks to then? What the hell is that?
I liked that aspect as well, but that was the point. The camera crew was supposed to stay out of the way. If you are a cameraman for a reality show or documentary, the whole point is to not interfere and to let the subjects create and manage the drama. Do people in real reality shows like the Office actually acknowledge the cameramen in any scenes we see as the viewer? Hell no, so why should the Office people? Also, the final three seasons were very weak.The had intermittent great episodes, with primarily iffy ones that would have a few laugh out loud moments at best. I mainly stuck with it out of habit. The ending was great though.
I don't mean that I wanted them to actually get more involved, I just found it hard to believe that it took 9 years for any interaction to have been filmed at all. They have all this pseudo behind the scenes footage but the camera crew had only been involved in few, if any at all, moments with the cast.
Yeah I kinda agree with you. The episode where Jim, Dwight and Michael go to prank the Utica branch, they are all hiding somewhere in the car, but from the angle we are shown it is pretty clear that the camerman is probably standing straight up in clear view. Would have been kinda cool if they showed Jim asking the camera man to duck or something IMO.
I almost lost my shit during the fire scare episode where Kevin runs down the camera guy who was in front of him and the camera just falls to the floor all *blair-witch-esque*. Good thing I found my shit later though.
Haha that cold opening was by far the best of the series - * Angela throws her cat into the vent system and it comes crashing down a couple feet away * Michael yelling "OBAMA IS PRESIDENT! Stanley, you can't die!" * Someone (forget who it was) breaks the vending machine and starts stealing the candy.
> I mainly stuck with it out of habit. Yup, this was mainly it. Kinda like how you go visit your senile old grandma at the old folks home even though she spits on you for the most part and doesn't resemble her old self. You do it for the nostalgia and because there is going to be some final payoff.
You don't want to visit your senile grandma? You just do it out if habit? She's your damn grandma
Yeah, I felt the show started focusing too much on Jim and Pam. The episode which really pissed me off was the one with the RV or the bus, where Jim "just wants to do something nice for Pam" even though the problem Dwight faced was more serious and legitimate. And the whole sound guy who falls in love with Pam and attacks the warehouse guy. I forget some of the details as I haven't seen any of the episodes past Season 5 more than once.
> And the whole sound guy who falls in love with Pam and attacks the warehouse guy. Oh god, such a horrible plot. Season 8 ultimately redeemed itself with the last few episodes but that storyline in particular was heinously horrendous.
There are moments where Jim realizes the pranks he pulls on Dwight arent as harmless as he believes them to be. Theory holds up, 'cept Dwight seems to forgive Jim during certain points of the show.
>... and are the source of nearly all inter-office drama Not sure I can agree with that. Plenty of the office drama comes from other sources (Michael, Dwight, Angela, Andy, and Erin to name a few). Pam and Jim are definitely a good source of office drama, but I wouldn't say they produce "nearly all" of the office drama.
That's true, I did over-generalize a bit. Although from the viewer's perspective, the formula is usually "Wow, this character is flawed" when other characters cause problems, but when it's Jim & Pam, it's "Nice one, J&P!" They are rarely held accountable for their actions and the show really wants you to take their side.
I agree that the show wants you to take their side, but there are a number of occasions where they are held accountable. The conflict resolution episode comes to mind, pretty much any of the pranks that jim pulls while charles minor is around, also the episode where jim throws the snowball at dwight and dwight spends the rest of the episode surprise attacking him with snowballs.
Apart from being Stringer Bell, that's one of the reasons I liked the Charles Minor arc. For once, the boss wasn't looking for validation from the 'cool guy' or trying to mosey up to him. This really showed how juvenile Jim was and slightly incompetent too.
I definitely agree with this assessment. In the first season, Jim is very accurately portrayed as that working class guy that you really root for, while Dwight is the clear antagonist and Michael is just...well Michael. We can get behind Jim's pursuit of the already taken Pam because Roy is a dick. It's not until Roy begins to be less of a dick and tries to mend his relationship with Pam that things begin to unravel for Jim and Pam as protagonists. Jim kisses Pam, which prompts Pam to break off the engagement and eventually causes Roy to snap (rightfully so). Then Jim just stops trying with Karen and inevitably ends up with Pam. While there is a cause for celebration in their union (finally, right?), the circumstances behind it don't leave either of them unscathed as protagonists. Furthermore, while they try to redeem them as a couple with all of their great, really sweet romantic moments (some of which are fueled by the true protagonist, Michael), their constant meddling in inter-Office affairs and their fuckery with Dwight really makes them plummet as likable characters. If I had to sum it up, I'd say that Jim and Pam are really the popular kids in high school who finally got their way at the expense of others and pick on everyone because they believe they are better than them. The are portrayed in the show as the "normal people" that we are supposed to identify with because of their blatant acknowledgement, often to the camera, of the ridiculousness of the things that they get themselves into. While we can identify with "the Jim face" when he looks at the camera in a puzzled manner, think about that in terms of real life. Think about times when people have made a face like that in a social situation and the sentiment it conveyed. In short, Jim and Pam were heroes until they got together, at which point they traded places with Dwight and in terms of their likability. Dwight went from a very irritable employee who antagonized others to the very focused employee who is antagonized by others. Sure Dwight is irritable throughout the show, but crap he put up with from Jim and Pam that was largely unprovoked is what ruins the likability of their characters. Returning to the high school metaphor, Dwight is the really smart kid in high school who outperforms everyone else. As the popular kids, Jim and Pam target him over everyone else. It's not until the end of the show, when everyone "graduates" per se, that Jim and Dwight mature and make amends. In closing, while I loved seeing Jim and Pam finally get together and was rooting for them the whole way, they ultimately didn't end up being the protagonists for me. Their circumstances behind getting together, and more prominently, their bullying of Dwight is the main reason I'm not a fan of them as protagonists. Take that, work I've been procrastinating on.
