May 13, 2004
More on The Office
So, The Office: Season 2. It’s hard to articulate why I find it so disappointing, but I feel I must. I so completely adored the first season that it could be a case of too-high expectations. But I don’t think so. The main problem for me is that it’s just not funny when David gets called on his bullshit. And in the second season, David gets called on everything. 
Everything. Episode by episode he gets methodically stripped of all dignity until it’s painful to watch. And that’s just not funny.
It wasn’t total shit though. There were still some very funny bits. The wheelchair bit, as Paul noted. Also the scene where David finds out the new staff has been making fat jokes about him, and David demands to know why they don’t pick on the fat accountant instead. (And he even pokes the guy’s belly fat to demonstrate. Oh my god.) But none of this is as good as most of the first season. I just had very high expectations. The scene from season one where David slowly takes over the training session until he and the hired speaker are literally speaking on top of each other is a brilliant symphony of comic acting. And then there are the quotables… “Women … are … dirty.” “No one should be punished for having big breasts. If anything, they should be rewarded.” (And in fact there’s a weak and bastardized version of that one in Season 2–stealing jokes from Season 1, bad sign.)
There was nothing that great in the second season. Oh, except this:
(That’s for Guy)
Filed by cynthia rockwell at 8:43 pm under Uncategorized
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