Have you ever described 'The Office' to your mother-in-law?
A few days back I teased my mother-in-law for watching soap operas on TV. She avenged my comments today by laughing hysterically as I described events from "The Office" to Katie. It is a soap opera disguised as a comedy. Since the arrival of our son, Lucas, Katie and I have watched very little television and did not see the first few episodes of The Office. So, after reading summaries of the new episodes online, I was explaining what happened to Katie--that Jim transferred offices, Pam and Roy broke off the engagement, Pam moved out, the offices might combine, and Jim would be Michael's boss. It sounds more like the young and the restless than prime-time comedy. My mother-in-law laughed!
2 comments:
I think you can say that about most popular tv shows and even books--they are just fancy soap operas. People love drama, especially love triangles or when one person loves another person but that love is not reciprocated. The new tv show "Ugly Betty" is actually an adaptation of a hugely popular Colombian "telenovela" (spanish soap opera). I think a lot of Lost is soap opera. Shows like The OC, Dawson's Creek, 90210 don't even try to hide the fact that they are soap operas. And I think sports broadcast try and play up the soap opera story-lines as much as they can (did anyone see the Saints v. Falcons Monday Night Football game in New Orleans? I thought I was going to puke if I heard one more overdramatization from the announcers).
Even a lot of books are soap opera. I remember one time in my Jane Austen class down at BYU, the professor read us a summary of the most common storyline for a romance novel (similar enough to a soap opera) and it sounded identical to the storyline of Pride & Prejudice.
Its a pretty interesting phenomenon.
The office is great. It reinstates love for office romances and Chili's. I am also glad to see more blogging by litera scripta.
When are we going to see more celebrity sightings?
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