"The Office" Is No Work At All

First there was "Office Space," a true classic and perhaps the first movie ever to really capture the desperate, pathetic life-in-a-cubicle that defines so many sad-sack workers in the modern era. Then along came Ricky Gervais and the original British version of "The Office," adding in the ingredient of having to smile along with an insensitive and absurd boss just to keep a job you don't even like. But I think they were both ultimately topped by Steve Carell's version of "The Office," my absolute favorite show on satellite tv. I bought direct tv business for my company and this show is among the favorites because the employees love to imagine that they are in “The Office” which can be a nice comic relief on tough days.

Carell is a genius as Michael Scott, somehow making likable a character who has absolutely no sense of propriety, decency, etiquette, sensitivity, or reality when you come right down to it. Most of the rest of the cast end up as unwilling enablers to his harebrained schemes and corporate maneuvers at the dullard paper company they all work for, Dunder Mifflin.

There are Jim and Pam, the love interest and closest thing to "normal." There is Dwight, the office suck-up. There is Angela, the uptight, controlling bitch. There are losers like Phyllis and Stanley that just want to get by. But my absolute favorite character is the seldom-seen Creed Bratton, who lurks around the edges of the show stealing things, popping pills, getting in touch with bookies, and generally engaging in strange skullduggery.

Thank you, Ryan Spellman, for the guest post.