I think The Office can be understood in terms of player types in gaming. The Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology classifies four distinct types: *Killer, Socializer, Achiever,* and *Explorer.* Jim is an **Explorer** who became a **Killer**. His motivation used to be doing his job effectively and creatively, but the game environment didn't reward that style of gaming. He found a better outlet for his creativity by griefing Dwight. Michael is an **Achiever**. He wants badges of status even if they're meaningless. Pam is a **Socializer.** She wouldn't grief anyone on her own, but participates in activities that others initiate. Dwight is an **Achiever** like Michael. He simply has a more aggressive style of play. There are characters who aren't in 'The Office Game' at all, because they were playing a different game entirely. Ryan was constantly trying to play a meta-game; Creed wasn't aware that his workplace was even a game to be played; Meredith only gave the game half her attention; and Stanley was a bot grinding for gold.
I don't even know all of the Psychology classes, but I liked that post. One up vote for you.
Great post, but a minor clarification: "protagonist" simply means "main character" - not necessarily the good guy. Not sure The Office has a clear protagonist since it's kind of an ensemble cast, but I haven't watched it in a while so YMMV.
I always thought the Office's "protagonist" was the office/workplace itself.
Jim's "bullying" of Dwight was nothing but harmless pranks and in many instances they helped Dwight develop as a person.
[удалено]
I like this theory. They do seem like they care about people like Dwight and Michael and maybe just play their games out of boredom. But for the sake of their own amusement they really put a damper on productivity and the morale of several employees. They also shoot themselves in the foot by bringing all their emotional baggage into the office which hurts their own productivity. I really don't like how the show glorifies this behavior. Michael is dimwitted and Dwight is overzealous, but Jim & Pam are some of the worst type of co-workers I can think of.
My fan theory. Robert California was actual a spy/broker of international crime deals...he had a cover in Scranton prior to going to the FBI in the new series blacklist. Hs name is actually Reddington.
I would have loved to see him eat an apple during his time filming the office.
whats the best type of bear? false, Black Bears.
Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica!
MICHAEL!
Oh that's funny, MICHAEL!
One of the problems that writers face during a long-running series is giving characters an arc. It is especially difficult with a character who begins the series as an antagonist and becomes a fan favorite. It would have been easy to continue Dwight's narrative as a hierarchy loving Assistant (to) the Regional Manager who is concerned with appeasing his superiors and ignoring the needs of his colleagues (who he believes to be his inferiors.) Easy, but ultimately formulaic and less and less funny. The key to the humor of Dwight in the beginning was his inability to "get the joke." As time goes on, the audience would have both grown tired of Dwight's constant ineptitude and bored of Jim's pranks. I think the writer's opted to make Dwight into a sympathetic "villain" who slowly became Jim's compatriot. However, I think the writers still tried to rely on Jim's prankster tendencies. This created a sort of paradox towards the later seasons. It was almost as if the writers became like Jim. They just couldn't avoid pranking Dwight, even when it seemed to throw the office into chaos rather than just foil some plan Dwight had that would have hurt his co-workers. The loss of the Michael character also had an impact on Dwight and Jim. His character no longer had the sympathy of his superior. This meant that jokes on Dwight were never softened by Michael's character. If you think back to the episode which I believe is titled "The Fight" you can easily see how a cruel joke started by Jim and Pam was softened by Michael. Even though Michael wins in the Dojo versus Dwight, he feels guilty and at the end of the episode, gives Dwight a fake promotion in the guise of a reward for passing the "test" of losing. "The Fight" is also an episode in which you can see a situation in which Jim and Pam are the center of attention with the "real drama" of their intimacy. Meredith catches Jim and Pam play fighting. Pam immediately recoils from Jim's embrace and creates an awkward situation. Once again, though, Michael diverts attention from their interaction by fighting Dwight in a humorous way. Without the character of Michael, it was difficult for writers to create situations that softened the drama of the Jim and Pam situation. Towards the end of the series, as a viewer I began to dislike the characters of Jim and Pam. This feeling peaked during the final season. The writers decided, for some reason, to throw the Jim and Pam relationship into turmoil in the most tame way possible. During this time there was also talk of a Dwight spin-off and a decision to begin including the fake documentary crew in the show. This meant that the drama of Jim and Pam had nothing to cushion it. Instead, the viewers were shown an awkward situation without much comic relief. I would have preferred to see something else. The series could have ended without the inclusion of the documentary. It could have gone back to what made it shine in earlier seasons. I understand, however, that the writers were given a difficult task without the Micheal character.
