MICHAEL
SCOTT: UNSUNG HERO of the OFFICE.
Netflix
describes the United States version of Sitcom The Office as a “hit comedy [that] chronicles the foibles of
disgruntled office workers – led by delusional [sic] boss Michael Scott – at
the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.” This classic, which ran for 192 Episodes,
has recently caught my eye again since it came up on my sister’s Netflix
account. True to form, and trustful of my sister’s judgment, I picked up where
she left off, partway through early Season Two. It did not take long for me to
take kindly to it, partly out of nostalgia (and surprise that I had seen so
many of these episodes hitherto) and partly out of novelty. When I first
watched this show in High School, Michael was the laughing stock of not only
the fictional Office Staff (with the exception of his sycophantic, psychopathic
Assistant [to the] Regional Manager, Dwight K. Schrute, who is second in both
command and ridicule) but all so of millions of living rooms and Office
Desktops throughout the World. Now, knowing that Michael is customarily typed
as an E.N.F.P. (the Champion), and with due cause to HATE his Type, I thought
that the show might provide me with some sort of spiteful closure as I berated
the protagonist for his Outgoing Antics. Yet the more that leading actor Steve
Carrel’s face fell on camera in this ironical, post-modern mockumentary, the
more my own Spirits sagged. Not only was I robbed of the throne of spite by my
incurable SYMPATHY for Michael Scott. I ALL so found myself defending him, not
without some degree of egoic self-defensiveness. I quickly adopted him as a
sort of Favourite Character and Role Model that I would root for in every
episode against odds that, to the both of us, seemed totally insurmountable.
Jim, the friendly Everyman that dates cheerleaders and pines for Pam the
Receptionist, became my sworn enemy, seconded only by the wry, cynical Human
Resources Manager, Toby. Every cutting remark made against Michael Scott was a
dart not only in HIS Heart, but mine. But I put off writing this review of
Season Two until I finished watching what is now my favourite episode of this
show: “Michael’s Birthday” (Season Two, Episode Nineteen. Yes: 19 happens to be
one of my Favourite Numbers. This is neither coincidence nor contrivance; it’s
called a SYNCHRONICITY. I’ll explain later.)
It
All Made Sense when Michael mentioned that he shared a birthday with Eva
Longoria. The subtext was just too perfect. I knew Eva, of course, to be a
Pisces, and I would often think back to her whenever I thought to blame my Sign
of Birth for any marital difficulties I encountered, especially in competition
with the other water signs. (May the record show that I still find Katy Perry
gorgeous, my own gripes and her own reputation notwithstanding.) So Michael
Scott has my sign. Is that such a bad thing? No. I do not believe so. And
neither do the writers for the Show, who make their mark at the end of the
episode through the voice of Pam Beasley. Pam demonstrates an unprecedented TOLERANCE
for Michael when she admits, against her own inclinations, (as tends to be her
hang-up about Dwight as well, because she shares an ongoing, running Inside
Joke* about them with her de facto
lover Jim) that Michael’s Birthday turned out to be a Good Day.
*Though
to be honest there is little hidden in this Office, and least of all is the
fact that Michael and Dwight are “laughable”.
My
thesis is simple: Michael Scott is the HERO of the program. Every Good Thing
that happens in the show is the result of his antics, for which he is usually
blamed and only very seldom rewarded. And I maintain that the writers maintain
this as the main underlying theme, in the same fashion as the writers of Breaking Bad knew what Walt’s True
Motives were, etc. It’s called subtext, people. And I can prove my point using
only episodes from the first twenty episodes of Season Two.
PART
ONE: JIM AND PAM.
The
Scranton, Pennsylvania Office of Dunder Mifflin is far from professional, and
so barely devoid of erotic entanglements. Without a doubt, the Fan Favourite of
all Couplings on this show are Jim Halpert and Pam Beasley. I even know a
barista, who has been married to her elementary school sweetheart for several
years now, who insists that her favourite character on the show is “Jim and
Pam, but as a couple”. Individually, Jim and Pam are intolerably normal in
persona. Jim, the Libra, and without a doubt an E.N.F.J, (if not an E.S.T.J.)
