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crack_van2006-12-05 04:13 pm
kyrafic.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2006-12-05 04:13 pm
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Fandom Overview: The Office
Hello, kids, I'm ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kyrafic, and I'll be reccing for The Office all this month. If you like UST, comedy, canonical homoeroticism, ensemble casts or things that are awesome, come on in.
The Office is a mockumentary about Dunder-Mifflin, a struggling paper supply company located in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and is a remake of the British comedy of the same name. (The two are distinguished by "US" or "UK".) While it's a scripted half-hour comedy, its basic premise is that it's actually a documentary about an ordinary workplace. The characters are filmed as if they're on a reality show and are aware of the cameras -- they talk directly to it in private interviews, or throw it glances in the middle of scenes.
The star of the documentary, at least in his own mind, is the regional manager and boss of the office, Michael Scott. But it's actually the UST between paper salesman Jim Halpert and receptionist Pam Beesly that functions as the heart of the show, both as romantic leads and as the two "normal" members of the office who give the audience someone to identify with. Both hate their jobs, and spend most of their time bored or playing pranks on their irritating coworker, salesman Dwight Schrute*. Most of the comedy on the show is based around them messing with Dwight, the quirks of the many other characters working in the office, or around Michael's constant offensive behavior (he's often racist, homophobic, sexist; if you can think of something that would be horrible to say, Michael will say it) and the awkward pauses that result from that.
*(Clips from the show! Pranking Dwight with the vending machine, the fitness orb, missing desk, talking karate and faxes from the future.)
THE CAST - MAIN CHARACTERS
MICHAEL SCOTT
"I guess the atmosphere that I've tried to create here is that I'm a friend first and a boss second, and probably an entertainer third."
The thing about Michael Scott is he always means well. The other thing about Michael Scott is how desperate for attention and friendship he is. He's always performing, and usually oblivious to how unentertained people actually are; his assessments of situations tend to be hilariously off-base. He's a terrible boss, although a surprisingly good salesman, when given the opportunity. Michael tends to have unexpected moments of pathos, and his employees -- especially Pam, Jim and Toby -- often react with sympathy when he's gotten himself in a bad spot.
In season two, Michael shared a drunken makeout session with his boss, Jan Levinson, which he blows way out of proportion; Steve Carell, who plays Michael, likes to say that their dynamic is of a kid who's turned on by his teacher. Jan has been unable to quell Michael's fixation on their non-existent relationship, much to her chagrin. More recently, Michael has been dating Carol, the real-estate agent who sold him his condo -- although they might not still be together after he publicly proposed to her on their ninth date. He also has a mancrush on Ryan Howard, the office temp, about which he's very vocal.
JIM HALPERT
"Right now this is just a job. If I advance any higher in this company, then this would be my career. And well, if this were my career I'd have to throw myself in front of a train."
Jim is the show's pov character, if it has one. He spends his time playing pranks on Dwight and secretly Having A Thing for Pam -- often both at once. Jim is friendly and unmotivated and everyone likes him except for Dwight, who loathes his very being. Pam calls him her best friend on several occasions.
At the end of season two, shortly before Pam's wedding to Roy, Jim confessed his feelings for her on the spur of the moment, and transferred to the company's Stamford branch when she turned him down. Several months later, the Stamford branch was resorbed by Scranton, bringing him back to his old workplace. Jim is currently "kind of seeing" Karen, a girl who also transferred from Stamford to Scranton.
PAM BEESLY
"I am actually looking forward to Take Your Daughter to Work day. I am not great with kids, but I want to get better. Because I'm getting married. So I put out a bunch of extra candy on my desk so the kids will come talk to me. ... Like the witch in Hansel and Gretel."
Pam's best friend at work is Jim; they play pranks on Dwight and rescue each other from boredom. Pam has been with her high school boyfriend, Roy, for nearly ten years, and when the show starts they've been engaged for almost three, with no end in sight, much to her disappointment. Roy eventually sets a date for the wedding, which she plans happily. Pam is not a big risk-taker with her own life, but will go along with crazy office shenanigans (the annual Dundie awards, a bird funeral, etc) for fun, or make her own deadpan responses to Michael or Dwight. She's on good terms with just about everyone (except Angela, who has called her a hussy).
