![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
The Office: My One Year Anniversary
So today marks my one year anniversary of watching The Office. Technically speaking, I watched the first two episodes the summer before last January but since I didn't get into it then it doesn't count. What happened is this: I heard The Office was smart and funny like Arrested Development so I decided to give it a try. I watched the Pilot and Diversity Day and enjoyed both. And yes, I liked Michael even then (I remember ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
snoopypez talked about him). But it didn't blow me away so I stopped watching it since sadly no one told me it got SO MUCH better in S2, that the tone changes a lot and it stops imitating the original (which didn't work for me anyways). But on January 16, 2007 I decided to give it another try. My interest had been piqued by a few Flist entries I saw with the episode title of "Gay Witch Hunt" and me loving the gay like I do, I was curious to what it was about. I started from Health Care and from there it just got better and better. As I said then:
I am loving The Office with Michael just being hilarious with his horrible social skills and bad jokes. Best comedy I've seen since Arrested Development and I love the camera work.
That day was also the first time I saw The Dundies which is still my favorite Office episode. I got up to 203 on the 16th and the next day finished the entire S2 and 301 falling madly in love with it. Here I begin my obsession and mad love for the show. I fell for Michael Scott, thought Jim/Pam was super cute and was "strangely attracted" to Michael/Jan. I specifically remember really loving them in The Client against all odds. One of my distinct memories from that day was walking to lunch with my iPod watching Valentine's Day and cracking up so much on the way there especially with Michael's video. I also remember watching Gay Witch Hunt (finally!) and cracking up hilariously.
The thing I love about this show is it knows how to be LOL funny especially on the first run through but after that you can rewatch it and still crack up or think things are funny/smart from the character humor and brilliant lines. I love comedy that comes from the characters and this show with it's wonderfully quirky characters has it in spades. I also fell completely in love with all the characters, relating in different ways to all of them and caring about their lives. What I love is they have aspects of real life to them, even Michael and Dwight and yet they still have tints of larger than life characters. The show has one of the greatest TV romances of all time in Jim and Pam, S2 truly is a dream and they truly make me smile and charm me away ever so much. However it was my falling for Michael/Jan after Back From Vacation that got me shipping and obsessing over a couple like nothing else. After that episode, I went back and watched their old scenes together over and over again, joined a community, read all the fic I could and watched some vids. It's always nice having a couple to watch and they definitely heightened my want to see the next episode.
I watched my first live episode January 18, 2007 as I managed to finish the rest of S3 before the new episode came out. The first one I watched was The Return and it was glorious. It's wonderful to watch live TV. And man did I get obsessed. I remember reading everything I could have find, adding Office people to my Flist, reading TwoP including spoilers because I was soooo desperate for the next episode, reading all the Office articles I could and rewatching all the episodes and clips many times. I remember watching Business School in the media room at my school and squeeing madly at the Michael scenes putting me in a good mood to love people and socialize with some people in my dorm. I remember going to Escapade on Thursday and waiting impatiently to download the episode as my M/J friends declared how amazing it was. I FREAKED OUT completely at the episode, falling off my chair, squeeing madly and loving the hell out of it as it became the best TV experience of my life after a month of anticipation.
Then on March 2nd, I got the amazing chance to go to Paley Fest and see the Office cast member talk about the show. I was so IN LOVE with the show and just seeing the actors and writers left me giddy. We watched Cocktails which was awesome as I love it a lot and knowing they could share our laughter and glee and know how much it meant to us. Even better was when we got to see a sneak preview of the next episode which was hilarious, smart and M/J filled leaving me super happy. Getting a chance to hear all of the cast and writers speak was too amazing for words not to mention the surprise guest of STEVE CARELL which was the best thing ever for me. I remember him kissing Oscar and talking to Melora and them making us all laugh. And after I got autographs and pictures from Melora, STEVE, Rainn, Angela and Jenna not to mention got to talk to Greg Daniels and tell all of them how much I loved the show, characters and relationships. Being with so many fans was amazing and I left with a huge sense of happiness with my show and the world. After that I got lucky and got to see a special screening of Melora's movie and actually get a chance to personally talk to her (and she remembered me!) which left me in a wonderful stupor. It's hard to top that and both are definite highlights of the last year for me.