seems to pride himself in being what a robot’s conception of a normal person
would be. Pam, a slightly and subtly delusional Sagittarian with unresolved
ambitions for a Life of Travel and Miracles, is engaged to a Warehouse Worker
(at the same company) named Roy. Roy is an “Everyman” in every sense of the
word “bro”; his idea of the Ideal Valentine’s Gift for his fiancée is “the best
sex of [her] life”, a promise he delivers across her Receptionist’s Counter
with a corny grin worthy of Southern Theatre, to which Pam responds with a
ravaged frown nearly devoid of restraint and discipline. (To be clear: Pam will
NOT be receiving the Best Sex of Her Life from Roy. Just to be clear.) Clearly:
Pam’s Sagittarian Optimism could reach Mythic Proportions. She has, after all,
endured three years of formal engagement with Roy, an ongoing and unresolved
marital promise that is the initial barrier to Jim and Pam’s budding Office
Romance. To quote Peter Quill from the Guardians
of the Galaxy: they have an “Unspoken Thing”. And this is the primary
incentive for girls of high school age and men of Romantic Temperament to
return to the otherwise dreary Office
week after week, at times even on a television binge. Pam’s Loyalty can all so
be traced to her Personality Type, which I have identified as I.S.F.J. She
cares for Roy because he is flawed. But she cares for Jim because Jim is
relatable. And because they have their Inside Jokes. But they remain “just
friends” for the greater part of two entire seasons.
Delusions
of Adequacy hold the young paper salesman and his neighbouring Receptionist
together; they both seem to have committed the Fallacy of Normalcy about
themselves, about each other, and about most of their coworkers. Their vanity
is low-key, but not beyond the probing gaze of Dwight, who sits at Jim’s left
hand, and the less probing but nonetheless intrusive gaze of Michael Scott, who
seldom hesitates to point out Pam’s breasts. Jim and Pam make a sport out of
mocking Michael and Dwight, remaining within the boundaries of convention but
still demonstrating an insensitivity that at times borders on the pathological.
In turn, Dwight ridicules Jim, upsetting Jim’s Rational Sensibilities by
running Reason to its Absurd Extremes. All the while Michael hits on Pam,
harmlessly, of course (in terms of competition for Jim) but not without
threatening the Politically Correct Comfort Zone that the young nerd has come
to rely upon (chiefly as the result of repressing her own Wild Nature under the
burden of a stultifying relationship that survives off of the Force of Habit
Alone). Both Dwight and Michael challenge not only Jim and Pam, nor merely the
Office, but the entirety of the Audience to take a side: Normality or
Individuality? We wait for Pam or Jim to crack and to show some sign of
idiosyncrasy that, theoretically, they took this job in order to escape. And we
dread the possibility that the Mad Men of the Office will come to their senses
like Don Quixote de la Mancha, at which point the fun is over, and Life in Grey
begins again.
Of
course: we would not root for Jim and Pam if they were not “a good couple”.
Together, they are greater than the sum of their parts. Like Romeo and Juliet,
they are stupid when left to their individual devices, but a work of literary
genius when in dialogue. OF COURSE: this makes them a much healthier pair than
the all most suggestive pairing of Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute. Jim and
Pam survive as an unspoken couple off of jokes typically at Dwight and
Michael’s expense, and they more than often cope with Michael in particular by
strengthening their dependency upon one an other.
But
where would they be without Michael??
The
Chief Barrier for Jim and Pam is of course not Roy, nor is it their individual
idiosyncrasies, which vary, and so function as adjacent walls but not the Main
Partition that separates them. (Nor is this Main Partition Pam’s Desk, though
the Visual Metaphor does work.) The Barrier is: Secrecy.
Secrecy
is not only permitted in a Corporate Office Setting, nor is it merely
encouraged. It is ENFORCED. One of the ironical and theatrical things about
Michael Scott is that he is INCAPABLE OF SECRECY. With him, there IS no bag for
the cat to jump out of. While this works in his short-term disfavor, it works
to the benefit of every one else over the Long Term, and insofar as Plato was
right and Virtue is Its Own Reward, it serves to empower our conception of
Michael as a Character, rather than just a Person (most specifically: The
Archetypal Fool), granted we are blessed with moral discernment.
Michael
is not only incapable of keeping his mouth shut about things he finds
hilarious, terrifying, or otherwise exciting. He is all so THE WORST LIAR in
the entire Office. Every one around him lies, usually in the form of white lies
towards one an other, but most dramatically towards Michael himself. Jim even
manages to throw a House Warming party for the entire Office, only excluding
one person: their boss, Michael Scott. Even DWIGHT is invited to the Party, and
when the loyal Assistant Regional Manager catches wind of the fact that Michael
has been left out, Jim tells Dwight that the Party is a Surprise FOR Michael.
Jim, your average Libra, with all due respect, lies compulsively.
