The Office – more pointedly, When It Jumped The Shark

In case you’ve been living under a rock in the bottom of a Yamal crater for the past eleven years, The Office was a successful NBC show about the workings of a paper company’s local office in Scranton, PA with a cast of misfits stealing our hearts using genuine realness, charm, and an astonishing sense of nuanced reactions and comedic timing. Steve Carell takes the lead in this mockumentary-styled comedy based off the British show of the same name (with a perfectly mastered David Brent from the mind of Ricky Gervais. Seriously, if you haven’t seen it, check out the original right meow. It’s on Netflix.) The show had an immaculately crafted group of caricatures that gave each masterly line the delivery it deserved. There was the screwball boss who everyone had to indulge, (think parents acting amused by their kid doing a shitty summersault,) the ‘straight’ couple playing will-they-won’t-they, the absurdist coworker who is a mix of a 19^th century beet farmer and a modern 12 year old boy, his severe hypocritical Christian girlfriend, and a few more half-Normz to remind us this takes place in Anytown USA. 

The show is great; it’s one of my top 3 favorites of all time (seasons 1-5 tho….Seinfeld and Arrested Development are the other two..) But it started to veer off track…..showing signs during season 5-6 (of an overwelcomed 9) when Jim and Pam get engaged, Pam leaves the office to try college in NY, (I get it, the character needed her creative justice. But the show felt the burn because of it.) And Jim and Michael go through a painful attempt at co-managing the office in an expected and rightfully owed endeavor to Jim and his effort to climb the corporate ladder. The premiere of season 6 has Michael furiously trying to gain popularity by spreading absurd rumors about his coworkers, forcing Jim and Pam to admit she’s pregnant to alleviate the pain of Stanley’s true rumor, that he’s cheating on his wife. (Oy.) One of the most cringe-worthy episodes is when the office crew plays out a murder mystery scenario, it’s so campy it hurts. There’s another terrible episode where Michael is forced to payout on an asinine promise he made ten years before – to send an entire class of students to college. Are these writers masochists?? This was so unbelievably painful it’s possibly the worst episode in the series. I’d rather not view them all to really find out if that’s true…

The show ultimately chops off its genius head when Jim and Pam get married – more exactly, when the show has its first musical number - the office drones goofily mimicking the viral YouTube video of the wedding party dance number where they’re flailing down the isle that you probably know what I’m talking about but cannot figure how else to describe it but I KNOW you know what I'm talking about. Google it if you don't. "Wedding party dance viral video" maybe?? Or not. Ya know. It's painful. (It is my moral obligation to mention this episode’s writing received an Emmy nom….UGH.) 

Other signs of vitals failing – the show’s star left at the end of season 6 when his contract ended, an injection of an awkward and obvious attempt at a new ‘straight’-ish couple will-they-won’t-they storyline (with Erin and Andy,) while the paper company goes bankrupt and was literally bought out by a new company like a dying body desperately receiving a new organ. If the buyout was an organ, the roster of new bosses coming through acts as blood bags…… Or something like that. I dunno, I’m not fucking MD I’m just a judgey TV viewer. This includes Kathy Bates, Will Ferrell, James Spader, and Catherine Tate. Honestly it’s just comical to me writing those names in a row like that. What was the show thinking? Why not shoot the horse once its lame leg was established, like Dwight would accurately recommend? OH I KNOW. Cuz I have this theory. 

In the age of Binge Watching and easily accessible online feedback from the idiot masses, TV execs are wide-eyed at the information they can dissect and overanalyze. (Let’s remember a petition allegedly kept Community from getting the initial studio axe. YES I SIGNED IT THANKYOUANDG'DAY.) Season 6 aired in 2009, balls deep in the up and coming shrine of Netflix Streaming (2007) – what could be deciphered as the saturation of Binge Watching. I personally feel that studios no longer call their own shots, and have started to depend too highly on the new type of ratings and psyche of the viewer they can gather with this new medium. Therefore, less integrity is involved in the creativity and overall concepts of shows. These studios now feel the pressure of supply and demand as we guzzle them in several days, DYING for more. Actually, The Office might be the first example of a well-known beloved primetime TV show lasting too long. (Any other nominations??)

Let’s not forget the genius that is Michael Schur. (He’s that guy I’m dying to have dinner with, dead or alive.) He was one of the head writers of The Office, also played Mose Schrute, later co-created Parks and Rec with Greg Daniels (we’ll get to him later), and co-created Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Parks and Rec aired the same year as The Office season 6……. One can surmise his departure of the show was a big catalyst in its decline. After reading through the synopses of the last few seasons, the show ended on an overwrought, overacted, desperate, absurd state. Mindy Kaling was a writer of the show from day one, and I believe she was a big contributor to the show’s downfall. She co-wrote the Jim and Pam marry episode, and certainly has a personal flavor of embracing popular culture to a stylized degree. I cringed watching the “music video” she and Erin (Ellie Kemper) made together in a cheesy attempt at charm. While the use of pop culture was honed and restrained in Michael Scott’s hands during the first few golden seasons of the show, it was exploited and shoved down our throats once Mindy was more-or-less at the helm. Her technique didn’t quite fit the Office format, but it thrives in her current show – The Mindy Project. (I’m actually not a big fan but I gotta give it up, girl can write the hell out of a joke.) There’s a chance that the birth of Glee (also 2009) contributed to the showrunners’ acceptance of an 90% serious full-blown musical number. I can almost see Mindy’s convincing Greg Daniels it was a good idea.