After the horrible month of March with its 6 week hiatus of DOOM that left me obsessed and reading everything I could get my hands on, it was wonderful to get a chance to watch The Negotiation with fellow fan,noirrobin. Although I enjoyed Safety Training, two firsts then happened to me watching Office episodes. I was disappointed in watching Product Recall and heartbroken at Women's Appreciation Day. It was then that me and The Office had our first (and only) break up. Messing with my ship is never a good thing and Michael/Jan has sadly never fully recovered for me. But after some time, I got over it and amazing episodes after it helped. I had great fun watching Beach Games with two fans from the area in which we both shared lots of shock and squee at the last scene. I had converted lianri into watching it and we both spent lots of time after that episode and The Job talking about the episodes and the show in general.
After that was the sad summer of reruns in which I rewatched episodes and read about Office stuff on LJ. I worked on converting my parents (still working on it) and celebrated the Office Emmy nominations. Finally I saw the fourth season premiere withlianri at Cornell in a room with thirty other people and it was awesome. Sharing the laughter and shock and happiness throughout is a great experience. Not to mention I was in love with my show again. During the summer I stopped my obsession but never my love as it owns my heart completely. I will admit the hour long episodes weren't as good because of trying to make the plots too long but I still loved them as they made me so gleeful about the characters and were still smart and funny. I then got to go to The Office convention which was another mind blowing experience and best con after Vividcon. To be with so many fans who LOVED The Office was exhilarating and seeing all the writers and actors was amazing. I loved being in Scranton, the city where it happens and listening to the actors sing and meeting them and listening to the awesome panels (with more singing) and seeing bloopers and episode previews. There really are no words sometimes.
Then came the Triple Threat of episodes with Branch Games, Survivor Man and The Deposition which all blew me away on every level. Sadly the strike ended new episodes for what looks like the foreseeable future which just sucks so much. I miss my show. I did get to meet so many writers on the picket lines including Mindy (with a hug!), Paul, Jennifer, Brent, Justin, Michael and more along with Ed so that helped somewhat. Seeing Melora perform was also a wonderful experience. I still miss the days with a new Office episode to look forward to on Thursdays. I hope that day returns soon although who knows and I do support the WGA completely.
So that's my Office story although I'm leaving out a lot. As I see it, we fell in love in January, broke up in April, had a long distance relationship in the summer and steadily dated throughout the fall. And now we finally have our first year anniversary. I have decided I will rewatch every episode while I take vid notes and give commentary in this LJ like I did for episodes after they first came out although with a more holistic bent. One thing is for sure, I'll never forget this show or ever not be in love with it in some way. Thank you, show for everything you've given me.
The Office: You complete me.
snoopypez talked about him). But it didn't blow me away so I stopped watching it since sadly no one told me it got SO MUCH better in S2, that the tone changes a lot and it stops imitating the original (which didn't work for me anyways). But on January 16, 2007 I decided to give it another try. My interest had been piqued by a few Flist entries I saw with the episode title of "Gay Witch Hunt" and me loving the gay like I do, I was curious to what it was about. I started from Health Care and from there it just got better and better. As I said then:I am loving The Office with Michael just being hilarious with his horrible social skills and bad jokes. Best comedy I've seen since Arrested Development and I love the camera work.
