Tag Archives: The Office

May 8, 2008 · 3:11 pm

Introducing “Cultural Conundrums” @ AlwaysWatching.org!

Greetings, Cultural Learnings readers! Things have been a lot busier on this front lately, with a lot of episodes to analyze/review for a lot of my favourite series, and perhaps you’ve noticed a recurrent stream through many of them: a lot of retrospective thoughts on the ways shows are shaping up in this strike-shortened season. While Cultural Learnings has been definitely relying mostly on episodic analysis, there’s a lot of broad ideas that I’ve wanted to investigate, and with the school year over I had a chance to do so.

I also had a chance, however, to work with some great folks over at Always Watching, a fantastic film/TV site which features some great, well, features on a regular basis. I’ve spent some time on their podcast in the past, and was honoured to be asked to contribute a series of articles to cover the television side of things. I certainly view these as complimentary to this blog experience, so don’t think that it will keep me from pontificating on television here at Cultural Learnings.

Cultural Conundrums is a good chance to have video retrospectives and definitive analysis of the season that was, or the shows that I watch. The first edition is The Many Faces of Michael Scott, an analysis of the ways in which Michael Scott’s character on “The Office” seems downright schizophrenic at points. The end result, of course, is a character that is all sorts of different things, and that diversity allows for the humour and genuine character development to be heightened at a moment’s notice.

The Many Faces of Michael Scott @ AlwaysWatching.org

Special thanks have to go out to Dave Chen, who went through the ludicrously exhaustive trouble of retrieving the Hulu videos – we Canadians can’t access them, so he really deserves a co-author credit on this one. (On a related note: sorry to my Canadian/International readers who won’t be able to view the videos – hilariously, I’m in the same boat, so know that even the author feels your pain!)

You can also Digg the article, to help get the word out about Dave, Devindra and Adam’s great site (And, perhaps this one too, if you want) by clicking the Digg Button conveniently located to my right. But, please, make sure you head over to Always Watching too, it’s a great read.

Will be back tonight with thoughts on tonight’s episode of The Office, the Season Finale of 30 Rock, AND the NBC Finale of Scrubs. I will probably hold off on Lost until tomorrow, just to give the requisite time to the finales.

Screen Actors Guild Awards – Television Winners and Thoughts

This will be brief, as I am entering an extremely hectic period in terms of work and the like, but I thought I’d react to this evening’s Screen Actors Guild Awards from a Television (series) perspective. It may only be an hour in, but all six major television awards have been given out, so let’s take a look at the trends.

Drama

Best Actor – James Gandolfini (The Sopranos)

Best Actress – Edie Falco (The Sopranos)

Best Ensemble – The Sopranos

Well, there’s not much room for analysis here: while the Golden Globes might not have been feeling the love for the departing HBO drama, the SAG was certainly feeling reflective when they handed out their awards. I hate to continue to see Michael C. Hall lose awards for his fantastic portrayal, but it’s hard to argue with any of these winners. The only thing I would have liked to see what some love for Mad Men, but the nominations alone indicate that people are paying attention. The series also recently picked up a DGA win for Alan Taylor’s work on the pilot, so its future remains bright.

Comedy

Best Actor – Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)

Best Actress – Tina Fey (30 Rock)

Best Ensemble – The Office

It looked as if two series might be completing a sweep of the awards, but it was not to be: despite having the best male and female performers of the year, it was the expansive and diverse Office cast which took home their second straight trophy for Best Ensemble. I’m happy for them, honestly, as they remain an extremely good cast as a whole – however, I also hate to see 30 Rock, which is also a great ensemble, get hung out to dry just a little. Apparently Baldwin wasn’t even at the ceremony, which is a disappointment; Fey was, however, and was as self-deprecating as ever.

At a certain point, though, she’s going to have to drop the charade and fess up to being pretty damn good. She’s now won two major acting awards, so it’s not as if there is nothing to back up such claims. It is also telling that this is an award from actors; she is well respected in all guild circles, mind you, but for the actors to embrace her this fully demonstrates her genuine likability. It’s awards buzz like this which will ultimately get the show renewed for a third season, especially when you consider that NBC was the first network to ditch pilot season.

For the full list of Screen Actors Guild Award winners in Film, Television and TV Movies, click here.

All in all, a decent set of winners, none of whom make me want to wretch. This makes for a good awards show, and I can sleep well tonight. Tomorrow, I’ll be back with some brief thoughts on Lost, and then watch for reviews of House’s first new episode in quite some time, ABC’s new drama Eli Stone, and of course Lost’s fourth season premiere. So stay tuned!

Season Premiere: The Office – “Fun Run”

“Fun Run”

September 27th, 2007

I would like to make two observations about this highly anticipated fourth season premiere of The Office. First, I would argue that “fun” is not a proper descriptor for the episode’s events: while certainly with its funny moments, it felt overlong and tired compared to some of the show’s more engaging and classic episodes. The second is that despite this fact, millions of viewers are likely to be so satisfied by the “Jam” (Or PB&J as Kevin calls them) developments that none of that will matter.

I’m far too cynical to avoid pointing out the episode’s issues, but can we talk about how adorable Pam and Jim were in this episode? Whether it’s their secret glances, their secret rendezvous or their secret estate-sale browsing, their secret affair was the part of the episode that felt most fresh and, importantly, interesting. I care about these two people, as irrational as that may be, and I liked that the show used its documentary format to slowly reveal the relationship through the hour.

But there were other story threads I was interested in following following the show’s third season premiere. I wanted to see how newly unemployed and psychotic Jan changed Michael’s life, and how newly promoted Ryan would play a role in the affairs of The Office. I was also curious to see how Karen’s reaction to Jim’s post-New York singlehood would affect the show’s core relationships. However, this hour barely touched on these issues, focusing instead on hijinx and another key relationship.

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under Television, The Office

Tagged as Entertainment, NBC, Season Premiere, Television, The Office