Jim’s
compulsive lying of course hurts more people than he knows about. In trying to
be the Lovable Libra (regardless of whether or not he acknowledges his own Astrological
Identity) Jim not only scapegoats Michael, the optimistic Black Sheep of the
otherwise cynical and dreary Office. He all so lies to every one by hiding his
feelings for Pam. And the damage this does to both of them is aggravated by the
fact that Pam repeats the lie, denying that either Jim loves her or that she
loves Jim.
Thankfully,
Michael is to their Wall of Secrecy what Fate was to the Berlin Wall.
CHRISTMAS:
Christmas
comes to the Office of Scranton’s Dunder Mifflin Branch in Episode Number
Fourteen. At this time Michael sabotages the Christmas Gift Exchange by turning
it suddenly into a White Elephant exchange. His motive is jealousy; he bought
an iPod for Oscar, going far outside the allotted budget per gift, and his
pride was affronted by a hand-knit mitten gifted to him be Phyllis, the warm
and aging “Mother Goose” of the Office who is most probably a closet Wiccan.
(What short of witchcraft could have produced that slew of Valentine’s Day
Gifts that left Pam envious?)
As
per usual, Michael is passively berated by his fellows for his selfishness, at
times even overtly, throughout the competition that follows. We forget that he
bought the iPod, which every one wants, with some fraction of that Bonus that
he got from firing an employee (under orders from his Superior and Lover Jan,
with much chagrin, and to his ultimate disadvantage) in an earlier episode. We
might suspect Michael’s motives as containing self-interest, and rightfully so,
for it is clear that he expected a more rewarding gift in exchange. But we are
in no ways justified in REDUCING him to self-interest. A sort of laissez-faire
Marxist at Heart, Michael does not hold his recipient in any sort of debt to
him; that debt is in turn passed off to his own Secret Santa. Michael does not
want to COERCE generosity; he simply EXPECTS others to have his OWN, and that
is in part, of course, an extension of his own Generosity of Opinion about his
Employees and “Friends”. His only tragic flaw is that he measures Generosity in
Money, because he has neither the interpersonal skills nor the practical skills
to produce a hand-made product with sentimental value. Part of this owes to the
fact that he is, after all, a Salesman. He is all so a Helper in the Enneagram
sense, rather than a Provider. He wants something back, but not for a lack of
altruism; rather it is out of a desire for Justice, and Injustice towards one’s
self is often the easiest to identify in a state of shock and disappointment.
So,
what does this mean for Jim and Pam? you might ask.
The
effect of Michael’s decision to turn Secret Santa into a White Elephant is that
it TESTS PAM’S LOYALTY to JIM. Jim is her Secret Santa, and his gift is a tea
pot that Pam wanted but never bought, stuffed with personal trinkets
representing Inside Jokes that only Jim and Pam would get, accompanied by what
is surely a love letter, as Jim says it’s the time of year to tell someone “how
you feel”.
Dwight
is astute in making this observation: that White Elephant is like “Machiavelli
meets Christmas”. Every one competes for the iPod until Pam winds up with it;
only Kevin, the hebephrenic, seems to have past it up, a choice that he
regrets. Of all the competitive office workers, Dwight proves the most
Machiavellian, as the tide of self-interest raises his buoy and he takes things
to his usual Extreme. Jim is hard-pressed to get the tea pot back from Dwight,
who in the absence of a personal use for it INVENTS one, almost as though to
spite Jim’s clearly communicated sentimental reasons for the bargain.
Of
course: Dwight ultimately TRADES the tea pot to Pam, who rationalizes the deal
when Roy tells her that he had intended to get her an iPod for Christmas. Pam’s
alibi checks out, of course; she wants, with stifled desperation, to believe
that her fiancé will deliver, and the alternative is murky, so getting what the
I.S.F.J. all ready wants would be
nice and practical. Yet as John Guare put it, the Kandinsky is painted on both
sides: Pam doubts, deep down, that Roy could EVER satisfy her, and she honours
Jim’s informal loyalty to her, made more romantic by its informality, above any
generic material gift that Roy could promise her or that she could herself
imagine.
Michael’s
Bold and Risky Move does wonders in the long run. Not only does Pam prove her
loyalty to Jim. ROY proves his DISLOYALTY to PAM, because when the day comes
Pam receives NOT an iPod but a cheap and cumbersome, block-shaped knock-off
that she can’t figure out how to use. Might Pam’s hopes have been dashed had
she not held the iPod in her hands for several hours or so? There is no
reasonable doubt that she would have been spared the disappointment, for it’s
unlikely that Roy would have even MENTIONED an iPod otherwise.
