The Hurry Up: The Office

Oh boy...I was going to do a big break down of what I think has happened to The Office by contrasting season 2's "The Injury" where Dwight gets a concussion with this season's "Tallahassee" where he gets appendicitis, but instead I'll just mention it generally here. It's not the loss of Steve Carrell, even though that seems like the easy conclusion along the lines of "I thought losing Peyton Manning would hurt the Colts, but MAN how good must he be if they're this bad?" It's not even REALLY the fact that the antics have gotten wayyyyy wackier over eight (again, EIGHT!) seasons, because that's a symptom rather than a cause. So what's the cause?

It's the cameras.

I actually went back and watched "The Injury" before realizing "Tallahassee" wasn't available online anymore, and it's incredible how glaringly obvious the issue is when you watch it and compare it to any episode from this season. People think the documentary format was the goundbreaking bit about The Office(UK) but it was what they DID with the format. The documentary format in the original Office and the first few seasons of the American Office made the audience a character, and that was the genius of it. David Brent and Michael Scott often reached their most cringeworthy while trying to impress US, not the other characters. They noticed where the cameras were pointing, who was getting the audience's attention, and they'd start trying anything to get next to that person or get the camera to turn to them instead. A character's reaction to the camera tells you something about them, and what you know about them informs how they're reacting in front of the camera.

Perfect example is "Michael's Birthday," where Michael's big day is overshadowed by Kevin possibly having skin cancer. Michael isn't a bad guy, and he doesn't treat his employees badly because he's a jerk. He treats them badly because he's so obsessed with the camera's (and thus the audience's) attention that he only sees his employees as tools to gain that attention ("cool" Jim, "hot" Pam, "hot" Ryan, and "urban" Stanley all being people Michael thinks the camera will gravitate towards, and thus people he gravitates towards), factors that threaten that attention ("old" Phyllis and Creed, "ugly" Meredith, and "weird" Dwight all being camera-poison, and Toby stifling his energy and creativity), or worst being RIVALS for that attention. Michael shows genuine concern for people in his moments of reality, and were the film crew to have never come to the office I'm sure he'd be totally focused on Kevin and his troubles. Michael's birthday was supposed to be a day he'd be guaranteed the camera's attention, because it's a day everyone has to pay attention to you and you alone. He wears a new suit, and although they never have him say it, it's obviously because he knows he's going to be on camera! His birthday party is at an ice rink, because his greatest talent is skating, and he wants to show it off for the camera. Kevin ruins that by taking away focus when he could get sick any day of the year, but "picks" the the one day of the year that's Michael's birthday. Without the importance of the camera, Michael just looks like a complete asshole, and in recent seasons people have looked like assholes because they still do these childish, attention whore things, but they never seem to care if it's getting them on camera.

Case in point: how does Andy feel about being on camera? That's why Andy is less interesting than Michael, he's a man with no subtext related to the general conceit of the entire show. He's the subject of a documentary, and there has been no explanation or even hint of how he feels about that.

The flip-side is the dramatic moments, which were fascinating because the characters didn't want them on camera. In "The Dundies" when they're leaving Chili's and Pam is drunk she says to Jim "hey, can i ask you a question?" then notices the camera and says "um, I just wanted to say thanks." We, the audience, REALLY wanted to know what that question was, but our being there directly affected what she was going to say and we probably blocked a major step forward in their relationship. The guilt of the audience went a long way to prevent Jim & Pam seeming contrived, because we weren't innocent in the forces keeping them apart. We don't hear Jim confide in anyone about his feelings until he talks to Michael in "Booze Cruise" about how he "used" to have a crush on her. Any other show could have him waxing poetic to a best friend character, safely tucked away from any actual observation, but the genius of The Office was that if we were seeing it then the characters knew everyone was seeing it, and adjusted their behavior accordingly.

What about now? NO ONE NOTICES THE CAMERA. The show isn't faltering because Michael is no longer a character, it's because WE are no longer a character. Two new characters jump to mind immediately as perfect examples of this: Cathy the temp and Val's boyfriend Brandon. Brandon is an easy one so I'll get him over with. He delivers some food, confronts Darryl believing he's sleeping with Val, and NEVER ONCE looks at the camera or seems to care that he's on camera. Really? What non-sociopath ignores the fact that a documentary film crew is watching him do that?

