What I find more repulsive than Michael’s desire to overcome his loneliness, is that he, as unintentional as it may have been, preyed on Helene during a time of high emotions, a wedding (see Wedding Crashers to see how vulnerable women can be at this time), especially when you add to the fact she did get divorced recently and witnessed her much younger “replacement” with the man she used to be with at the wedding. You add to this that she just now got dumped for being “too old”, her self-esteem is probably destroyed, and is probably irreversible, and that is disturbing. The amount of emotional damage this causes Helene is monumental and understated, and people wonder why some viewers believe Michael doesn’t deserve anyone..

Michael may be an idiot, but we always took him as a superficial idiot with a heart of gold, albeit when it was beneficial to himself. And we’re suppose to sympathize with his situation when he partakes in these actions. And you say it’s out of character for Michael to go “she came onto me” but that seemed perfectly within his character of trying to always shift the blame from himself, and absolve himself from any further blame.

While I’ve enjoyed other character’s interactions, this storyline seemed unnecessarily painful for petty laughs, and most viewers will obviously underplay how much damage Michael did. >_>;