Posted by
ChrisR on Friday, April 11, 2008 2:50:16 PM
It's Friday and I have a decent amount to talk about.
Last night was supposed to be a great tv night. It was...acceptable at best.
First, Idol. Michael Johns got eliminated? Seriously? And on "Dream On," which was one of his stronger performances? Wow. You could tel too, everyone there was shocked, including him. Then Seacrest was a jerk about it and was like "Last year we didn't eliminate anyone on this show.....but Michael is going home." Unnecessary. The Davids are still the elite 2, but I am still surprised about this.
The Office. Well, it's back. But this show has really fallen off the map since it peaked. My main problem is that it does not even have anything to do with the office environment anymore, which is what made it funny. Think of the last time an episode actually took place in the office - it's been at least a season and a half. Jim, Michael and Dwight were the focus of the show - now it's just Jim and Pam, and frankly, now that they are together, they don't have a ton of intriguing aspects to their characters. Michael and Dwight started as the weird guys in the office, but now are completely absurd, unbelievable characters. As my boss, Jon, said, anyone who says this is a "smart" comedy is wrong - it is not smart at all. The show started out funny becuase it was so ridiculous. Office Space was funny not becuase the characters were unbelievable caricatures - they were believable in that this could happen at any office. Dwight was the weird guy, but now he's a totally unbelievable character. It has no subtlety to it at all anymore either, there is no tension bteween Jim and Pam, there is no strange encounters between characters - everything is in your face and does not take any digestion.
As far as last night's episode, it was just uncomfortable. I am sure some people thought the encounters between Michael and Jan were hilarious - I didn't. Michael is pathetic and unbelievable at this point and Jan does not have a single redeeming quality - these are not real-life characters. It is too far away from being normal at this point that I can't find it funny. From the vesectomies to the stupid candle investments to the little tiny bed and the camera in the bedroom - there is not one single thing that Jan does which is not heinous. The problem is, they clearly want the audience rooting so hard for Michael that they explode when he finally throws her off of him - much like they did with the Jim and Pam relationship. I am calling it now - there's some strange twist with Michael and Jan right when they should break up (ala Jim's relocation to Stamford) that delays what happens, killing all of its steam. I guarentee it,.
I know nobody wants to hear this in wrestling terms, but this is how you build a good feud in wrestling., You have rising tension, mounting pressure, some conflict but no direct assaults between opponents. You want the good guy to be beaten down so badly that the audience is foaming at the mouth for him to finally get his hands on the bad guy. Whenever he gets close, though, he gets foiled, so people literally can't stand it anymore. But, in the same light, this is what makes a fued/show popular (or hot, in wrestling terms) - this build causes emotion and gets people going and creates interest ("will he get his revenge this week?!"), something which the writers want to prolong. The only problem, though, is that if you prolong it too much, people lose interest and it fizzles. When Jim relocated to Scranton, that fizzled the situation. The end of Season 2 - the kiss - was the peak of that tension. Then it fell back down by pulling them apart. By uniting them (or having the blow-off match to a fued), the writers are paying off the months of build. This works wonderfully...but with no new twists or turns, interest dies down. New fueds (or sotrylines) are developed. Now that Jim and Pam are not intriguing, Jan and Michael have become the focal "fued." Unfortunately, it is not being executed well - the hatred of Jan is way too forthcoming. The key to a great fued is the slow build - Jim and Pam went 2 full seasons before kissing, then another season and a half before becoming a couple. Michael and Jan revealed a good 10 pieces of information/hatred in one episode. Too much. Not enough slow burn. There hasn't been time enough for people's hatred to build. The audience hates Jan, yes, but not to the degree where this sort of thing was subtely brewing for months and months. Make sense? Didn't think so.
Next topic: the Mets won last night in 12 innings. I had a really long anti-Willie Randolph rant to write, but I am going to let it slide becuase nobody is even reading at this point. They won- good enough. Way to go Angel Pagan.
This blog editor is annoying me.
And here is the video of the day - very cool.