Cathy's problem begins right before they head to Tallahassee when she seems to assume taking three steps away from everyone else will give her total privacy to declare over the phone her intentions to sleep with Jim. Doesn't check where the cameras are, doesn't lower her voice, just blurts it out straight up. Far worse is "After Hours," the same episode as Brandon's insanity, when she puts her plan in motion and goes to Jim's room to "hang out" and desperately and overtly attempts to seduce him...with a full documentary crew in the room that Jim consistently looks towards in shock. Why doesn't Cathy try to get them/us to leave? Wouldn't that vastly improve her chances of Jim doing something unseemly? She was trying to get him to come under the covers with her, but the camera crew is still in there, so what was the endgame? That one thing would lead to another in a moment of weakness for Jim...in front of a full camera crew who would politely leave while shielding their eyes? It's completely idiotic and it's insulting to be told that our presence no longer matters; that this is just a normal sitcom now but with the benefit of having characters talk to the camera.

I'm sure it's frustrating for the writers and actors, who probably feel like they're making solid jokes and being generally funny, but maybe when you're so involved in the production it's impossible to feel how distant the characters have become from the audience. The viewer has been pushed to the outskirts, told to watch while all these wacky characters go have fun over there. That was the separation The Office originally seemed designed to run counter to: we won't have a laugh track to tell you what's funny, we won't pretend you're not there, we'll reward you for paying attention even if it means some people miss the moment. Now it just has the lack of laugh track (probably because it's one of the shows that killed the laugh track, although its zombie roams CBS). I've already covered how the characters regularly forget we're there, but another big moment happened this past Thursday: they specifically showed the clip of Andy punching the wall back in season 3 at the start of the episode in case we'd be too dumb to recognize him punching the wall during his breakdown. Then, just in case you were actively trying not to get the joke, Kevin says, "man, he really hates that wall!" Does anyone else want to explain the reference further? Maybe have Jim draw a diagram while Pam explains in a talking head that Andy once punched a wall and got sent to anger management, and now he punched the same wall? Ohhhh! I get it! He punched the same wall! HAHAHAHAHA! Thank you for bashing me over the head with it, I feel rewarded for my dedication to this show!

My "Hurry Ups" are supposed to be short recaps of the season so far, and that's obviously not what this turned into. I hate to be shoveling dirt onto a show I love so much, especially when it's still full of such talented people, but the things that made it The Office aren't there anymore. I'm sorry The Office, you're not the same show I fell in love with. Let's not make this any harder than it already is...we'll always have season 2, the greatest season of any comedy show ever.

(Oh, don't worry, as with any break-up I'll obviously be stalking...err, watching...for the conceivable future.)

The Hurry Up: 30 Rock

I was about to say the same thing about 30 Rock that I said about Community, that the season's threads haven't really started to come together yet, but are there really threads? Avery is trapped in North Korea, but a captured North Korean spy might know how to get her out. Liz is still with Criss, and they've discussed having a discussion about maybe adopting a baby. Jenna's sexual walkabout is over and she's back with Paul. Kenneth is a janitor now. I really feel like this season could end without any of these things colliding with each other...but you never know.

It's become a little difficult to separate seasons of 30 Rock (can you honestly believe this is the sixth season? SIXTH!) since there aren't the types of storylines or events that can differentiate them, even though Liz's boyfriends should make it doable. This has also made any decline in the show equally difficult to notice until you catch an old repeat on Comedy Central. It's not a horrific shadow of its former self or anything, it's just a joke-a-moment pop culture megaforce that could never have sustained that momentum forever and should be lauded for remaining solid and true to its ideals. Pretty much the best case scenario for what Arrested Development would've turned into after six seasons if we're going to be honest with ourselves.

