I got a total Macbeth vibe when Angela and Dwight were scheming. "Goodbye, Kelly Kapoor."

Oh, good! The Office discussion! I was late in catching up with the show yesterday and I looked on the thread briefly last night but there wasn't much discussion then.

The yogurt-lid gold medal killed me. The callback to "Office Olympics" was such a perfect touch, I wanted to hug whichever writer came up with it. It was Paul and... someone else, who wrote the episode, right? And the look on Jim's face when he answered, "friendships," to David Wallace. Gahhh. Like I said in LJ, I felt like that flashback to Beach Games was the culmination of Jim's arc this season, much as the speech before it was Pam's, albeit a much quieter one. Jim's been sort of lost all season, and he finally admitted that to himself and to Pam, and I felt like that was the first time they'd been completely honest with each other since... well, ever. And Pam's talking head at the end -- well, that was the first time she admitted *on camera* that there was more than friendship between Jim and her, right? And the juxtaposition to her talking head, when she sounded so sad but so brave ("... and if he never comes back again... that's OK. We're friends." *cue waterworks*) with Jim's return trip home -- it was so incredibly poignant and perfect. And I really think Pam would have been OK. She'd have been heartbroken, but eventually, she'd have been OK. But then he came back, and I know I said that it would have been enough for Pam to finally come to her own in last week's episode even if these two didn't get together, but I... well, kind of burst into tears because Pam looked so happy. That's not too lame, right?

The Office is really about Pam and Jim, so once they're solid, it's sort of over.

Hmmm. Even though I'm way too emotionally invested in Jim/Pam, I don't think this is true. We've had very little Jim/Pam for most of the middle patches of the season, and I think they've shown that the show can have plenty of heart even when it's not centered around Jim/Pam. (I'm thinking in particular about that gorgeous Dwight arc in the middle that culminated in Michael asking him to come back from Staples, the Michael/Pam stuff at the art show, Angela's character growth, etc.) I'm curious to see what they're going to do with Jim/Pam, and the utterly train-wrecky Michael/Jan (the total implosion of Jan and her loss of dignity was the only thing about the finale that didn't make me happy) and hopefully more developments for minor characters next season.

I assumed Jim invited Pam to dinner because he and Karen were no longer a couple. Largely on his "it's a date" comment, even though there's some room to interpret.

And as I've said in Bureaucracy, I'd also like somewhere to keep discussing.

I can't remember if I fell asleep before the ends of Scrubs. How stupid is that? How did it end, Matt?

Elliot and JD were hiding in the on-call room freaking out about their respective relationships, and after a montage (of happy couple Carla & Turk, dysfunctional couple Cox & Jordan, and Keith and Kim alone waiting up for them) they're lying together on a cot, turn to each other, and the screen fades to black.

I definitely fell asleep then, Matt. Thanks. I will have to watch the whole thing, tonight.

The Office is really about Pam and Jim, so once they're solid, it's sort of over.

Hmmm. Even though I'm way too emotionally invested in Jim/Pam, I don't think this is true.

I think I overstated. I know I've read that Gervais said the UK original series was really all about Tim and Dawn -- that the film crew came to tell a story about a regular old bad boss in a regular job, and happened upon this love story in the making, so that shaped the fictional film crew's choice of footage, and editing, etc. Jim and Pam are like Tim and Dawn in that they're one another's bright spot and sanity. Pam and Jim are less central to the US series than Tim and Dawn were to the UK original. The rest of the US cast gets more focus than the rest of the UK cast got, but P/J is certainly a focus of the fictional documentary crew.

I think the US series has somewhat more freedom to let Jim and Pam get closer here and there than Tim and Dawn could be, but they really can't just be a happy couple, or the show will (I think) lose something. They're not eccentric enough to handle the way the show has handled the other office couples. They're our regular, competent, bored people in a crazy office full of dysfunctionals. They need conflict to keep them going.

Creed thoughts [link]

OMG, that's hilarious.

Sometimes when I’m sick, or feeling blue, I drink vinegar. I like all kinds: balsamic, vodka, orange juice, leaves.

I only wish it were formatted like a Word document!

So are we supposed to assume that Jim broke up with Karen before asking Pam out? I hope he did. The editing didn't make that clear, and the moment came off a little wrong to me because of it.

But, yes, OMG gold medal.

I thought that the conversation about what would happen if one or the other of them got the job pretty much put an end to their relationship, assuming there was further discussion off-camera.

I like Scruffy Jim. Loved Stanley about The Schrute Bucks. Loved the Olympic callback Couldn't really believe Jan Levinson would do that, though I thought it was funny.