The
fun does not stop there. Michael’s stunt all so buys Jim some more time to make
his feelings known*, as Jim steals the love letter back from Pam without her
noticing, motivated by what I imagine to be a mixture of Doubt on the Conscious
Level that she loves him back, and Conviction on the Unconscious Level that she
does, for though she waivered initially she made a big sacrifice in the long
run by settling for the tea pot. He probably suspects, deep down, that Roy will
disappoint her, and that she knows that as well as he does, though just as far
down. Does this keep the wall up? Yes. But it is not long before Michael tears
it to shreds.
*Although
this is technically PROCRASTINATION rather than an EXTENDED DEADLINE, we might
guess that something so premature would have been chaotic and overwhelming to
an all ready deeply confused Pam Beasley.
As
an addendum, I should note that Michael saves the day at the Christmas Party.
He buys about a dozen bottles of Vodka for the Office, using his own Bonus, and
throws a barely legal (okay: totally against the rules) bash that everyone
enjoys and GETS AWAY WITH, unscathed and unnoticed by their Superiors. He even
passes up an opportunity to engage in sex with Meredith the Alcoholic, settling
only for a photograph of her breasts.
THE
CRUISE:
The
following episode is called “Booze Cruise”, and it is just that. The Company
Party is set (by Michael Scott) on a party boat in January, and Michael takes
on the role of Captain of the Cruise. Unfortunately, Michael does not count on
the ship’s Actual Captain all so being an Alpha Douche. Captain Jack is a
retired Naval Officer, and he presides over not only the Party Boat but over
the Party Itself. As the occupants of the vessel schmooze and booze, Michael
fights for their attention over the obnoxious Captain Jack, who manipulatively
(and with Nationalistic Integrity) reminds Michael to be “considerate of
others” on the Cruise. The preaching implies a Moral Superiority to Michael by
avenue of claiming that whilst Michael represents a negligible SECT of the
Cruise, perhaps even a potentially oppressive majority, the Captain represents
Every One Aboard. The All-Inclusive Ethos I am sympathetic to, but the ends do
not justify the means: Humiliating MICHAEL in front of the ENTIRE CROWD,
employees et AL. Leaders must honour other Leaders, and not all differences in
Leadership are differences in Rank. But good luck telling a hired and glorified
Hit Man that, especially when he has “Leadership Experience” leading troops to
“victory” in Operation Desert Storm, and his business is not only to protect
his underlings but to terrify and even murder any one operating under Equal and
Opposing Leadership. Keep that in mind as Captain Jack trivializes Michael’s
heroic attempts to be diplomatic in turning the Booze Cruise into a brief
seminar, which is, after all, what Michael’s TRUE Supervisor is signing off on.
But apparently Limbo is more important. Of course: it’s not like Captain Jack
is sympathetic and gender-neutral in how he regards INDIVIDUAL occupants of his
boat, as he lets on “subtly” when Dwight volunteers to hold the Limbo Stick.
(For Some Unknown Reason, the game of bending over backwards drunk is more
RIVETING when a FEMALE is holding the pole.) Our Machiavellian Party Host puts
Dwight in charge of “steering the ship”, humouring Dwight’s delusions of power
and honour whilst the Actual Navigator continues up above. It is in fact not
until Michael tells Dwight, at the end of the episode, that the Steering Wheel
is a fake that the Truth comes to Light. Thankfully, this is not the only
Revelation made throughout the journey.
Both
Jim and Pam invite their dates to the Party. Pam invites Roy, and Jim invites a
former aforementioned cheerleader. They share a table, amused and dimly alarmed
by their boss’s antics, and brought together in camaraderie by both the comedy
and the catharsis. Yet things take a decisive and divisive turn when Captain
Jack sits down at the bar to have a drink with Michael and Roy, the latter of
whom has ditched Pam to get intoxicated. Michael and Jack compete for the
smaller crowd at the bar, and Jack wins by boasting his “leadership skills” in
the War. His boast inspires Roy, who is now sufficiently impassioned by his own
Patriotism, as well as hammered, to reach a redneck’s degree of impulsiveness.
On a whim, Roy gets up to the microphone that has been the coveted love object
of both Jack and Michael in their sibling rivalry and announces that he has
decided to finally set a date for his wedding with Pam. The promise, three
years into an indefinite engagement, is tantamount to a Proposal.