• Best Episode So Far: "Hey, Baby, What's Wrong" because I'm going to pretend I got this done before last Thursday's live episode (like I meant to)
• Worst Episode So Far: "The Tuxedo Begins" but I should stress it was hard to find an episode I legitimately disliked. They all had something I enjoyed in them (such as "normaling" in this one). Maybe it's just because I saw the Batman Begins references coming early on and expected more from them after Community's homages.
• MVP Candidate: Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy (again)
• Rookie of the Year Candidate: James Marsden as Criss
• Best Moment So Far: Have to go with Dennis telling Criss the ending to the "Lez movie" they were watching on Showtime and having it turn out to be The Kids Are Alright. Couldn't think of a real stand out, but that was such a genius joke (remember, pretending I haven't seen the live show and everything Jon Hamm did on it)

The Hurry Up: Community

Is this the final hurry up for Community? *gulp* If it is then I can just take solace in the fact that it lasted three times as long as Undeclared and has equaled Arrested Development (which has since risen from the dead). Plus, Dan Harmon's experience with Channel 101 "the unavoidable future of entertainment" offers some interesting ways for the show to continue on if NBC decides to kill it in order to get...what, exactly? To replace it.

Anyway, let's just pretend we're really heading for #SixSeasonsAndAMovie and talk about the season so far. It's an odd hurry-up because things are usually winding down right around now, but due to the hiatus everything is still in motion at Community. Troy is still under pressure to embrace his destiny as an air conditioner repairman. Abed is being forced to become a real person instead of just an outlandish TV character. Annie has recently admitted that her infatuation with Jeff has nothing to do with having found "the one," and may have helped Britta turn towards an actual healthy relationship with Troy.

Also, it can't be coincidence that the evil study group from the worst timeline has been introduced, with their felt goatees standing in place for the goatees they're growing to show their evilness, and Vice Dean Laybourne just HAPPENED to show up with a goatee and inexplicable ponytail halfway through the season. There's a real Lost feel to the things that happen with the air conditioner repair school, with Laybourne as the man-in-black and Jerry the Janitor as Jacob. Right down to the room where the temperature is used to define room temperature almost being the light at the center of the island. But...maybe I just still miss Lost.

• Best Episode So Far: Origins of Vampire Mythology (Could've easily gone with Remedial Chaos Theory, but this one was fantastic without any gimmicks and I spent the whole week afterward watching it)
• Worst Episode So Far: Competitive Ecology
• MVP Candidate: Jim Rash as Dean Pelton. Literally every single moment of the Dean has been funny this year, and he was excellent as the Dean's many phases of ego in Documentary Filmmaking: Redux.
• Rookie of the Year: Travis Schuldt as Subway. As much for concept as execution (plus it doesn't hurt that I'm glad he got something to do after Scrubs)
• Favorite Scene So Far: Three moments have made me laugh the hardest: Seacrest Hulk, Kiss From a Rose, and the worst timeline in Chaos Theory. Best emotional scene goes to the ending of Vampire Mythology.

Tivo Roster Scouting Report: Is friendship magic?

You know that part in an alien invasion movie where a soldier will kill a giant monster in a really cool way and quip, "I love this job!" I can only imagine sociologists had the same reaction the first time a colleague mentioned the concept of a "Brony." A Brony, for those who don't know, is an adult male fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but I'll let Wikipedia explain further:

Two informal surveys of about 2,300 and 9,000 participants, respectively, revealed that the average age for the older fans was around 21, that approximately 86% were male, and that 63% were currently pursuing a college degree or higher.

In the past I have tried, and failed, to understand Twilight fans but in fairness it was never going to be my world. This time though? I'm WELL over 86% male and I have two college degrees! So at the risk of being judged by an inanimate object I told TiVo to grab the next episode of Friendship is Magic so I can see if I can see what the fuss is about and take a step towards understanding such a seemingly bizarre social group.

In the words of Dean Pelton, "I hope this doesn't awaken something in me..."

Play...

