The Office

I am a self proclaimed "not a TV viewer". It gets to be a struggle to watch stuff with the kids. They are at a funny age, with Chiyaa being a teenager and capable of watching young adult shows and Pumpki not so much. But we have the one TV. There needs to be a consensus. All need to watch the same thing - sometimes at least :) We have days where we search for stuff to watch. Over the summer, we searched and searched and for the lack of anything better, we started The Office.

I am aware of the legendary status this show has. I had watched a few episodes of The English Office when we had moved to the UK initially. But I never got the time to watch it continuously. But this summer, I started watching it and Chiyaa just came and sat beside me. She found it jarring, unreal and eventually funny. I agree there are some adult themes in there, and it is not suitable for young kids, but Pumpki used to hover around when Chiyaa and I were watching and she got roped in as well. K was not comfortable with her watching it and there were some episodes where we did them on the sly ;) 

The series I must say lived up to its hype. First and foremost its irreverent. We cant see it through the new 'woke tinted' glasses. Characters are unapologetic, characters are crass, characters are funny. The actors have such immense comedic timing that it just blew my mind. Each and every member of the crew had amazing timing. There are a few characters such as Creed, Meredith and Toby which just had us in splits as soon as the camera panned towards them. The main characters played by Steve Carrell, Jenna Fischer, John Krasinski, Ed Helms and Rainn Wilson are just stellar. They are awesome actors with such range. There are scenes where they go from goofing around to being remorseful, they go from being casual to really emotional and it just takes the audience through the roller coaster within a span of 2 to 3 minutes. The character arcs of the main leads is amazing too. Its like water cutting through stone, nothing happens on a day to day basis but one still sees so much happening over the years. As a viewer I was annoyed with some developments and over joyed with others. There is some real clever writing there which manages to stitch together the stories across 9 seasons with approximately 20 episodes each. 

The penultimate season is a bit boring. Too many characters seem to be drawn in to make a heady mix, but it seems a bit slipshod. But then the show comes back with a bang in the last season. It has more of a 'romance' angle instead of 'fun' but I think that's what the viewers were waiting for. Closure for some of the characters who felt like family.

Watch this for some amazing writing and excellent comedy. It is pure gold. And I am glad I could watch it with my little girls! May the legacy of The Office continue :)