After Jim declared his love for her at the end of season two, Pam called off the wedding, broke up with Roy, and moved into her own apartment. She likes to draw and has recently started attending art school.
DWIGHT K. SCHRUTE
"That is the law according to the rules."
The best possible description of Dwight is "fascist nerd". Dwight is 100% confident at all times -- he glances at the camera not in embarrassment or for approval, but with a knowing smirk. Dwight is the guy who watches Battlestar Galactica and Lost and plays paintball and tricks out his car. He's obsessed with authority and has said he'd fire all of his co-workers with no regrets.
Dwight's three most important relationships are with Michael, Jim and Angela. Dwight craves Michael's approval, to the point of being sycophantic -- his allegiance to Michael, as an authority figure, is complete, despite the fact that Michael treats him badly unless he needs something.
Dwight is secretly dating Angela, the uptight head of accounting. Angela and Dwight have been called the modern day version of Hot Lips Houlihan and Frank from M*A*S*H. Dwight lives on a beet farm with his cousin Mose.
Jim is the bane of Dwight's existence and vice versa.
RYAN HOWARD
"If I had to I could clean out my desk in five minutes... and nobody would ever know I'd ever been here. And I'd forget too."
Ryan is not happy with his job, either as a temp, or later as a salesman, and holds himself aloof. Ryan is in business school. Ryan is dating Kelly, the chattery Indian girl in customer service, which he also doesn't seem too thrilled with, most of the time. Michael's overly effusive attention -- giving him a "Hottest in the office" award or buying him a video iPod for Christmas -- makes him very uncomfortable.
SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
JAN LEVINSON-GOULD
"I expect you to forget anything that you think may have happened between us and exhibit completely professional behavior."
Jan is Michael's divorced, world-weary boss, based in New York. Despite her constant attempts to convince Michael their one drunken make-out was an accident and not a relationship, she's since twice made overtures to him: when she kissed him after he covered for her in an important work meeting, and in the season two finale, when she brought an overnight bag to a work event he'd invited her to, only to find him on a date with Carol.
ROY ANDERSON
"Do you know that song “Don’t Know What You’ve Got ‘Til It’s Gone” by Cinderella? That’s pretty much better than how I’d say it…in words."
Roy is Pam's longtime fiance, who works in the warehouse. He's not a bad guy, but definitely not the right guy for Pam -- he can be thoughtless, and he and Pam often seem to be on different wavelengths. A guy's guy, he hangs out with Darryl the foreman and the other warehouse workers, drinking or playing basketball or poker. When Pam was considering a graphic design internship he dissuaded her from applying.
Since Pam called off their wedding and moved out, he's been trying to win her back.
KAREN FILIPELLI
"This is not a proportionate response!"
Karen is a saleswoman at the Stamford branch of Dunder-Mifflin. When Jim transferred there, she found him annoying, but eventually confessed to the camera that she was "kinda into him". She and Jim started dating shortly before they both transferred to Scranton. She enjoys kicking his ass in the Call of Duty videogame.
KELLY KAPOOR
"Beyoncé, pink the color, Pink the person, hot dogs, basically anything that is awesome, snowcones..."
Kelly is dating Ryan and "can't wait to get married and have babies!" She's really into celebrity gossip. In season three, she and Pam are hanging out more -- she helps Pam buy new clothes, and sets her up on a blind date.
ANGELA MARTIN
"I do play games. I sing. And I dangle things in front of my cats. I play lots of games. Just not at work."
Angela is the uptight head of accounting. She disapproves of almost everything and everyone. She likes her cats and the Bible. She is secretly dating Dwight -- something only Pam and the cameras know.
TOBY FLENDERSON
"Actually, I didn't think it was appropriate to invite children, since it's uh, you know, there's gambling and alcohol, it's in our dangerous warehouse, it's a schoolnight, and you know, Hooter's is catering, and is that- is that enough? Should I keep going?"