0:01 - Okay, first hurdle of understanding has been cleared...oh, and coincidentally the first scene is a pony jumping over hurdles. Anyway, as someone who grew up in the 80s and early 90s (aka the 1980s of the 1990s) my familiarity with My Little Pony is from the theme song which would play during the commercials and be relentlessly mocked on playgrounds around the English-speaking world ("my little pony, skinny and boney" etc). This show starts out with the same Disney princess soundtrack for a few seconds before going "hey, can you hand me the pop-punk shaker? Thanks *sprinkle sprinkle*" If you know the chorus to "Sk8er Boi" then you can't really be embarrassed by this theme song. That was one of my very first thoughts, "how are these guys able to sit through that theme song?" Now I know, not as hard as you'd think. Only thing is I was hoping the intro would answer whether this show has a villain or not, but I'm still unclear on that so far.

0:01 - Oh and we have our first ad break. Completely forgot how many ads kids' shows have. Excuse me, shows DESIGNED for younger audiences.

0:07 - This already has more depth and complexity than I was expecting. Ponyville's resident athlete, Applejack, is on her way to the big rodeo and is under pressure from her family to perform her absolute best, from the town leadership to win lots of money (she's already pledged her winnings to fix the town hall) and from her friends to have fun and make the most of the experience. Did not expect to get to use my Sport Studies degree to see parallels with the pressures faced by high-level athletes in a show about magical horses.

0:09 - Now she's sent word back that she won't be returning but will send the money soon. Her friends have decided to head out to find her and see what the problem is. Yes, I can see exactly where this is going, but I also once predicted at the beginning of a Disney Channel show I'd never seen that two characters would surprisingly kiss at the end of the episode, to the surprise of my friend who watched the show regularly. So I won't get confused about the appeal YET, because it might just be that I have magic powers in regards to plot predictions. My Mom certainly does, so it could be inherited.
0:09 - Oh, and another commercial break! There's an ad for "slushy magic" that's already giving me an ice-cream headache just looking at it.

0:16 - Yikes, I think I might have been wrong. Naturally I assumed Applejack did poorly and was afraid of letting everyone down, but instead she kicked ass and took a job at a cherry orchard. Her friends are sticking around to find out what she's not telling them though, so *fingers crossed* I could still be partially right! On another subject, I wonder if the writers come up with suitably whimsical things on an episode-by-episode basis or if they have a big list of jobs and locations that are properly whimsical for the characters to be engaged in.

0:19 - While the other ponies use their hooves like hands and pick stuff up to manipulate it, one of them can levitate stuff and just does that all the time with everything. Makes her seem really conceited. Yes, if I could levitate things I'd do it all the time too, and yes I just got really catty about a magical animated pony. Whatever *Z snap*

0:24 - After refusing to answer any questions about why she won't go back to Ponyville, Applejack is now escaping in a horse drawn wagon after attempting to ditch her friends again. I was going to mention how weird it was that the ponies would be using other horses for transport but then I realized I was essentially describing a rickshaw soooo carry on, I guess.

0:28 - YES! I was RIGHT! Take THAT, uh, easy to follow storytelling? Applejack won a ton of ribbons but didn't come in first in anything so she was worried she'd let everyone down and took the job to try and make up for the prize money she didn't win. Of course her friends are proud of her and super impressed with all the ribbons she won and assure her that "we can always find a way to fix that hole in the roof, but if you don't come back we'll never be able to fix the hole in our hearts." Aww.

I get it! Well, I get why kids would like it. It has a younger-skewing Powerpuff Girls vibe to it, it's fast paced, and has vibrant yet archetypal characters. If I had a niece who wanted to watch a marathon of it I wouldn't be bashing my head against the wall about sitting there watching it. Would I search it out though? Would I buy the show's merchandise and adjust my outward persona to indicate outwardly that I watch the show regularly? No.

So why are guys my age watching it that way? I'm a researcher so I'm not going to do the Fox News thing and go "some might say..." and pretend it's a deep psychological profile that fits every guy who has ever watched an episode of a kids' show. What I WILL do is contrast the moral of this story with what would have happened in the boys' shows I watched.

I kinda knew what was going to happen because I could recognize the storyline of the big event coming up, with all the pressure to succeed, and what happens when you then fall short. In my experience it could be because you're Billy the Blue Ranger and have a big test coming up, so Rita sends down a monster called, I don't know, Exam-antis the praying mantis who asks multiple choice questions. OR the actual Power Rangers episode where Billy gets a B on a test so Rita sends a Bee-themed monster to attack him and destroy his psyche (look it up). The main character has all this pressure and expectation to succeed, they fall short, and they succumb to their worry that the people they care about will be disappointed or upset. Classic storyline.

