The Office Starts Out Strong and Leaves This M*A*S*H Fan Smiling

For some time now, I've been bemoaning the lack of decent sit-coms on the air. The Simpsons is still consistently funny, but it's also been on the air for twenty years. A couple months ago, I would have said that the only recent sit-coms that really tickle my funny bone are Everybody Hates Chris and Flight of the Conchords, neither of which is on one of the major networks. Happily, I've now found another sit-com that is genuinely funny. I've been aware of The Office ever since it came out, but the snatches I caught of it didn't reel me in, and I wasn't so sure a corporate comedy was my kind of show. But my brother received the first four seasons on DVD for Christmas, so immersion was inevitable. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

The Office was originally a Brit-com, and like most, it had short seasons. I don't know if the mere six episodes in the American version are an intentional reflection of that or if the show just happened to start when the season was almost over, but it makes getting through the first season incredibly easy. I watched all six episodes in one sitting; it only takes about two hours, closer to three if you watch all of the deleted scenes (which I recommend). It's the perfect way to plunge into the show, and the DVD doesn't cost any more than a typical movie.

The Office follows the day to day business of the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of a paper company called Dunder Mifflin. Mostly, it's funny business; rarely do we see these people actually working. My first impression of The Office was that it mirrors the comic strip Dilbert, with a bunch of people stuck in meaningless jobs who, on the rare occasion that they actually have an opportunity to accomplish something, are invariably thwarted by their brainless boss. Cult classic Office Space also comes to mind. What I didn't expect was that I would find myself drawing comparisons to my all-time favorite sit-com, M*A*S*H.

In M*A*S*H, the residents of the 4077th use laughter as a means of dealing with the horrors of war. Their problem is not a lack of purpose; they do incredibly important work but wish they didn't have to. In The Office, laughter combats utter tedium, which can, in its own way, be almost as soul-crushing as a war zone. Both shows poke fun at corporate red tape; I even have a Valentine's Day card which has company clerk Radar saying, "I have the forms to order the forms to apply to be your Valentine." Forms are always flying around at Dunder Mifflin, and usually they seem pretty ridiculous.

What's even more ridiculous, however, is the way boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell) reacts to them. He goes to absurd lengths to avoid them, and it falls to his underlings to force him to pay attention to these mind-numbing tasks. Michael reminds me very much of Colonel Henry Blake, the leader of the 4077th during the show's early years, which tended to be more silly than somber. While Blake is a perfectly competent surgeon, he's pretty hopeless as a leader, and his laid-back attitude makes it all the easier for troublemakers like Hawkeye and Trapper to pull the wool over his eyes as they engage in their shenanigans. Like him, Michael has enough skill in one particular area - sales - that his rise to management doesn't seem wholly implausible. He is a kind, decent man who is so determined to have his employees' friendship that he has a hard time commanding their respect. Unlike the colonel, he's always undermining his branch's productivity by interrupting his workers with pointless activities and awkward attempts at humor. Michael, as likable as he is, has an astonishing lack of understanding when it comes to appropriate conduct and terminology, and he has a habit of offending the very people to whom he tries to endear himself. He's more off-the-wall than Colonel Blake, the sort of guy who seems too ludicrous to be real, but Carell has the comedic chops to keep us laughing our heads off instead spending all of our time wondering why this guy is still in charge.

Just as M*A*S*H has Hawkeye and Trapper serving as the resident practical jokers, The Office has salesman Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and receptionist Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer), who are practically inseparable during this season and always cooking up new schemes with which to aggravate Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), whose rigid, antagonistic streak is reminiscent of weasely Frank, Hawkeye's preferred target. Dwight, like Frank, aspires to a loftier position and is always trying to assign more power to his role than he has actually been given. His quirks are even more bizarre than Michael's, and Wilson's deadpan delivery of consistently outlandish lines makes Dwight the character most likely to cause me to squirt milk out of my nose.

These four are the most important characters in an office full of unique individuals. There's Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey), whose uptight attempts to exert control over her fellow office-dwellers recall Margaret Houlihan. The comparison is even more striking in the second season when she embarks upon a covert relationship with Dwight. Wunderkind temp Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak), like boyish Radar, is more competent than his boss - though he's nowhere near as lovable as Radar is. Sturdy saleslady Phyllis Lapin (Phyllis Smith), like the Chinese-Hawaiian Nurse Kellye, is a quiet positive force in the office, a kind woman who's always there but rarely gets noticed. I could probably continue, but you get the idea.

Do I think The Office consciously borrows from M*A*S*H? Probably not. But if this mockumentary, which develops its characters as often through their asides to the camera as through the scenes carrying the action (a device M*A*S*H uses on occasion), inspires such reflections from me, it's because I find it worthy of the comparison. I should have given The Office a shot sooner. Now, if I could just convince Alan Alda to put in a guest appearance...