Toby is the mild-mannered HR guy, whom Michael loathes for no apparent reason. He's divorced and has a daughter, Sasha, who's about five. As of the third season, he seems to have a crush on Pam.
ANDY BERNARD
"I'll be the number two guy here in Scranton in six weeks. How? Name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake. I'm always thinking one step ahead, like a... carpenter... who makes stairs."
Andy transferred from Stamford to Scranton along with Karen and Jim, and is a grade-A suck-up. He likes talking about his time partying at Cornell, and a cappella.
OSCAR MARTINEZ
"The Dundies are kind of like a kid's birthday party, and you go, and there's really nothing for you to do there. But the kid's having a really good time, so you're kind of...there. That's...that's kind of what it's like."
Oscar works in accounting, and is secretly gay until Michael outs him to the office in the season three opener. His boyfriend's name is Gil.
KEVIN MALONE
"Sometimes we play who can put the most M&Ms in their mouth."
Kevin is the third accountant -- according to him, the others never tell him anything. He likes porn, has a middle schooler's sense of humor, and is engaged to a woman named Stacey. He plays the drums in a cover band called Scrantonicity.
PHYLLIS LAPIN
"Um, I'm good at computer stuff. E-mails, um, spreadsheets, all that."
Phyllis is in sales, and graduated in the same high school class as Michael. She's engaged to Bob Vance of Vance Refrigeration. Phyllis is mild-mannered and prone to crying. She and Angela do not get along.
STANLEY HUDSON
"I'm on the phone."
Stanley the salesman is unimpressed by office antics. He likes crossword puzzles, is remarried with several children, and tends to find Phyllis annoying. His favorite day of the year is free pretzel day.
CREED BRATTON
"In the '60s, I made love to many, many women. Often outdoors. In the mud and the rain. And it's possible a man slipped in. There would be no way of knowing."
... is played by Creed Bratton, a member of the 1960s rock band The Grassroots. He did a lot of drugs in the '60s and is consequently(?) very eccentric. He enjoys soup, mung beans and stealing things.
MEREDITH PALMER
"Hi, I'm Meredith, and I'm an al- Good at supplier relations."
Meredith is divorced with two kids, although her husband got custody of her daughter, "the good one." Meredith enjoys alcohol(ism) and casual sex.
JOSH PORTER
"A shot of Midori, perhaps."
Josh was the manager of the Stamford branch of Dunder Mifflin, before he left the company to work at competitor Staples. He and Jim were friendly, while Michael considered him a threat.
KATY
"Were you a cheerleader, too?"
Katy and Jim dated on-and-off in late season one and the first half of season two. They met when she came to the office to sell purses. Dwight and Michael both tried to ask her out, Ryan later asked Jim if he could call her, and Roy said he'd ask her out if he weren't dating Pam.
===========
THE STORY SO FAR
Most of the show's arc-yness stems from the Jim/Pam relationship -- the prominence of a het UST couple also means the fic skews that way, too.
In the (ubershort six-episode) first season, and for the first half of the second season, Jim pines for Pam, who's stuck in a neverending engagement with Roy, and unaware of Jim's feelings. He dates Katy on and off in an unsuccessful attempt to move on from Pam. Halfway through season two, Jim gets to the brink of telling Pam how he feels about her on a company booze cruise, but chokes at the last minute (in an infamous 27-second long stretch of silence). A few minutes later he's resolved to go through with it, which is the moment Roy chooses to set a June date for his wedding to Pam. Crushed, Jim abruptly breaks up with Katy ("Why did you even bring me here?" "I don't know. Let's break up.") and confesses to Michael ("the world's worst confidante") that he "used to have a big thing for Pam". As the season progresses, Michael's inability to keep a secret forces Jim to tell Pam that he "had had a crush" on her years before, but he tells her he's over her now, though he's obviously anything but. Nevertheless, Pam starts being more discreet about her wedding plans around Jim, especially after he complains to HR about her planning the wedding at work. Jim also schedules a non-refundable trip to Australia for the same time as Pam and Roy's wedding, so he won't have to go.
