I'm Afraid of How Much I Love This Show

So my friend Colton and I have a deal to watch each other's favorite TV shows, since we had never seen them. He's making me watch Doctor Who, and I'm making him watch The Office. While I think Doctor Who is pretty great so far, he's not sold on The Office and keeps claiming that his show is better. I say they are not even in the same category, so cannot be rightfully compared. Then he says the sacrilegious words that How I Met Your Mother is better than The Office.

While HIMYM is another one of my favorite shows, it is nowhere near The Office in quality, humor, or relatability. The Office is, by far, my absolute favorite TV show of all time, and after talking to Colton about it yesterday, I know exactly why.

The very first episode of The Office I ever saw was S2E6: The Fight. I distinctly remember watching Dwight and Michael wrestling while I was trying to find a loophole in my being grounded for the evening. I later used that reference in a scavenger hunt game for Mom. It was around the series finale of Phil of the Future that the season 2 finale of The Office aired. My sister's excitement got me first interested in the PB&J story (Pam Beesley & Jim). I started faithfully watching The Office in season 3. At this current moment, thanks to reruns, my sister's collection, and Netflix, I have seen The Office at least 15 times all the way through, and that's more than any other show I've seen.

My siblings are only my half, so I only got to see them every other weekend and on Thursday nights. Guess what night The Office came on? We would eat dinner and maybe do our own thing homework-wise and whatnot until 7:00 central time. Then we would gather around and watch as a family. It cracked me up to see my parents laugh at such a weird show with some inappropriate jokes. We all loved the humor and tended to form our own jokes around it. We as a family understood references that none of my friends really comprehended.

When I moved up to high school, season 6 began airing. I realized that the cool drumline members I desperately wanted to like me were crazy about The Office. They made references and TWSS jokes and I actually could talk to them about something. We had common ground! I think that's how my 9th grade best friend and I first bonded actually. He tested my Office trivia and was impressed. I also remember watching old episodes on our band trips both freshman and sophomore years.

From that point on, I realized that people either loved or hated The Office. There was no middle ground. I began to judge people on their response to the question: "Do you like The Office?" If they did, they would have the same sense of humor as me, and we would have things to talk about on Friday mornings. If not, then they were probably not that cool. ;]

The Office is not only hilarious, but it's quite relatable. You take shows like Doctor Who and even HIMYM, and they're just not plausible. No one can travel through space and time, and no one has licked the Liberty Bell. No one owns a TARDIS and no one goes out drinking and ridiculous playbooking every night (hopefully). While, yes, the Dunder Mifflin employees simply work at a paper company day in and day out, that is how most Americans experience life. They go to their jobs, they sell paper, they have to deal with weird co-workers, and they go home to some sort of regular life. It may lack "color," as Colton says, but it's real life. The greatness of The Office is it captures the beauty of everyday things. The series finale tells it so well, as Andy realizes he was living the glory days all along, and Pam discusses the seemingly boringness of a paper company, and Jim talks about how his stupid job is the reason for everything good happening to him. It's little everyday things that make up who we are as people and it's things like that that make life worth living.

I cried at the finale in my senior year economics class, watching the show on my friend’s laptop. I grew up with the series and, honestly, Steve Carrell’s comedy style definitely shapes my own sense of humor. My jokes, references, and life lessons all stem from The Office. I have even incorporated it into the classes I now teach. Yes, I’m in grad school now (and in my 16th or 17th run-through of the show), and our class conversations get deep sometimes. We were discussing how people have read books and/or watched movies or tv shows forever due to the idea of escapism. We long to get out of our dull lives for a little bit and live vicariously through fictional characters. The Office is my favorite show, for all the above reasons, but also because I yearn for a regular paycheck, people who love me, and beauty in ordinary things. Wow.

Anyway, The Office was the one and only show that I diligently watched week by week. Nowadays Netflix takes away the thrill of having to wait for the next episode and plot point. I spent years watching as if I worked at Dunder Mifflin alongside Andy and Ryan and Kevin. I experienced the PB&J love story in a very real way. I said goodbye to Michael more than once and got teary-eyed every time. I drove my car in a lake, I carbo-loaded on chicken Alfredo, I celebrated Benihana Christmas, I applauded Andy's performance in Sweeney Todd, and I experienced so much paper it's not even funny.

So sure, Doctor Who is a pretty fantastic show with good characters and an intense plot line. And How I Met Your Mother is a funny sitcom about a ragtag group of friends much like my own. But The Office is a real-life "documentary" of the chaos and beauty of our seemingly mundane lives, told through a group of characters who are relatable and lovable and freaking hilarious, and it holds a very special place in my heart.