I had missed Ryan knocking the boquet away. Thanks for post the GIF.

Anyone notice that Pam was sitting on the opposite side of all of her co-workers in the church? Guess she's a better friend of Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration than Phyllis.

I swear, every Creed moment is golden. I'm glad that they don't overdo his character. It makes his brief appearences more special.

My favorite pic.

http://www.the-frat-pack.com/images/...herjanemag.jpg

they had the same pilot episode in both series, so it was probably covered there

There were other Dunder-Mifflin employees sitting on Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration's side. I saw some pics which indicated that at least Angela and Roy were there, sitting a couple rows behind Pam. I think Kevin, Toby, and Toby's girlfriend from "the gym" might have been sitting over there, too. I guess it just wasn't very obvious in the episode.

I am still baffled at why you are arguing and agreeing at the same time.

The point is that "It has many elements that reflect real life". These become diluted with over the top behavior. It doesn't have to be real all the time, just enough to set up for the comedic moments. That didn't happen with Michael on this last episode.

This isn't an episodic sitcom. It's a serial comedy that has arcs based in drama. The foundation of the arc's, as with all drama, is based in realistic character development.

Many couples choose not to have "sides" anymore. We didn't and I can't really think of any I have been to lately that did.

Maybe I'm not being clear. I don't think Michael's over the top behavior is diluting the reality of the show, because his over the top behavior is part of the reality the show provides.


Michael has had "realistic character development," but realistic to the reality the show has created, not realistic to real life. This is the crux of my argument. Michael is a real character in the show, but could never be in reality; he is too outrageous. But that outrageousness works in the reality the show has created. That's why it is frustrating me that people keep complaining that Michael is becoming unrealistic. He is only becoming unrealistic if you consider the world he lives in to be absolutely real, which it is not and never has been.

Obviously, this show has a difficult line to walk, in terms of balancing the drama with the comedy. People have brought this up before, that the show is going too far with it's comedy, but it always seems to come near the episodes where there is a fair amount of drama as well (usually Jim/Pam situations). I can obviously see that people are getting invested in the drama of the show, maybe too invested, and forgetting that this is a comedy with dramatic touches, not a drama with comedic touches. This is not Grey's Anatomy. This show is a comedy first, drama second.

That is what I needed to hear. Of course they aren't the same, but, there IS a theoretical limit to what a TV character can do in their show and not have the audience brand them an asshole "because it's just a TV show."

Now that we have that theoretical limit of tolerance established we can make this statement:

"Some viewers limit of tolerance is higher than other viewers."

Now that we have that established I can make this statement pertaining to only myself:

"I thought Michael was being an asshole at the wedding, above and beyond his average socially inept behavior."

Not sure if this was addressed, but from a continuity standpoint, the last scene shows Michael in the room when the bride and groom cut the cake, yet earlier in the show he is thrown out of the wedding by Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration before this occurs. Are we to assume that he was able to get past Dwigt at the door?

Even if the cake cutting was before the toast, Michael told Dwigt when trying to crash back in that all he wanted to do was to sit down and have a piece of cake. Are we to assume that the cake was cut, he literally had cake on his face, but wasn't able to get a real piece before the toast? Kinda sloppy writing or editing.

The last wedding I was at (last weekend), the bride and groom cut the cake immediately after entering the reception. The cake wasn't served until after the dinner though, which means it was after the toasts as well. If this played out the same way in Phyllis's wedding, then the scenes show do make sense.

During the reception, I was told a lot of weddings are doing the cutting of the cake earlier like this nowadays. I think it has something to do with speeding up the process, since dishing and serving the cake takes time, which is now done while everyone's eating dinner.

What a piece of shit episode this week. I hate this show whenever they are out of the Office and detract away from office Antics. That's why I hated Phyllis' Wedding and Diwali, and A Benihana Christmas was only so-so. Stay in the fuckng Office - if the show's is called The Office, why are we spending entire episodes out of it?

Diwali was one of the best episodes of the season.

Actually, I believe the very last clip they show before the credits is supposed to be like an outtake from the episode. They've done this for several episodes (maybe the whole season, I can't remember).

Yeah, god forbid they should shake things up now and then.

on a random note, when did Jim get his desk back from Ryan? just noticed that during the altoids opening.

Yeah, that's why I stopped watching Grey's Anatomy. They were spending too much time on the hospital and other characters and not focusing enough on Grey's anatomy. I mean, come on! That's the name of the show!

JIm is still in the same desk. He used to be in the desk that Ryan now occupies, to the right of Dwight. Now he is across from him.

The key issue to Jim's desk is that it used to face Pam. Now he sits with his back to her. I would prefer his old desk.

My issue with michael is that last time we saw him and Andy, he was Mr. Straight man and actually seemed very out of character to Andy's goofball ways.

This week, its the other side, he is increidbly off the charts unbelievable as a human being.

Writers pick a Michael and stick to it.

Thats what David Brent did so well, he was always an uncomfortable schmoe.

Good article in EW on Karen this week.

I think that in that episode, it was just Michael getting a taste of his own medicine from Andy and really not liking it. He obviously didn't put two and two together and realize that Andy is just Michael at 11.

yeah, it's definitely an outtake. he was just wondering about the timeline, as michael was kicked out during the toasts. so the question was, did the cake cutting come before the toasts? or was it just an error?

To be extremely technical, he had to look sideways at Pam before. She could always look straight at him, but now he can't look at her and she sees the back of his head. He is, interestingly, now looking at Karen in the same way Pam used to be able to look at him...

I wonder if anyone on the show gives this level of thought to the desk placement...

I would think it is entirely deliberate, since it's symbolic of the relationships. Whatever we think we know about a show, the writers will always know more.

Except that sometimes we realize that shows suck, and writers don't seem to know it! No, I don't mean The Office! Even episodes that aren't up to par are still worth watching.

Draven, you are, of course, correct about the previous desk placement.