In the season two finale, at a casino night charity event, Jim abruptly tells Pam he's in love with her. Shocked, Pam replies with "I ... can't?" A few minutes later he finds her and kisses her. When she says she's still marrying Roy, he transfers to the company's Stamford, Connecticut office.
Pam ends up calling off the wedding to Roy a few days beforehand, which she blames on cold feet, because she just felt she "needed to get out of that relationship". When the company closes its Stamford branch, Jim reluctantly transfers back to Scranton. In between deciding to go back and actually returning, he starts dating Karen, a girl from the Stamford branch who transfers as well. Excited to have Jim back, Pam immediately asks him to hang out outside of work, but he turns her down.
The show's other ongoing storylines revolve around Michael's so-called relationships with Jan and Carol, and Dunder Mifflin's continued financial woes, which result in Michael having to fire someone on Halloween, and the eventual closure of the company's Stamford branch.
===========
FANDOM RESOURCES:
[fic sites]
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
scranton_times - fandom newsletter (run by, um, me)
office_fanworks - fic/icons/vids/etc
office_romances - rare/non-canon pairing fanfic
jim_and_pam - fic/icons/song lyrics/discussions
theoffice_fic - fic only
More Than That - fic archive, heavy Jim/Pam bent
[essays/meta]
A Typical Office Romance: Jim/Pam atship_manifesto
PopMatters review: "The Office is the anti-Friends."
Compare & contrast with the UK Office byspectralbovine
[rec sites]
Polyamorous Recs
Recs bypolyfandomrecs
Recs by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
sathinks
[the show]
Official NBC site (lots of extra vids, deleted scenes, etc)
Episode transcripts
All episodes available through iTunes [my personal recommendation is to start watching with the first episode of season two, "The Dundies"]
Profiles of every character who's ever appeared on the show
Questions? Comments? Suggestions on making the overview clearer? Let me know!
kyrafic, and I'll be reccing for The Office all this month. If you like UST, comedy, canonical homoeroticism, ensemble casts or things that are awesome, come on in.The Office is a mockumentary about Dunder-Mifflin, a struggling paper supply company located in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and is a remake of the British comedy of the same name. (The two are distinguished by "US" or "UK".) While it's a scripted half-hour comedy, its basic premise is that it's actually a documentary about an ordinary workplace. The characters are filmed as if they're on a reality show and are aware of the cameras -- they talk directly to it in private interviews, or throw it glances in the middle of scenes.
The star of the documentary, at least in his own mind, is the regional manager and boss of the office, Michael Scott. But it's actually the UST between paper salesman Jim Halpert and receptionist Pam Beesly that functions as the heart of the show, both as romantic leads and as the two "normal" members of the office who give the audience someone to identify with. Both hate their jobs, and spend most of their time bored or playing pranks on their irritating coworker, salesman Dwight Schrute*. Most of the comedy on the show is based around them messing with Dwight, the quirks of the many other characters working in the office, or around Michael's constant offensive behavior (he's often racist, homophobic, sexist; if you can think of something that would be horrible to say, Michael will say it) and the awkward pauses that result from that.
*(Clips from the show! Pranking Dwight with the vending machine, the fitness orb, missing desk, talking karate and faxes from the future.)
THE CAST - MAIN CHARACTERS
MICHAEL SCOTT
"I guess the atmosphere that I've tried to create here is that I'm a friend first and a boss second, and probably an entertainer third."
The thing about Michael Scott is he always means well. The other thing about Michael Scott is how desperate for attention and friendship he is. He's always performing, and usually oblivious to how unentertained people actually are; his assessments of situations tend to be hilariously off-base. He's a terrible boss, although a surprisingly good salesman, when given the opportunity. Michael tends to have unexpected moments of pathos, and his employees -- especially Pam, Jim and Toby -- often react with sympathy when he's gotten himself in a bad spot.In season two, Michael shared a drunken makeout session with his boss, Jan Levinson, which he blows way out of proportion; Steve Carell, who plays Michael, likes to say that their dynamic is of a kid who's turned on by his teacher. Jan has been unable to quell Michael's fixation on their non-existent relationship, much to her chagrin. More recently, Michael has been dating Carol, the real-estate agent who sold him his condo -- although they might not still be together after he publicly proposed to her on their ninth date. He also has a mancrush on Ryan Howard, the office temp, about which he's very vocal.