Whilst
Captain Jack sneaks off to fuck Meredith, about whom nothing more needs to be
said, Michael makes a desperate attempt to save his reputation (and his review)
by announcing that the Ship is Sinking. As per usual, the immediate effects are
unsettling; one man even jumps overboard, though it is implied that he
survives. All so as per usual, Michael’s ruse is short-lived to the point that
we might pardon the lie, which is promptly punished when Jack comes back
followed by Meredith, who is naked save for her Life Preserving Floatation
Jacket. Michael spends some part of the remainder of the Cruise sequestered to
some indistinct part of the ship, but thankfully he finds company when Jim, who
has been drinking since he heard Roy’s impassioned public ejaculation, does the
unthinkable and keeps Michael company. It is at this point that Jim confesses
his love for Pam to Michael, about which Michael Scott, a self-professed expert
on the Human Heart, was clueless, and about which he is now amused. In a moment
of touching and revealing clarity, which Alan Watts ascribes to most Divine
Fools, (“Now you see it; now you don’t.”) Michael encourages Jim to never give
up, reminding him that Engagement is not Marriage. And besides: we all remember
that Michael’s own Light of Love is as of recently divorced. But that I shall
cover a little further down the list of Praises.
As
one last stab at the proto-Fascist Captain Jack: the man has no doubt that when
a boat is sinking women and children should be saved first. Children I
understand, but “women” is a little dated in egalitarian society. Keep in mind:
Jan, Mike’s boss and paramour, would all most certainly agree with me, at least
in Ethos, if not under duress of the fact. (Fortune makes fools of us all.) It
is Captain Jack’s advice that prompts Michael to turn the hypothetical example
into a metaphor that is then taken literally by the sheepish occupants of the
boat, most notably the man who jumps overboard. IT IS ALL so this that prompts
Jim to realize and to confess that he himself personally would “save the
Receptionist”. And were it not for Michael’s taking the initiative, attempting
to discuss leadership in the midst of the controlled chaos of Captain Jack’s
Ship, Jim might have neither broken up with his girlfriend on that same night,
in the same hour of the Proposal, nor confided in his eccentric boss. Michael
Scott gets all the blame and keeps none of the credit, except to the Discerning
Viewer and Auditor. I personally bestow upon him all the credit for what good
follows between Jim and Pam, and I absolve him of any karmic debt for the Man
Overboard. Supposing, of course, that I have that authority. If it comes down
to me or Jack Mussolini, I think I will win. As far as I can choose my OWN
Leaders, I certainly choose Michael.
THE
SECRET:
Michael
lasts one episode before spilling the beans about Jim and Pam. He does not mean
to, but he cannot help it. After taking Jim out to Hooters for Lunch, joking
extensively (of course) about the server’s Breasts, and even pretending that
it’s Jim’s birthday, (again: Jim is a Libra, so no.) Michael is stopped by his
arch-nemesis: Toby the Human Resources Manager. Toby refuses to sign off on the
receipt, for which Michael paid with Company Money. Michael puts up a noble
fight, insisting that the expense was a matter of necessity and that he was
himself looking out for an employee’s well-being. We know Michael to be a
Generous Person, by now, so we don’t doubt, if we are ourselves nearly as
Generous, that he WOULD have paid for the Lunch out of his own pocket. But Mike
hates Toby, and when the passion of a Leader for his Followers is mixed with
the passion to oppose an Adversary, and when Nobility must vanquish Moral
Inferiority to save not only a Victim but the Ideal Itself, as well as to save
the Leader from Victimhood, Truth comes to the front line. Michael blurts out
that Jim is depressed because he is in love with a woman who works in this same
Office who is about to get married. And as it turns out, Toby’s neighbour in
the cubicle, present at her station at that moment, happens to be the most
neurotic Gossip in the entire Office.
Jim
enjoyed the Lunch, his initial reservations notwithstanding, and when he shows
Pam his new Hooters tee shirt she tells him lovingly that she hates him for
mocking her. When news spreads that Jim likes Pam, he is quick to recover,
telling everyone, camera crew included, that he had a crush on her when they
first started working together, but that it has since run its course and
tapered (or expanded) into a friendship. Jim is the quintessential liar because
he even fools himself, and if HE’S fooled, Pam is even more so. But the
Unspoken Thing does not abate. When Pam visits Michael in Michael’s Office
Michael apologizes so profusely that she is embarrassed, even going so far as
to “assure” her boss that Jim’s “crush” is no longer relevant. Michael, at that
moment, true to form, corrects her. When he sees the look of wonder on her face
that follows, he does what only so proficient a liar would do: he tells
himself, quite openly and loudly, to shut up and to stop talking to people.