That day was also the first time I saw The Dundies which is still my favorite Office episode. I got up to 203 on the 16th and the next day finished the entire S2 and 301 falling madly in love with it. Here I begin my obsession and mad love for the show. I fell for Michael Scott, thought Jim/Pam was super cute and was "strangely attracted" to Michael/Jan. I specifically remember really loving them in The Client against all odds. One of my distinct memories from that day was walking to lunch with my iPod watching Valentine's Day and cracking up so much on the way there especially with Michael's video. I also remember watching Gay Witch Hunt (finally!) and cracking up hilariously.
The thing I love about this show is it knows how to be LOL funny especially on the first run through but after that you can rewatch it and still crack up or think things are funny/smart from the character humor and brilliant lines. I love comedy that comes from the characters and this show with it's wonderfully quirky characters has it in spades. I also fell completely in love with all the characters, relating in different ways to all of them and caring about their lives. What I love is they have aspects of real life to them, even Michael and Dwight and yet they still have tints of larger than life characters. The show has one of the greatest TV romances of all time in Jim and Pam, S2 truly is a dream and they truly make me smile and charm me away ever so much. However it was my falling for Michael/Jan after Back From Vacation that got me shipping and obsessing over a couple like nothing else. After that episode, I went back and watched their old scenes together over and over again, joined a community, read all the fic I could and watched some vids. It's always nice having a couple to watch and they definitely heightened my want to see the next episode.
I watched my first live episode January 18, 2007 as I managed to finish the rest of S3 before the new episode came out. The first one I watched was The Return and it was glorious. It's wonderful to watch live TV. And man did I get obsessed. I remember reading everything I could have find, adding Office people to my Flist, reading TwoP including spoilers because I was soooo desperate for the next episode, reading all the Office articles I could and rewatching all the episodes and clips many times. I remember watching Business School in the media room at my school and squeeing madly at the Michael scenes putting me in a good mood to love people and socialize with some people in my dorm. I remember going to Escapade on Thursday and waiting impatiently to download the episode as my M/J friends declared how amazing it was. I FREAKED OUT completely at the episode, falling off my chair, squeeing madly and loving the hell out of it as it became the best TV experience of my life after a month of anticipation.
Then on March 2nd, I got the amazing chance to go to Paley Fest and see the Office cast member talk about the show. I was so IN LOVE with the show and just seeing the actors and writers left me giddy. We watched Cocktails which was awesome as I love it a lot and knowing they could share our laughter and glee and know how much it meant to us. Even better was when we got to see a sneak preview of the next episode which was hilarious, smart and M/J filled leaving me super happy. Getting a chance to hear all of the cast and writers speak was too amazing for words not to mention the surprise guest of STEVE CARELL which was the best thing ever for me. I remember him kissing Oscar and talking to Melora and them making us all laugh. And after I got autographs and pictures from Melora, STEVE, Rainn, Angela and Jenna not to mention got to talk to Greg Daniels and tell all of them how much I loved the show, characters and relationships. Being with so many fans was amazing and I left with a huge sense of happiness with my show and the world. After that I got lucky and got to see a special screening of Melora's movie and actually get a chance to personally talk to her (and she remembered me!) which left me in a wonderful stupor. It's hard to top that and both are definite highlights of the last year for me.