JIM HALPERT
"Right now this is just a job. If I advance any higher in this company, then this would be my career. And well, if this were my career I'd have to throw myself in front of a train."
Jim is the show's pov character, if it has one. He spends his time playing pranks on Dwight and secretly Having A Thing for Pam -- often both at once. Jim is friendly and unmotivated and everyone likes him except for Dwight, who loathes his very being. Pam calls him her best friend on several occasions.At the end of season two, shortly before Pam's wedding to Roy, Jim confessed his feelings for her on the spur of the moment, and transferred to the company's Stamford branch when she turned him down. Several months later, the Stamford branch was resorbed by Scranton, bringing him back to his old workplace. Jim is currently "kind of seeing" Karen, a girl who also transferred from Stamford to Scranton.
PAM BEESLY
"I am actually looking forward to Take Your Daughter to Work day. I am not great with kids, but I want to get better. Because I'm getting married. So I put out a bunch of extra candy on my desk so the kids will come talk to me. ... Like the witch in Hansel and Gretel."
Pam's best friend at work is Jim; they play pranks on Dwight and rescue each other from boredom. Pam has been with her high school boyfriend, Roy, for nearly ten years, and when the show starts they've been engaged for almost three, with no end in sight, much to her disappointment. Roy eventually sets a date for the wedding, which she plans happily. Pam is not a big risk-taker with her own life, but will go along with crazy office shenanigans (the annual Dundie awards, a bird funeral, etc) for fun, or make her own deadpan responses to Michael or Dwight. She's on good terms with just about everyone (except Angela, who has called her a hussy).After Jim declared his love for her at the end of season two, Pam called off the wedding, broke up with Roy, and moved into her own apartment. She likes to draw and has recently started attending art school.
DWIGHT K. SCHRUTE
"That is the law according to the rules."
The best possible description of Dwight is "fascist nerd". Dwight is 100% confident at all times -- he glances at the camera not in embarrassment or for approval, but with a knowing smirk. Dwight is the guy who watches Battlestar Galactica and Lost and plays paintball and tricks out his car. He's obsessed with authority and has said he'd fire all of his co-workers with no regrets.Dwight's three most important relationships are with Michael, Jim and Angela. Dwight craves Michael's approval, to the point of being sycophantic -- his allegiance to Michael, as an authority figure, is complete, despite the fact that Michael treats him badly unless he needs something.
Dwight is secretly dating Angela, the uptight head of accounting. Angela and Dwight have been called the modern day version of Hot Lips Houlihan and Frank from M*A*S*H. Dwight lives on a beet farm with his cousin Mose.
Jim is the bane of Dwight's existence and vice versa.
RYAN HOWARD
"If I had to I could clean out my desk in five minutes... and nobody would ever know I'd ever been here. And I'd forget too."
Ryan is not happy with his job, either as a temp, or later as a salesman, and holds himself aloof. Ryan is in business school. Ryan is dating Kelly, the chattery Indian girl in customer service, which he also doesn't seem too thrilled with, most of the time. Michael's overly effusive attention -- giving him a "Hottest in the office" award or buying him a video iPod for Christmas -- makes him very uncomfortable.SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
JAN LEVINSON
"I expect you to forget anything that you think may have happened between us and exhibit completely professional behavior."
Jan is Michael's divorced, world-weary boss, based in New York. Despite her constant attempts to convince Michael their one drunken make-out was an accident and not a relationship, she's since twice made overtures to him: when she kissed him after he covered for her in an important work meeting, and in the season two finale, when she brought an overnight bag to a work event he'd invited her to, only to find him on a date with Carol.ROY ANDERSON
"Do you know that song “Don’t Know What You’ve Got ‘Til It’s Gone” by Cinderella? That’s pretty much better than how I’d say it…in words."
