Thursday, May 29, 2008

But is it Cheaper by the Gallon?

The Office

What a horrible little show. I was surprised, at first, to hear that it struggled its first season, and keeps getting nudges and bumps and lots of help from corp staff as far as network scheduling and second chances.

Then I watched the first three episodes.

It's just not a funny show. In fact, it's deeply uncomfortable. The "humor" involves working for a tasteless boss. And the discomfort comes from the fact that we've all worked for (or deeply dreaded working for) a loser, clueless boss just like this one. These are the people who control your salary, your health insurance, your 8-12 hour workday. And they're utterly incompetent. But not in a funny way.

To add insult to injury, the only female main character is... the secretary. Seriously. And she seems to only exist so one of the sales guys can have a hopeless crush on her. It's just this side of insulting.

I nearly didn't finish the last episode on the disk, then realized it was the only "new" television I had in the house, and ground through it.

I'm sure the show's gotten better since it first came out, but I understand now why it struggled.

They kept this on an cancelled Firefly?

Seriously?