this OJ is kosher.

[mydarling]

Or I would be, if I didn't have to give up virtually all carbs for eight days - my diet, sadly, is largely built around them. I'd rather give up having to eat meat every Friday than part with leavened bread. Plus, Easter candy! But I watched the Passover episode of Sports Night ("April Is The Cruelest Month"), found out that Aaron Sorkin might be returning to television soon, and the analogy of Sports Night/The West Wing was the first thought in my mind when I watched Parks&Recreation and The Office.

Like a lot of viewers, I wasn't totally crazy about Parks&Rec - I think it didn't live up to all the hype and heavy promotion NBC gave it. I mean, I love Amy Poehler - always have and always will - but I think I'm just so used to her playing a huge variety of characters on SNL that seeing her play one straight role is a little off-putting. There were only a few things I laughed at, and despite the fact that the lovely Rashida Jones is in it, I doubt I'll be watching upcoming episodes.

And I think that's where a lot of The Office being lackluster as of late - Greg Daniels and Mike Shur went off to work solely on Parks&Rec, leaving The Office in the rest of the writers (incapable) hands. They've taken the show in a direction that I don't think Greg&Mike would approve of, but when you've been on for five seasons and are confined to certain things because of the mockumentary style you shoot in, I guess you have to come up with something. But really? Michael leaving his job to create his own paper company, when Dunder-Mifflin was the best part of his life? Pam joining Michael on an impulse because she couldn't work the new copier, even though she was happy with her work and getting married to Jim, her co-worker soon? (I did have some hopes that she would go back to her old job when she gave that little monologue about how she shouldn't of left, but I guess Michael talked her out of it? I don't get it.) And don't even get me started on Jim. We know he's a great salesman, hard worker, really personable (I think this was established in both "The Job" and "Job Fair"), but know that Charles is around, he's suddenly incapable of being a good worker? I'm definitely confused on that part. I think I now know what John meant when he said he was actually afraid of the actor who plays him; he seems to take over any scene he's in, but not in a good way. I would gladly trade him for Holly any day.

But the thing that angers me the most is that this plot point of having two paper companies is that it creates a rift between Jim and Pam, driving them apart when this is the season that they're supposed to FINALLY get together. The lack of a decent storyline for them recently, coupled with that 2-second moment of them in this parking lot from this weeks' episode truly broke my heart. Although I'm going to echo my flist's thoughts and predict that there's going to be something big coming up in the last five episodes (a wedding, perhaps?) that prevented them from giving us something in every episode. I'm going to add to that and say that I hope this "big" episode is written by someone from the cast who's written an episode before - Steve, BJ, Paul - because they've written episodes that contain Jim/Pam moments that were really sweet and memorable. If Greg&Mike aren't around to write it, I'd pick one of them, since they write episodes that are so funny and memorable, something The Office has been missing as of late.