dreary-lane:
velved:
Marilyn Minter, oil on canvas
I refuse to believe these are paintings.
warpedesto:
do you ever just
make a friend and think
I am so glad this friend is mine
tonight’s episode of Family Tree had me crying laughing oh my GOD
we never knew home until we found the stars
"There had been romantic sitcoms before ‘The Office,’ and workplace sitcoms, too, of course. There had even been sitcoms starring Steve Carell. But no comedy before or since better captured the temporarily inflating rush of impractical desire, probably because no American comedy has ever been so unafraid of acknowledging desire’s black sheep cousin, regret. It’s what made Michael’s hapless quest for happiness feel heartfelt, not foolish, and imbued Dwight’s slow rise to power — and last week’s achievement of it — with the sort of recognizably human emotions the black-belted beet farmer would never cop to feeling.
And it’s what fueled the show’s essential story line for the best years of its life: the gradually romantic evolution of Jim and Pam from work spouses to actual spouses. Yes, the ham-fisted shenanigans of the final season made it plain that ‘The Office’ had punted for years on the inevitable flip side to this fairy tale: Jim and Pam had gotten each other but they’d given up their hopes and dreams in the process. But I think it’s worth remembering just how bracing and essential those flirty looks and missed connections once felt, how understated and remarkable Jenna Fischer was in a role that so easily could have rankled with cuteness or veered into doormat. The end of Season 3 remains one of a handful of perfect television moments from my lifetime: Pam is doing a talking head to the camera assuming Jim, whom she’s lost to the wiles of Rashida Jones’s Karen, has gotten a corporate job in New York. Then Jim bursts into the room, a little flustered and a lot excited. He asks Pam out on a date. She accepts. He leaves. She turns back to us, asking ‘I’m sorry, what was the question?’ And her skyscraping smile fills the screen in a way that standard sitcom laughter never could."