I recall feeling a strong sense of farcical satire through season 6, as though the actors were playing themselves playing their characters. Something wasn’t clicking. It was as though a sense of self-awareness overcame the atmosphere of the once perfect dynamic between characters. New bosses of the office were marched through as often as I shower. (Actually….that’s not true…….. Do you know how hard it is to shower with two toddlers in the house?? Kids = loss of hygiene. TMI. I DIGRESS.) Storylines became tired and predictable. I tuned out around the end of season 6 I believe. I did tune into the last episode of the show for nostalgia’s sake, and boy did the writers know it. Michael Scott makes an appearance at Dwight and Angela’s wedding – which – we knew would happen. How could it not? These writers had people to please, and they were extremely aware of that.

Season 1 clocked in with 5.4 million viewers, the series peaked at season 5 with 9 million viewers, and ended on season 9 with a measly 5.1 million viewers. Ouch. History will ultimately reveal the show as a lesson to creators and viewers alike as an example of what happened at the crux of consumers over consuming, the show attempting to satisfy our gluttonous appetite for watching something six hours in a row…..Don’t pretend you’re above that, you know you’ve binge-watched. We all have. ‘MERICA amirite??

Furious 7

He gave me two choices, Exodus: Gods and Kings or Furious 7. After my voting for Exodus, he decided on Furious 7. There is absolutely no other way in the world I would watch this film except for the fact that we were both bed ridden with strep throat. And sometimes I let him choose the movie we watch. (Supawifey=me.) Seven flicks into the exhaustively overblown franchise, what left do the filmmakers have to do but shove some cars out of a plane, drive a million dollar car fifty stories up through several buildings in a row, send military grade missiles after some cars on the streets of LA causing “vehicular warfare”, and give Michele Rodriguez a case of amnesia in a feeble attempt to freshen up an otherwise repetitive and predictable storyline. 

The only other Furious film I’ve seen was the third one, Tokyo Drift - another movie I was dragged to by a gaggle of guy friends. And it wasn’t that great either. Admittedly I don’t believe I’m the key demographic for these movies, and action sequences tend to bore me. (Cuz I’m a snob? But for some inexplicable reason my mother has seen all seven and is somehow invested? I think?? That makes no sense to me. Maybe I’m missing something here….mmmmm no I’m sure I’m not. What gives, Ma??) I don't plan on viewing another one anytime soon, maybe I'll check back in around Furious 22: The Next Fenderation (yes? no? does this joke work?)

There was absolutely no redeemable quality to this movie, not even putting hottie Nathalie Emmanuel in a bikini or having Michele and Ronda Rousey decking each other through coffee tables in a billionaire’s baller pad in Dubai. The best moment was probably when Nathalie’s brainiac character quickly and accurately asserts who’s who in this cliché film world - Vin’s the alpha, Michele’s Mrs. Alpha, Paul’s the ex cop, and Tyrese is the clown. This was a satisfying bit of meta to me. The film is gratuitous in every way. One of the first scenes shows an array of female rear ends – embedding the song playing in my head as “butts, butts, butts-butts-butts. Big butts small butts round and flaaaat butts.” Each action sequence looked like a nightmare to produce and shoot, as absurd as each was conceptually and physically. “CARS DON’T FLY” Paul Walker (RIP!) points out to his kid. OH I BET THEY DO BY THE END OF THE FILM PAUL, I BET THEY DO. The majority of the $190 mil budget was certainly segued into the action sequences. Seriously, someone slashed the makeup budget, because these people came out of every car crashing, head bashing, missile blasting scene without a single scratch!!! Did Hollywood run out of fake blood?? That may be the most unbelievable part of the film. And did I point out they threw cars out of a plane? With people inside them? Parachuting safely right onto the road below? These people managed to survive every gut wrenching car accident unscathed except where the plot needed it – in the end, where (SPOILER!!) Michele’s memory returns as she wails over a seemingly dead Vin Diesel. But he still manages to survive, obvi. It’s not like they would make Furious 8 without him. The plot was uninteresting and predictable, not even going to explain it. The MOST interesting thing was Vin’s lack of facial expression. I think all his face muscles melted down into his real muscles. Or something. He was bad. DTRJ definitely out acted him. When DTRJ burst his arm out of his cast just by flexing, I BELIEVED it you guys! I also rolled my eyes and actually laughed out loud. 

