(no subject)

[dollsome]

While putting off my reading for class tomorrow (who, me? Shocking!), I sat down this afternoon and rewatched "Goodbye Toby"! And it was a ... weird, verging-on-spiritual experience? Or, okay, maybe not quite that intense. (Well. Maybe. There is the "Suck on this!" rock to consider.) It's like, all of a sudden, it was brilliant and everything that tormented me throughout the fourth season was gone and the future, from this point on, seemed boundless and beautiful! Or ... something. This whole reconciliation-with-The-Office process has been odd and far more emotional than anything has the right to be. And also AWESOME.























... Gosh, I love Michael/Holly. Which the picspam made very subtle, so I figured I'd actually spell it out for you. But, jeez, the fact that, within the span of one episode, the show managed to so completely sell that relationship is so awesome to me. That moment where he talks in the Yoda voice and there's that horrible, awkward silence, that Michael's Frightened Yet Another Woman, Big Surprise silence that we have come to know so, so very well over the years -- and then Holly Yoda-talks right back? THAT is excellent TV, my friends! The shock and the unexpected sweetness of that moment just SLAYS me. And then later, when she touches his arm and it is just, I swear, one of the sweetest things that has ever been on this show. And considering it's the show that provided a little couple you may or may not have heard of called Jim/Pam, well, that's saying something! And, GAAAH, the END with Michael totally not getting that she's asking him out because he's so boggled by pregnant Jan, and then the LOOKING BACK. The MUTUAL LOOKING BACK.

The end of this episode, with that in combination with Pam being disappointed about Jim and that horrible sad bit with her and Toby taking the picture, switching to Toby sitting by himself and just looking at the pictures -- it's so bleak and made me feel so sad and hopeless for these poor people, and then I nearly perished of joy because GOD, I MISSED THAT SHOW GIVING ME THIS FEELING. It hurt the way that Michael doing his stupid voiceover in "Halloween" matched against images of him cleaning pumpkin off his car hurt! That is what makes this show magic, man.

And, okay, maybe also things like Michael looking at Toby in the exit interview scene. It's mesmerizing.

Also -- "The real crime, I think, was the beard" = greatest line of the whole season, right? RIGHT.

Also-also: what is up with Jim's hair in this episode?

Comments

[crackers4jenn.livejournal.com]

AAAAAH AH AH AH! I love this picspam! I want to have babies with this picspam! AH!!!

I think the main thing that keeps me from enjoying this episode on a whole is Dwight/Angela. I HATE THEIR LITTLE OFFICE RENDEZVOUS TRYST SO HARD, I HATE IT, HATE IT! But, oh, Michael and Holly. That Yoda scene amongst Toby's poor torn apart chair is one of my favorites of the whole series. I think if the show introduced a male-Kelly for Kelly to be smitten with or a male-Meredith for Meredith, it'd verge on lame, but somehow having a female-Michael for Michael to be smitten by is AWESOME and WONDERFUL. I think it's just because it's nice to see Michael have a real romantic connection.

AND OMG THE MOST TRAGIC LOVE STORY OF ALL TIME! LMAO! SIGH! Pam/Toby will go down in history as the greatest mis-use of a 'ship EVER. Ever, ever! I don't think I will ever fully forgive the show for DANGLING that 'ship in front of our faces with no intent to deliver. Gyah! BAD FORM FOREVER, OFFICE.

Also, as much as I love Oscar and his line, oh, how much better-looking Ryan was with the beard.

[dollsome.livejournal.com]

True story: I have a weird bitterness toward the Dwangela rendezvous, and I think that feeling might mostly just come from you. And also the fact that, well, poor Andy. I know that, no matter what, Andy is just going to kill me in season five, because he's such a dweeb, but he's so sweet in his lameness. He needs a lady who appreciates him. And I do sort of wish they'd done a bit more with Andy/Angela, too -- blah blah, strike, blah blah, limited episodes, blah blah -- because the idea of what their dynamic would be like if she legitimately liked him is a highly delightful notion to me. THE ULTRA LAME MADLIBS GAME. So on my Favourite Season Four Moments list. And this line from the "Dinner Party" deleted scenes (which I'm going to quote from my HANDY DANDY "Dinner Party" script, thank you DVDs!)--

"You have to understand, I hated you so deeply for so long that it's difficult for me to find you tolerable. Which I do."