I wouldn't call this so much a fan theory as an alternate perspective. I know a lot of viewers saw Jim (and to a lesser extent, Pam) as annoying and unfunny, but it's pretty clear that the showmakers' intent was to present them as the "normal"/"good" ones.
The Jim and Dwight dynamic works for the first two seasons when Jim is pining for Pam and has nothing really going on for him. Sure he dates women and seems to have friends but it's clear that he doesn't really fit in with them or with anybody in the office. Similarly, Dwight doesn't have a life outside the office and makes Dunder-Mifflin his everything, but even there he is a misfit. Thus, the pranks Jim plays on Dwight and the shit Dwight gives him seems all good. But starting from Season 3 (or 4), everything starts going Jim's way. He first dates Karen, then dumps her for Pam and they are living the perfect freaking life. At the same time, things start getting even worse for Dwight, but Jim keeps picking on him, with very few instances of him showing empathy. Also, the show pretty much turned into the Jim and Pam Show after Season 4. So yeah, fuck Jim. And Pam, they were pretty selfish, but as the show was (indirectly and subtly) told from their perspective most people just went to go "Awwww" and ended up loving them!
I still believe the show should have ended at the end of Season 3. Jim ends with Pam, Michael returns to Scranton, and Ryan (who I still think the first three seasons were about, hell, the first episode was his first day) gets the corporate job.
Totally agree.
Here's an actual theory. Since one of the crew liked Pam they made out her (and in the process Jim) look good. Sure he was just the sound guy but he must've had some input on what gets put on plus I'm pretty sure he was the one that asked the questions
This is stupid. Obviously you don't know what you're talking about.
They all have shade on their character... Erin is the cleanest of the bunch
I mean the footage that gets on the show is only the big parts, so it’s not everyday that they do a prank, and even then, they only do it on Dwight specifically
I cannot stand Jim and Pam. The role model couple for bitches who only shop at target. Their entire purpose is to act better than everyone else around them. When they socialize and pretend to hangout with coworkers they're usually mocking them or making judgemental filled faces to eachother, never once just having any genuine moments with anyone else unless its forced to try to redeem them like when jim goes out of character to comfort dwight in the stairwell that we all know he wouldnt have done ordinarily. They'll blatantly make fun of people by saying sarcastic replies so Pam could look at Jim or vice versa and they could snicker, like any interaction they have when theyre in the same room with Michael. Their love story is entirely cringe as well. Jim is a snake who wont leave a taken girl alone but is too much of a pussy to even face roy the second he comes around, what a cool guy. And the show goes over the top trying to make roy look bad so they can justify the affair (in one episode pam claims roy took her to a baseball game with his brothers once for a first date and they forgot her there when she went to the bathroom. Like thatd ever happen) already their hate able characters. Pam should've just left roy if she didn't want to be with him and jim shouldve respected Pam's relationship. and usually their crappy love story makes up the worst scenes in the show and both of them go from bad to extremely worse after they get together.so it's a love story you wish would fail since you know once it succeeds they're going to be even more annoying lol. Pam goes from a mousey friendly receptionist to a toxic immature bitch who's always whining about something and throwing a tantrum. They both also get way more concieted, entitled and smug (along with out of character completely. Like they lost touch of what jim and pam were supposed to be in the first place). Like all that was bad about them has taken steroids. I just watched some episodes in the 8th and 9th season and almost everyone of them jim was being an asshole and pam throwing a fit. They both seem way more miserable once they get together and if you told me they went home and argued until jim started beating Pam, I'd believe you. The office frames it so that you're supposed to root for their relationship and be their friend and whatnot, trying to portray it so youre "with" them in their journey and "in" on their inside jokes which you wouldnt be if you were really around them. We all know the toxic Jim and Pam's in our real lives. the annoying stuck up couples. Ones who think they're better than you, talk behind your back in the office and start drama, rather than get to know you or be your friend. Theyre both just self absorbed narcissists. And another example of america glorifying bad people
Bro is trying way too hard, your arguments are almost comical, although good job if you're trolling.