Mk, end of rant, I’m about to praise this film for a historical cinematic feat. Paul Walker died after only half the film had been shot. Once the aftermath settled, the director decided to finish the film, as “Paul would have wanted.” After some story re-writes, using unused footage from the previous six films, some extremely skilled CGI masters, and Paul’s two brothers as body doubles, they managed to seamlessly complete the film without any sign of Paul’s passing. I knew Paul had died during production as I watched the movie, but I wasn’t sure when or how completed the shoot was at the time. I am blown away at the skill, subtlety, and finesse they showed from this process. Only at the last five minutes of the film would someone unaware of the situation say “hey did this guy die or something??” There’s a pretty heavy-handed goodbye to Paul Walker, but it is done in a very tasteful and respectful way. The only moment where I raised an eyebrow was at an unnecessary last shot of Paul driving a car (as I type this I realize they kind of had to have his last shot in a car to avoid fan outrage) alongside Vin Diesel. When I read which scenes they used doubles in, I was surprised I hadn’t noticed them sticking out like sore thumbs as I viewed the film. In case you didn’t know, during a break in filming, Paul’s life ended in the most poignant way – in a car crash. RIP Paul!

The Lego Movie

I cannot overstate how much I love love loved this film. I was uninterested in seeing it at first – I was afraid it was going to be too pandering to the glaze-eyed masses of consumers who kept asking “yeah why ISN’T there a Lego film??” Maybe cuz it’s a sacrosanct franchise you crazy fools!! You know there was a gigantic team of people making sure this film was perfect in every possible way. And in my honest opinion, it was. From the casting to the production design to the acting to the plot to the direction, this film was absolutely flawless. 

My favorite part about it was the visual feast of the production design. There’s a documentary about the production designer of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse – his name is Wayne White (and the doc is Beauty Is Embarrassing) and as someone acutely points out in the film, Wayne’s visual “look” will subconsciously impact a generation. Well they say something along the lines of that, and personally I think they’re right. Actually it’s more of how much I enjoy seeing a frame stuffed full of design than the real saturation of that idea in modern film and TV. If you haven’t seen it, Pee-Wee’s literal Playhouse is covered in tchotchke’s, patterns, colors, and design from floor to ceiling. (Seriously, Google Image that shit right now and it might give you a seizure, it’s so good.) The Lego Movie is that precisely. Every single centimeter of the screen has something to absorb and see. It’s bright, colorful, (as Legos are, naturally,) interesting, and just pure spectacle. In the current world of modernity where simplification is king, this film really stuffs each shot with something to behold. I need to re-watch it in slow-mo just to be able to really respect how thoroughly designed it was. Did you guys notice the fingerprints on the Legos? CUZ THEY WERE THERE. AND THIS WAS MOSTLY CGI. Part of me wonders if this has to do with filmmaking in a frame-by-frame sense – as animation is? There is clearly more thought, or at least a different thought, that goes into the imagery on the screen when it is built on a frame-by-frame level. Another good example of this technique is from auteur Wes Anderson – he’s a master at it. Each image is so thoroughly composed it’s bordering on overwrought. 

In order to have a successful Lego film, there has to be a certain amount of self-awareness injected. Meta is becoming a common thing, methinks. (Any Community fans out there? YAS.) I first fully grasped it during my Josie and the Pussycats obsession, circa 2001. “Who paid who to get these girls drinking Coca Cola on screen??” my dad would ask. If you don’t know, the film was about consumption and marketing and blah blah blah. ANYWAY. The idea of self-awareness is present in The Lego Movie on every scale, from Emmet Brickowski’s (THAT’S HIS REAL NAME) dopey and uber-lovable “I’m just an idiot simpleton builder and could never be the prophesied” shtick to the ultimate breaking of the forth wall scene where we learn who the real Master Builder(s) of this universe is, this movie gets it right. Like, Wild Style is a builder in this world someone else has built. COOL. I like to imagine the list of check-offs the filmmakers had to use. How do you not fuck up a Lego film? Here is what you must include, in this order: Legos, exploitation of the franchise licensing (see: Batman, Star Wars), humor (“My name is Wild Style.” “Are you a DJ??”), color, different settings and worlds, reference to Lego users, the dichotomy of those who follow directions and those who create, and more Legos. (Admittedly I could not play with my Sand Beach Café set unless it was built just so.) 

This film was made just so freaking well. Every aspect of it satisfied me exactly how I wanted to be satisfied. The only way they could ruin it is by segueing their bloated sense of self-importance into a sequel – which as Google tells me, they are!! OH GOODY. “This sequel, Lego Movie 2 was planned even before the first film was released, so sure was Warner Bros. of its success. As it turns out, they were right. The original Lego Movie was a massive critical and financial success, making The Lego Movie 2 an easy commitment.” Geez, that even reads as self-righteous egotistical bullshit. Have they no integrity??? :Sigh: Welp, we shall see. For the record, if it were up to me, the second film would have nothing to do with the first. Why recycle that world? ….Isn’t that the point of Legos? To build, destroy, rebuild…….. at least that's what I tell that to my daughter every time her brother ruins a tower she’s been so painstakingly working on.