I just found that ENCHANTING.

So, yeah. Even though Dwight and Angela are absolutely made for each other, and they're DWANGELA, I still get weirdly conflicty feelings. So you tread carefully, season five!

And, um, lame confession time? I still like to dream that maybe once Toby comes back from Costa Rica, all bummed that it wasn't as great as he dreamed it would be for a zillion years, he and Pam will pick up where they left off friendship-wise, and meanwhile Jim and Pam's relationship will sour as love built on mutual adorability and pranking of Dwight can't last, DAMN IT, and then PAM AND TOBY WILL FALL IN LOVE----

I am like an Office heathen.

........... but it would be awesome.

Like, I know I should want Toby to find some nice Costa Rican lady who will actually love him back and everything, but I can't help it, I JUST WANT HIM TO LOVE PAM ALWAYS. Gyah!

[crackers4jenn.livejournal.com]

The MadLibs! Oh MAN! You just know that one of their 'dates' included matching puffy-sweaters with cats on them and the sweet, crooning sound of Harry Connick Jr. to properly cap the evening of rigorous puzzle-doing off. You know it! And I think that THEY are my biggest hang-up in enjoying the Dwight/Angela reunion (well, that, and: HELLO, ANGELA, WORLD'S BIGGEST HYPOCRITE!) As pitiful as Dwight was during their woeful break-up, there is just something WONDERFUL about Andy courting Angela. By a capella! By phone! It's just--I wish the show didn't get so hung up over its main 'ships, the way that they are over Michael/Jan, Jim/Pam and Dwight/Angela. When you have BETTER 'ships come along, dammit, it's okay to deviate from the original! I would so much rather see Michael/Holly, Toby/Pam, and Andy/Angela than ANY of their deemed Big True Love counterparts.

Aww, that line really IS enchanting, and what's even more enchanting is the idea of Toby coming back and still harboring his non-creepy, determined-to-keep-platonic-but-eventually-failing crush. I hope! Which isn't lame of us, oh no, it's it's own form of enchanting.

[dollsome.livejournal.com]

By God, I'm enchanted! I'm enchanted A LOT. I wonder if maybe I could use the fact that my mother was in the theatre department at the University of Washington with Rainn Wilson to somehow finagle my way into a writing gig for this show, and then I could sneakily, subtly Toby/Pam-ify the whole show. And it would be AWESOME.

Maybe if I have a light course load next semester.

You know, I don't even have big problems with Jim/Pam, really -- like, when I just watch the show, and they are cute and a couple, I'm like, 'Okay, you guys are cute, that's fine with me!' But then I think about Jim proposing successfully, and them getting married, and it kind of makes me want to throw up. So. That might become an issue. I GET THAT THEY ARE PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER AND REALLY, REALLY HAPPY, I DO. I just ... there's a sick, little big part of me that wishes they weren't, and yearns to plant seeds of discontentment and illmatched-ness between them. I am wicked.

Andy serenading Angela will always be one of the greatest romantic moments on this show ever, EVER. Also, hey, show, if you need to be hung up on one of your main couples, FOR GOD'S SAKE, GO BACK TO RYAN/KELLY. For me. Come on. I remember the good ol' days when I never had to worry about them parting, because there was no way Kelly was gonna let him go!

And OH GOSH, YOU'RE RIGHT, Angela has finally found someone who can share her appreciation for Harry Connick Jr.! I feel like there might be some actual affection lurking beneath her disdainful ambivalence that we just haven't gotten to see. It's like ... weird reverse Ryan/Kelly!

[michellek.livejournal.com]

Michael/Holly = LOVE. The season finale is the one of the few episodes from last season I watched several times, partly because I want them to GET MARRIED. Finally, a lady who enjoys Michael! And touches him.

[dollsome.livejournal.com]

YESSSSSSS. A thousand times yes! When he somehow winds up saddled with Crazy Jan instead, my heart will break. (Unless they manage to turn her back into Sane Jan somehow, but at this point, that seems ... 'impossible' is too quaint a word.)

Your icon makes my soul feel like it's skipping through a field of daisies!