The difference comes in the angle shown of that storyline. While Power Rangers would focus on the character undergoing the hardship, and place their friends at arm's length and absent from the narrative, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic focuses squarely on Applejack's friends and their reaction to her disappearance. Power Rangers would show visions from Billy's imagination, of his friends laughing at him or being ashamed of him, possibly with wavy lines or soft focus to indicate this was happening in his head. At the end he'd reveal to his friends that's what he thought their reaction would be, and they'd tell him how silly he was to think that and tell him how worried they were when he became distant. Friendship is Magic SHOWS how worried Applejack's friends are, and causes the audience to want to discover "what made her upset?" rather than share the character's fear of "will everyone be mad at me?" It's a subtle difference, but an important distinction. "Boys'" shows that I can remember feature characters suffering through the loneliness and doubt that we have all experienced and has the friendship stuff occur off-screen. When Applejack reveals her shame over not coming in first we all immediately understand because we've all been there, we don't need to see what Power Rangers will show us. Instead, Friendship is Magic shows us the friendship stuff, the part that's usually "off-screen" in real life when you feel alone, the part you don't get to see or notice when it's most important to.

The other important difference is the ending. If a kid on Power Rangers came in second in a karate competition the Rangers would tell them that's perfectly okay, just work harder and you'll come in first next time. When Applejack's friends see all the ribbons she won they're proud without any reservations. In their minds she kicked ass, and deserves praise for it. Is this what guys are getting from My Little Pony that they never got anywhere else? The idea that you can be proud of your accomplishments without having to now be responsible for immediately rededicating yourself to improving upon them in an ever-escalating cycle that never results in satisfaction or a feeling of achievement? I mean, obviously that's not going to be the moral of every episode, but if the overarching message of the show is "it's okay to be happy and to make other people happy and leave it at that" then I actually can see what draws Bronies to it.

The gender identification aspect of Friendship is Magic's male following seems to be the main mystery about it, more than anything age-related. The thing is that isolation and self-doubt are universal problems for everyone but assholes, and assholes exist in all genders, as do non-assholes. Being an asshole, at its base, has nothing to do with gender, or sexuality, or socio-economic status, or nationality, or ethnicity. It has everything to do with a desire for emotional isolation and ignorance, an incapability for empathy, and an unwavering focus on personal material success. I've noticed that when people describe pressure to act "masculine" the behaviors have more to do with being an asshole than anything required of simply being male. The idea that you need to be ruthless to succeed in business has always seemed to me to be more about the business world being ruled by assholes than being ruled by men. Looking at Bronies I don't see a group of guys wanting to act feminine, I see guys enticed by the idea that they don't have to be assholes. Taking the gender aspect out of it, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic reminds me of Chuck, the NBC show about a regular 'nerd' pressed into service as a spy for the CIA. I say 'nerd' because Chuck himself was tall, thin, smart, and handsome and the nerd moniker was more about his resistance to be ruthless than his proclivity for video games. He wanted to be open with his feelings, be with his friends and family, and make sure people were taken care of; everything the ponies of My Little Pony seem to represent. He wasn't in Ponyville though, he was in the CIA where even the women are men, and much if not all of the show's dramatic aspects developed out of that conflict. Chuck fandom doesn't get attention though, because it has guns and beautiful women and explosions and a male main character, but the morals seem to be the same albeit hidden under the codeword of 'nerd' rather than laid bare in magic rainbow-colored girlish delight.

So no, watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic didn't make me a Brony, but it didn't make me wonder what this world is coming to like Twilight did (and still does). Taken at face-value it's the same "sensitive guy" phenomenon that's been around for far longer than I have, and might just be a hyper-reaction to a Gears of War masculine "ideal" that only seems to be becoming more sociopathic. Either way, it's healthier and more enjoyable than watching the waning episodes of Entourage.

Rating: *ding* thumb up.