It’s
not long after Pam talks to Jim about this, and they exchange lies in denial of
their feelings, that Jim realizes he’s not over her at ALL, and he arranges to be
out of the Country on the day of her Wedding. Needless to say: I doubt that
this will go as planned. And I don’t doubt that Michael will play some role in
making sure, by force of nature rather than conscious intent, that such plans
go awry.
PART
TWO: DWIGHT AND ANGELA.
If
any one could truly rival Michael’s sense of loyalty and heroism to a
pathological degree, it is his Assistant Dwight Kurt Schrute III. Dwight was a
favourite of my High School Graduating Class for a reason. Born on January 20th,
a birthday he shares with David Lynch, Bill Maher, Federico Fellini, and Rainn
Wilson, Dwight embodies that precarious ideal balance of Conservatism and
Idiosyncrasy that Astrologers call the Cusp of Mystery. My fellows with North
Node in Capricorn ate him up mostly.
Dwight
all so exemplifies, to me, what most people think an E.N.T.J. is, and what I
WISH an E.N.T.J. truly were. His Will to Power is transparent, but he can all
ways back it up with a personal anecdote and a bizarre ancient (or even
contemporary!) superstition. His talents are endless, and he perseveres in
their perfection against all criticism, stopping only to honour his superiors.
Jim has a field day sitting next to Dwight, and Pam meanwhile finds reprieve
from frazzled ennui and pre-marital depression by sneaking glances at his
highly contained affair with Angela the Accountant. Their romance serves as a
character foil for Jim and Pam. Not only are these the last two people that we
expect to give in to the Power of Love, surrendering the Love of Power. They
all so succeed where Jim and Pam fail, and this irony is hard for the young
star-crossed lovebirds to ignore.
Angela
is an I.N.T.J, and that’s the end of the discussion. The slender, middle-aged
blonde comes off at first glance as a schizoaffective outpatient whose every
gesture of human kindness leaves us eerily suspicious of her motives. As the
series progresses, we grow to understand that she is really just a
hyper-introverted neat freak who is revolted by most of her surroundings and suffers
daily to not only put up with the idiocy of her neighbours but to hide her own
idiosyncrasies from their hypocritical judgments*. When the aforementioned
Gossip, Kelly, receives Angela’s Christmas gift from Toby, in whom Angela saw
fit to confide at some point given his reserved nature, Kelly condemns Angela’s
taste, the only benefit of which is that Angela gets to keep the gift intended
for her: a poster of babies dressed up as adults playing musical instruments.
More psychoanalytic viewers will understand very quickly why Angela has a thing
for art depicting babies masquerading as adults. But I will leave that up for
more conventional readers and viewers to un-riddle for themselves.
*Is
Angela herself hypocritical for being judgmental? At least she remains
close-LIPPED about it! As best as she can.
Needless
to say, but needful as a segue: Dwight and Angela are a match made in Valhalla.
But their love comes at a cost: no one must ever know. And ironically enough,
this secrecy is preserved by the very man who cannot keep it: Michael Scott.
THE
PARTY:
One
would think that a man like Michael Scott would prize the only other man in the
Office who believes in him, but Michael is not so easily bought. The dynamic
between Dwight and Michael is not only suggestive but perverse; Dwight honours
Michael as a sensei (LITERALLY) and Michael does not even give a fuck about
what that word really means. Be that as it may, every good thing that happens
to Dwight Michael does, and every good thing that Dwight does he does for
Michael.
I
have spoken previously of a House Warming Party that Jim throws, whose solitary
persona non grata is Michael Scott. Jim rationalizes this with Fascistic
dexterity by insisting that Michael’s “authority” might be intimidating to
employees. Of course: Jim just really does not want to hang out with Michael.
And let’s not presume an Everyman can’t be a Fascist. At some point Jim even
writes a speech for Dwight, which is predominantly an adaptation of Benito
Mussolini.
As
aforementioned, only Dwight cares. Michael, who has been cyber-stalking the
entire Office, knows about the Party, but he is embarrassed to admit to this
breach of their Privacy. Of course, Michael can’t contain the secret that he
has been reading their e-mails, but the breach of privacy is consistent with
his whistle-blowing tendencies and attributes. When Michael’s attempts to level
with his employees fall flat, he resolves himself to his earlier plans: Friday
Night Improvisational Acting Classes. There is no doubt to our eye that he is
the Best of his colleagues in this department. The other students ape and ham
every gesture, accruing each other’s support only by force of mutual weakness.