[michellek.livejournal.com]

I feel like, even if she magically goes back to being Sane Jan, I won't trust it and will be waiting for her to be horrible to him again. Or assuming that she's being horrible to him off-screen. It's been too damaged, the Michael/Jan.

:D :D :D

[dollsome.livejournal.com]

I knowwwww, it makes me so sad! God, I yearn for the days of olde. If you had told me, like, mid-season three that one day I would actually actively not want them to be together, I would not have believed it. SIGH, how did they start to suck so bad?

... there's a tiny part of me that wishes it could all still magically turn out okay. But it's the same part that thinks Toby and Pam should live happily ever after (Halpert who?), and therefore needs to be locked in some kind of primetime TV lunatic asylum.

[michellek.livejournal.com]

If you had told me, like, mid-season three that one day I would actually actively not want them to be together, I would not have believed it.

Oh, me, too. I thought they were going to be great forever and then... It did not happen that way.

Toby/Pam > Jim/Pam. I know this also makes me crazy, but I will never get over my Jim issues. If only I had loved Karen less, maybe I wouldn't think about him leaving her crying in New York. (I mean, I don't always want to smack Jim. I just can't get over it, in general.)

[dollsome.livejournal.com]

I KNOW, I can't either! And, like, when I've been watching season four again, I'm all, 'Hey, Jim, you're still cool and charming, mostly! Why is it I don't like you again?' But ... I can't get past the Karen thing. I just can't. I know it's stupid to get hung up on it, and we should just let it go (and, um, that these people aren't real), but I think about it and ... I just can't get past it! He was so horrible to her, and I hate that the show kinda glossed over it; I would have felt much better if, at least, there was more acknowledgment that he was horrible ("Branch Wars" was fleetingly satisfying for this reason), and I would have especially loved to see Pam be, like, less-than-pleased about it? I dunno. I STILL CLING TO "A BENIHANA CHRISTMAS" AND PAM AND KAREN'S TRAGICALLY QUASHED BFFHOOD.

... I want Karen back. And not just to save Rashida from more crappy sitcoms!

(Now we're just opening up my big Office Issues can of worms!)

[michellek.livejournal.com]

Yes, I would've felt much better about Jim if they acted like he was kind of a douche? I mean, I've been okay with worse behavior, fiction-wise, because there is an acknowledgment that they've done something wrong. But this show -- and fandom -- seems to think everything Jim does is charming. Which is really, really not the case. And, omg, Pam and Karen. I was so excited when I thought the show was going in the less obvious direction of making them friends and then it became just another jealousy thing. Meh. (Well, at least the show briefly made it easy to write cute Pam/Karen fic.)

True story: I wathced every episode of Unhitched. Sure, there were only six of them, but it was so bad that my commitment to seeing it out proves that my love for Rashida (and Karen) is still strong.

[dollsome.livejournal.com]

I was really excited about the beginning of season four, because it did seem, with "Branch Wars" and "Survivor Man", that they were sort of going in a Jim Halpert, You Kind Of Suck, Time To Fancy New Halpert-ize Yourself! direction, and I thought it was being played so well and was AWESOME, but then the strike kind of quashed it. And that was a bummer, because, damn it, it was so promising! And seemed to reflect so many of my Jim issues!

But, yeah, I think in terms of the fandom at large, Jim really is hailed as endlessly perfect, and that does grate on me a bit. Because ... no! Not anymore! This is not season two, homies! I think season three tainted him everlastingly, at least a little bit.

Your icon makes me happy! OH, STAMFORD. I am weirdly nostalgic for you?

And that is AMAZING, re: Unhitched! I was going to watch it. I really was. But then somehow ... I ... didn't. Rashidaaaaa, please be on a good show! (Like THIS ONE, RETURN TO US. At least for a little bit?)

[vega-ofthe-lyre.livejournal.com]

I think this may in fact be the awesomest picspam you've ever done, what with the prettiness and textiness and the COOLNESS and oh God, show, why do you slay me dead so often?

[cashewdani.livejournal.com]

This picspam is made of so much win that I'm starting to suspect it must have rigged the event in its favor!!

[miss880.livejournal.com]

I love it. And I love Michael and Holly.