Roy is Pam's longtime fiance, who works in the warehouse. He's not a bad guy, but definitely not the right guy for Pam -- he can be thoughtless, and he and Pam often seem to be on different wavelengths. A guy's guy, he hangs out with Darryl the foreman and the other warehouse workers, drinking or playing basketball or poker. When Pam was considering a graphic design internship he dissuaded her from applying.Since Pam called off their wedding and moved out, he's been trying to win her back.
KAREN FILIPELLI
"This is not a proportionate response!"
Karen is a saleswoman at the Stamford branch of Dunder-Mifflin. When Jim transferred there, she found him annoying, but eventually confessed to the camera that she was "kinda into him". She and Jim started dating shortly before they both transferred to Scranton. She enjoys kicking his ass in the Call of Duty videogame.KELLY KAPOOR
"Beyoncé, pink the color, Pink the person, hot dogs, basically anything that is awesome, snowcones..."
Kelly is dating Ryan and "can't wait to get married and have babies!" She's really into celebrity gossip. In season three, she and Pam are hanging out more -- she helps Pam buy new clothes, and sets her up on a blind date.ANGELA MARTIN
"I do play games. I sing. And I dangle things in front of my cats. I play lots of games. Just not at work."
Angela is the uptight head of accounting. She disapproves of almost everything and everyone. She likes her cats and the Bible. She is secretly dating Dwight -- something only Pam and the cameras know.TOBY FLENDERSON
"Actually, I didn't think it was appropriate to invite children, since it's uh, you know, there's gambling and alcohol, it's in our dangerous warehouse, it's a schoolnight, and you know, Hooter's is catering, and is that- is that enough? Should I keep going?"
Toby is the mild-mannered HR guy, whom Michael loathes for no apparent reason. He's divorced and has a daughter, Sasha, who's about five. As of the third season, he seems to have a crush on Pam.ANDY BERNARD
"I'll be the number two guy here in Scranton in six weeks. How? Name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake. I'm always thinking one step ahead, like a... carpenter... who makes stairs."
Andy transferred from Stamford to Scranton along with Karen and Jim, and is a grade-A suck-up. He likes talking about his time partying at Cornell, and a cappella.OSCAR MARTINEZ
"The Dundies are kind of like a kid's birthday party, and you go, and there's really nothing for you to do there. But the kid's having a really good time, so you're kind of...there. That's...that's kind of what it's like."
Oscar works in accounting, and is secretly gay until Michael outs him to the office in the season three opener. His boyfriend's name is Gil.KEVIN MALONE
"Sometimes we play who can put the most M&Ms in their mouth."
Kevin is the third accountant -- according to him, the others never tell him anything. He likes porn, has a middle schooler's sense of humor, and is engaged to a woman named Stacey. He plays the drums in a cover band called Scrantonicity.PHYLLIS LAPIN
"Um, I'm good at computer stuff. E-mails, um, spreadsheets, all that."
Phyllis is in sales, and graduated in the same high school class as Michael. She's engaged to Bob Vance of Vance Refrigeration. Phyllis is mild-mannered and prone to crying. She and Angela do not get along.STANLEY HUDSON
"I'm on the phone."
Stanley the salesman is unimpressed by office antics. He likes crossword puzzles, is remarried with several children, and tends to find Phyllis annoying. His favorite day of the year is free pretzel day.CREED BRATTON
"In the '60s, I made love to many, many women. Often outdoors. In the mud and the rain. And it's possible a man slipped in. There would be no way of knowing."
... is played by Creed Bratton, a member of the 1960s rock band The Grassroots. He did a lot of drugs in the '60s and is consequently(?) very eccentric. He enjoys soup, mung beans and stealing things.MEREDITH PALMER
"Hi, I'm Meredith, and I'm an al- Good at supplier relations."
Meredith is divorced with two kids, although her husband got custody of her daughter, "the good one." Meredith enjoys alcohol(ism) and casual sex.JOSH PORTER
"A shot of Midori, perhaps."
