Thoughts On The Office

this post dovetails on a post i have been wanting to post for a while now on the subject of jim and pam (and karen).

SPOILER ALERT .... DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS WEEK'S THE OFFICE

like most, i was initially pro-pam. who wouldn't be, right? but then one day i read a back-and-forth on a blog about pam or karen and i realized that the karen side was making some good points, and over the past few episodes i have been agreeing with team karen. i feel that karen pushes jim more. she makes him better...not that pam keeps jim down, but i feel that karen just makes jim a better worker...again, not because pam is stupid or has a bad job, but karen as the professional woman pushes jim forward in a manner that pam can't...or can she? maybe from her position pam can push jim to achieve and realize his full potential...stop distracting me...bottom line: i have become pro-karen.

but tonight it has become aparent where jim wants to be; in scranton with pam. can i blame him? no. but did he make the right choice? i'm not sure. maybe jim does belong with pam, but jim does not belong in scranton. he is like (gag...i can't believe i am doing this again) lloyd dobler in seattle. i've always felt that part of the reason lloyd went for diane court is that she, in a weird way, was his ticket out of seattle. karen was jim's ticket out of scranton. in this i sympathize with jim. i needed a ticket out of washington and i got it in admission to NYU. but unlike jim, i was able to take it. maybe that is the kind of life jim wants, but he could do better, again, not better by pam, but better by himself professionally.

i guess what i am saying is i don't know anymore what i think. i would kill for a girl either like karen or like pam and if i had one and the other wanted me, i don't know if i could give one up for the other necessarily. but what i did find touching was the montage of jim and karen in new york. they had a magical day, the kind of day you can only have in new york. again, here is the new york romanticism floating out of me, but its true. you can only have those days and experiences in new york, and if i could be so honored to have just one during my tenure there, it will all have been worth it (ok, thats a lie, but THAT is one of the main reasons i am moving to new york. i need those new york experiences.). i just hope that jim has made the right decision. i like him.

one other office note: there are lots of philadelphia sports references in the show. the character ryan howard is actually named after THE ryan howard who used to play for the scranton/wilkes bare red barons. and, if you noticed, the corporate dunder mifflin guy joked with jim about him being a sixers fan. i don't know what affinity the writes of the show have to philadelphia sports, but i like it.

and in closing, as much as i like both the office and john krasinski (jim) i will never, ever, ever see that upcoming movie he has. ever. (unless there is a woman involved)