Michael alone stands out and shines. This owes to one fact: Michael has only
one shtick, and it involves a Gun. Every story that he tells is interrupted by
the appearance of a firearm in his imaginary possession. Of all the Improv
Actors, Michael Scott is the only one whose work is truly Spontaneous. All
though the shtick is familiar, all too familiar to him and his audience of
collaborators, it is NOVEL and UNEXPECTED in each scene. If he had to give only
one performance as an Improvisational Actor, and that Performance were the
Performance of a Lifetime, he would nail it to the ceiling with his
autotypecast style, and this nail in the ceiling would bring the house down in
hysterics. Nothing is as effective at SURPRISING the AUDIENCE as a sudden
bodily threat to the characters, and Michael understands that. Sure: it’s
simple and redundant. So were ZZ Top. So was Elvis. And Tarantino, who seems to
think guns are cool, too. The fact is that by formalizing this as his Thing, he
ensures that his work is in NO WAY RELEVANT to the context of the existing
narrative. And this is one of the Highest Virtues in Modern Art: that it breaks
with the force of karma. Man’s entire folly seems to be that he responds to the
Present in terms of the Past. Social Darwinism all ways reminds us that this is
permissible by society because society follows basically Animal Behaviour. What
sets us apart from beasts if not our ability to Learn New Tricks? Michael does
not Learn new tricks, but as a performer, he is not the target*. For an
Audience, supposing that that audience is not included in the cast and crew,
the Gun is New, and should the show be regular, it would amount to a beloved
Running Joke. Michael does not Learn novelty; he TEACHES it by force of his own
habit. He sacrifices for the Audience. *Although his fellows berate his
self-interest as THOUGH he were attempting to enthrone himself as the target of
the project, the Audience (in this case, television fans) LOVES him for not
only the fruits but the roots of his genius. And God, does he OWN the Role. It
owns HIM. That’s how much he is married to it.
This
is why the writer of this essay no longer debates intercollegiately. Every
competition confines its audience to other debaters and their few spectators.
The judges are all veteran debaters and public speakers. So are the coaches.
It’s mortifying. It is like a Cult. And knowing people who major in
Communications and who Act in Improv on the side, I do not doubt that Improv is
just as Cultish. Hence BoJack Horseman uses it to satirize Scientology. But
that’s a story for an other time and place.
If
you thought Jim and Co. were bad for leaving Michael out, you should see how
BLATANTLY DITCHED he gets by his fellows in the Improv. Class. Apparently, a
mutual friend that knows everyone in the group except for Michael invited them
to hang out without him, and no one had the power to extend the invitation. If
this has ever happened to you, you might have wondered if YOU were the Problem,
maybe. Jesus surely had similar doubts when Satan told him to jump off a
terrace or something. But we all know that it’s not our fault that the World is
cruel, except when we are cruel. Michael can’t change himself; he is too full
of himself. And that is where his integrity lies. He is the best actor in the
group, and he steals the show because he never deviates. Deep down, he is all
ways the same, whatever hare-brained schemes he might devise, and in that sense
he is Authentic to a Fault. But it is not HIS Fault, but the Fault of those who
Pretend to be what they are not, such as Jim and Pam.
Long
story short: Michael shows up. Dwight welcomes him. Michael owns at Karaoke. He
sings in pitch, he sings with passion, and he even sings the female voice when
no woman present has the courage to do the duet with him. Finally, Jim Himself
rises to sing with Michael, singing the female part with some degree of
tenderness and to Pam’s expanding amusement. Michael and Jim harmonize, knowing
the song MOSTLY by Heart, and as they serenade their coworkers and Jim’s
room-mates and other friends, the camera zooms in on two pairs of shoes. Dwight
and Angela, unnoticed as the Crowd sits transfixed, are making out, if not even
making love.
THE
ACCIDENT:
Michael’s
Piscean sensitivity is most easily demonstrated in an Episode entitled “The Injury”.
The title refers ambiguously to TWO injuries at once: Michael burns his foot on
his George Foreman Grille, and Dwight gets a concussion on his way to rush to
his Master’s Aid. (Against, mind you, the Master’s Expressed Wishes.)
People
often mistake Pisceans for being insensitive, but that is only because there is
so much going on at one moment that Total Attention is hard to give to any one
part of the problem. An injured Pisces may easily forget the sorrows of the
World, because his own pain BECOMES the World. It’s not like we did not warn
you: Don’t. Send. Dwight.