Josh was the manager of the Stamford branch of Dunder Mifflin, before he left the company to work at competitor Staples. He and Jim were friendly, while Michael considered him a threat.KATY
"Were you a cheerleader, too?"
Katy and Jim dated on-and-off in late season one and the first half of season two. They met when she came to the office to sell purses. Dwight and Michael both tried to ask her out, Ryan later asked Jim if he could call her, and Roy said he'd ask her out if he weren't dating Pam.===========
THE STORY SO FAR
Most of the show's arc-yness stems from the Jim/Pam relationship -- the prominence of a het UST couple also means the fic skews that way, too.
In the (ubershort six-episode) first season, and for the first half of the second season, Jim pines for Pam, who's stuck in a neverending engagement with Roy, and unaware of Jim's feelings. He dates Katy on and off in an unsuccessful attempt to move on from Pam. Halfway through season two, Jim gets to the brink of telling Pam how he feels about her on a company booze cruise, but chokes at the last minute (in an infamous 27-second long stretch of silence). A few minutes later he's resolved to go through with it, which is the moment Roy chooses to set a June date for his wedding to Pam. Crushed, Jim abruptly breaks up with Katy ("Why did you even bring me here?" "I don't know. Let's break up.") and confesses to Michael ("the world's worst confidante") that he "used to have a big thing for Pam". As the season progresses, Michael's inability to keep a secret forces Jim to tell Pam that he "had had a crush" on her years before, but he tells her he's over her now, though he's obviously anything but. Nevertheless, Pam starts being more discreet about her wedding plans around Jim, especially after he complains to HR about her planning the wedding at work. Jim also schedules a non-refundable trip to Australia for the same time as Pam and Roy's wedding, so he won't have to go.
In the season two finale, at a casino night charity event, Jim abruptly tells Pam he's in love with her. Shocked, Pam replies with "I ... can't?" A few minutes later he finds her and kisses her. When she says she's still marrying Roy, he transfers to the company's Stamford, Connecticut office.
Pam ends up calling off the wedding to Roy a few days beforehand, which she blames on cold feet, because she just felt she "needed to get out of that relationship". When the company closes its Stamford branch, Jim reluctantly transfers back to Scranton. In between deciding to go back and actually returning, he starts dating Karen, a girl from the Stamford branch who transfers as well. Excited to have Jim back, Pam immediately asks him to hang out outside of work, but he turns her down.
The show's other ongoing storylines revolve around Michael's so-called relationships with Jan and Carol, and Dunder Mifflin's continued financial woes, which result in Michael having to fire someone on Halloween, and the eventual closure of the company's Stamford branch.
===========
FANDOM RESOURCES:
[fic sites]
scranton_times - fandom newsletter (run by, um, me)office_fanworks - fic/icons/vids/etcoffice_romances - rare/non-canon pairing fanficjim_and_pam - fic/icons/song lyrics/discussionstheoffice_fic - fic onlyMore Than That - fic archive, heavy Jim/Pam bent
[essays/meta]
A Typical Office Romance: Jim/Pam at
ship_manifestoPopMatters review: "The Office is the anti-Friends."
Compare & contrast with the UK Office by
spectralbovine[rec sites]
Polyamorous Recs
Recs by
polyfandomrecsRecs by
sathinks[the show]
Official NBC site (lots of extra vids, deleted scenes, etc)
Episode transcripts
All episodes available through iTunes [my personal recommendation is to start watching with the first episode of season two, "The Dundies"]
Profiles of every character who's ever appeared on the show
Questions? Comments? Suggestions on making the overview clearer? Let me know!
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I've tried to pimp this show to everyone I know and it seems to be one of those you-either-love-it-or-hate-it things. We know which side I'm on!
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You know, I used to think that about the show, but several people I know who used to loathe it eventually started loving it, so now I give up hope on no one! (I do wish I could keep people who don't like the show from watching season one, at all, because it gets SO much better right away in season two.)
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Heeeeeee.
This is great!
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