After the horrible month of March with its 6 week hiatus of DOOM that left me obsessed and reading everything I could get my hands on, it was wonderful to get a chance to watch The Negotiation with fellow fan,
noirrobin. Although I enjoyed Safety Training, two firsts then happened to me watching Office episodes. I was disappointed in watching Product Recall and heartbroken at Women's Appreciation Day. It was then that me and The Office had our first (and only) break up. Messing with my ship is never a good thing and Michael/Jan has sadly never fully recovered for me. But after some time, I got over it and amazing episodes after it helped. I had great fun watching Beach Games with two fans from the area in which we both shared lots of shock and squee at the last scene. I had converted lianri into watching it and we both spent lots of time after that episode and The Job talking about the episodes and the show in general. After that was the sad summer of reruns in which I rewatched episodes and read about Office stuff on LJ. I worked on converting my parents (still working on it) and celebrated the Office Emmy nominations. Finally I saw the fourth season premiere with
lianri at Cornell in a room with thirty other people and it was awesome. Sharing the laughter and shock and happiness throughout is a great experience. Not to mention I was in love with my show again. During the summer I stopped my obsession but never my love as it owns my heart completely. I will admit the hour long episodes weren't as good because of trying to make the plots too long but I still loved them as they made me so gleeful about the characters and were still smart and funny. I then got to go to The Office convention which was another mind blowing experience and best con after Vividcon. To be with so many fans who LOVED The Office was exhilarating and seeing all the writers and actors was amazing. I loved being in Scranton, the city where it happens and listening to the actors sing and meeting them and listening to the awesome panels (with more singing) and seeing bloopers and episode previews. There really are no words sometimes. Then came the Triple Threat of episodes with Branch Games, Survivor Man and The Deposition which all blew me away on every level. Sadly the strike ended new episodes for what looks like the foreseeable future which just sucks so much. I miss my show. I did get to meet so many writers on the picket lines including Mindy (with a hug!), Paul, Jennifer, Brent, Justin, Michael and more along with Ed so that helped somewhat. Seeing Melora perform was also a wonderful experience. I still miss the days with a new Office episode to look forward to on Thursdays. I hope that day returns soon although who knows and I do support the WGA completely.
So that's my Office story although I'm leaving out a lot. As I see it, we fell in love in January, broke up in April, had a long distance relationship in the summer and steadily dated throughout the fall. And now we finally have our first year anniversary. I have decided I will rewatch every episode while I take vid notes and give commentary in this LJ like I did for episodes after they first came out although with a more holistic bent. One thing is for sure, I'll never forget this show or ever not be in love with it in some way. Thank you, show for everything you've given me.
The Office: You complete me.
no subject
no subject
no subject
This was a very nice tribute to a great show. :)
no subject
Thanks!
no subject
no subject
God, I love that kiss.
no subject
no subject
no subject
You are not alone in your enduring Michael Scott love! :D I adored him from the beginning as well. I have always felt most sincerely drawn to his character, probably because he has the kindest heart ever and I <333 how he believes so absolutely in the power and importance of love and social relationships! Despite how he uhm, pretty much fails to establish the kinds of relationships he holds to such high esteem. It makes him a terribly tragic character in that respect, because I want above all for Michael to find enduring happiness in his life. A soul that golden deserves to be happy! (Don't say anything about how COUNTERPRODUCTIVE this is to shipping Michael/Ryan. *laughs* I know the love can only lead to heartache and ruin! But I can't help myself. I am forever fascinated with their dynamic. Moth to a flame, anyone?)
And omg you got to see Steve Carell in person. I am insanely jealous even though I am happy for you. :P I had the opportunity to see him at Comic Con but then uhhh I didn't purchase the tickets in time. OH YAY. It is my own fault, and then I later discovered that Edward Norton was at Comic Con on the same day and I beat myself with an imaginary stick for a week. But I digress!
I think it is great that The Office has given you so much joy, and that there are so many people with whom you can share the joy! It makes the experience that much more amazing. <3
no subject
That's awesome :) He really is the sweetest guy and I wish more people could see that through his crappy social skills. But I totally get that. It IS tragic! I would definitely be satisfied in the end if he got his happiness. I don't blame you for Michael/Ryan at all. Just watching Dunder-Mifflin Infinity on a rerun and he just loves the guy so much. I hope one day in the future maybe Ryan will finally appreciate him and Michael won't put him on a pedestal so much and they really can be friends.
I was SO happy when I got to meet him! I was not expecting it at all so I almost died of happiness. I told him all about how I loved Michael and he touched my soul, it seems a bit sappy now but that's really how I feel and I wanted it to come across. I named a bunch of his movies that I loved too. Disappointing about ComicCon but hopefully someday you'll get to meet him! The Office is definitely one of the most joyous things I have ever gotten and I'm so glad that so many people agree with me (including you!) :)
no subject
And I totally support a month celebration!