It’s
fascinating to ponder the fact that the Sign of Pisces rules the Feet. At some
point in the episode, Michael Scott asks a physician whether a foot injury is
more serious than a brain injury. The doctor does not hesitate to say the
latter, though in truth Michael’s question could be summed up as a ZEN koan:
why presume the one to rule the other? Is the body not a true democracy? Where
would the head be without the foot? So on and so forth. But it’s a pity to say
so.
Despite
being told repeatedly that his injury is negligible, and in spite of his
seeming indifference to the well-being of the man who rubbed oil on his burnt
foot, Michael knows what we don’t know: that Dwight is not only FINE, but that
he will be Better Off.
Immediately
following his injury to the Head, which he incurs after he crashes his car into
a pole and then runs into the same, Dwight becomes friendly to all of his
coworkers. Pam is even alarmed to discover that Dwight has “kind of” become her
friend. Even after treatment, the normally authoritarian Assistant Manager
retains a certain unprecedented joie de vie. Most notably, he flirts more
openly with Angela, whilst at the same time managing to keep their relationship
private and professional. When Jan comes in to coach the women of Scranton’s
Branch on being assertive, Angela scoffs inwardly, insisting later in an
interview that she is engaged in the “healthiest relationship” she has had for
a while.
PART
THREE: MICHAEL AND JAN.
Jan
is Michael’s boss, though Michael is not Jan’s bitch. Jan Levinson, formerly
Jan Levinson-Gould, is not herself any one’s bitch, but that is only because
her own Will to Power is so pronounced. The Iron Lady of Dunder Mifflin is in
many ways your archetypal Corporate Feminist, and the show takes liberties with
her hypocritical feminism that would not fly in today’s forgetful decade.
Jan
has only one sentimental weakness: Michael loves her, and she cannot resist
being loved BY him. Her ardent attempts to maintain a professional distance
from him turn eventually to so searing a rage that one is reminded of a
dominatrix addressing her gimp. In the wildly satirical episode “Boys and
Girls”, she takes over Michael’s Conference Room in order to coach Pam,
Meredith, Kelly, Angela, and Phyllis on how to be Strong Women in the Work
Force. Meanwhile, Michael tries to host a Man’s Meeting in the space outside
the Conference Room, and the rowdiness of his rallying compels Jan to move the
Men’s Meeting to the Warehouse. It is not long thereafter that Michael is
pressured by Warehouse workers to represent their interests in forming a Union.
Just as Jan is about to lecture her girls (most of whom are of a rather
Maternal temperament) about wage disparity, Michael wafts in to tell her that
the Warehouse is about to Unionize. In turn, Jan STORMS downstairs to tell the
Warehouse Workers exactly why they will NOT be Unionizing, dismissing their
intent as some futile attempt to send a pointless message, and she instructs
them to direct all their complaints to Michael. She returns upstairs, perhaps
to finish lecturing on wage disparity and the importance of bridging it, to
avoid personal questions about Michael, and to remind her girls at Dunder
Mifflin to be “assertive”, because apparently when women are “assertive” they
are not met with the PRAISE that assertive men (like Michael) get. But then:
perhaps Michael is just not the Assertive Type. Though can being an American
Margaret Thatcher be classified as “assertive” instead of “aggressive”? What
does she ASSERT by blaming Michael?
Thankfully,
Michael loves her as a dog does. Though he never is her bitch. And with his
help, she learns to love again as well. The two of them want the same things.
She divorced because she wanted children, and she’d hoped she could “persuade”
her now-ex-husband to agree. He just never married, though he’d wanted to have
kids since he was ten years old or so.
Herein
lies their story so far:
[Okay. So I’ve been sitting on twenty-two
pages of gold (NOT Pyrite) here since Thursday morning at what Google Drive
tells me was 3:35 A.M. I obviously have a lot more to say on the matter,
expounding on Jan and Michael, touching on Oscar (not in That Way) and Kevin
(Neither), and just barely scraping the tip of the Iceberg where Kelly and Ryan
(whose actors co-wrote the show) are concerned, consolidating my theory that
every time Mindy Kaling gets involved in B.J. Novak’s work Michael becomes the
Hero and Kelly and Ryan come closer as Ryan’s cynicism is spared by the mercy
of his more Affective, if obnoxious, Coworkers. But it’s all ready Tuesday, and
I am all ready four story-arcs (sixteen episodes) into Season Three. If I can
see it by now, you can, too, without any further aid. But I shall possibly Keep
You Posted, with Quixotic Optimism and, of course, the precision of a Schrute.]
Dm.A.A.