There definitely needs to be a fudgey the whale cake day, and I say we make Mexican lemonade the official drink.
Michael is one of my favorite fictional characters ever. I haven't liked a character this much in years. (On a tangent, Young Simba is totally one of my favorite fictional characters. I love The Lion King, and every time I see your mood theme I can't help but emit hearts in its general direction. Like right now, am totally sending a string of them. <3333)
Oh, Michael/Ryan. :DD If Ryan stopped being the epitome of douchebag to Michael, I would be ecstatic for both of them. I would love to see a flourishing Michael and Ryan friendship! Even though my inner fangirl would be screaming DON'T KID YOURSELF, WHAT YOU REALLY WANT IS TO SEE THEM BE FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS. Sadly for my inner voice, such a relationship will never happen. :P
Aw, your Steve story is so cute. You told him what was in your heart and that is what matters most. I think I'd say something equally sappy granted that I could manage to string together coherent words at all!
no subject
Same here! Not my typical type but he gets inside my heart and just makes me love him so much that I can't help him. I feel for the guy and people not liking him on or off the show just fuels that love. And so cool you love The Lion King! It was my first favorite movie and I went all obsessive on it and even drew what can now be considered fanart for it in 1st grade.
I hope he does someday. But for now I will enjoy the man crush. Man, now I want to read fanfic for them where they are actually together in some way. At least the last episode cemented the writers haven't forgetten about it and that Ryan will *try* with Michael sometimes.
I don't know how I came up with it, I was definitely in the babbling stages then. I think I had some sort of template though. I just wanted him to know someone really connected to the character and not just because he's funny.
Oh My God, Your Icon <3333
The Lion King is super awesome. I used to draw fanart for it too! And apparently just talking about drawing makes me want to contribute again. *facepalm* I haven't drawn animals in forever...
I have only read one (good) Michael/Ryan fanfic. It makes me SO SAD how negligent Office fandom is of this pairing. I do not understand! Because clearly their dynamic is amazing. :P And hahaha I loved how Ryan was "I can get you a tutor if you need one..." 4th season has been pretty good about bringing Michael's unrequited Ryan love to the camera crew's attention. I am so glad for it, because really the show should capture how Michael adapts (or fails to adapt) to the power switch.
Re: Oh My God, Your Icon <3333
That's awesome :) I just remember drawing a big picture of Simba running back to Pride Rock. I just like that I was already becoming fannish at that age. You should draw again! I love your work.
Yeah, I feel the same way. But it's a VERY het oriented show and even though it does have slash, it's not the kind of OTP stuff that a lot of fandom likes (although they can be OTPs) but is very interesting and complex in terms of personality dynamics. Sadly this means I've only read one, maybe two, fics. I think S4 has been so good to Michael/Ryan because one of the most interesting things it promised was exploration of their relationship in the new dynamic which I was really looking forward to. And so far it's great! I just hope we get more soon especially after The Deposition.
no subject
You made me nostalgic, so I thought I'd go back and see when I first watched. It was September the 24th, two episode were screened back to back, Conflict Resolution and Casino Night. This was my reaction...
OMG... I just watched The Office for the first time. I laughed so much, and warmed to the characters immediately. I haven't felt so good about a show since..... well you all know when
I began watching from the beginning that weekend, and then had to wait for Season 3 to start. You are so right about those LOL moments. Even in the 10th rewatching I still laugh aloud. I even laugh beforehand because I know they are coming!
Happy Anniversary!! I hope we all have a long and happy future together.
no subject
Aww I love those episodes! Although Casino Night is much better after watching all of S2. And I definitely laugh before they happen, I know this show too well sometimes. But it can be all in the delivery and pauses so it's still funny.
Thanks :) I hope so too!