Comments on: The Alliance

Comment on The Alliance by: DC

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:27:52 +0000

Gotta agree with the other posters that Pam did show growth during season 3. In addition to the art classes and show there was the art contest she won in "Traveling Salesmen". Also, while she always enjoyed the pranks it often seemed as if Jim was the primary instigator for many. Her elaborate Dwight/CIA prank in "Benihana Christmas" was undertaken with no expectation that Jim would be around for the payoff. It was just something she was doing to amuse herself. I don't see that from the Pam in "The Alliance".

Comment on The Alliance by: PB&J

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 22:28:37 +0000

I respectfully disagree with the whole Pam apparently changing during summer hiatus. I do believe the biggest change happened there. I mean, you see a total change in clothes when the come back for season 4 but I'd give that one to the fact that she's been dating the man of her dreams. That has given her a lot of confidence. I believe Jim is very supportative and in those couple of months he managed to prompt her to take those leaps. And I do see a slow and graduate change in Pam during season 3. The hair, the experimenting with the clothes (she doesn't manage to lose the button down but puts new sweaters on above the office clothes). Starting art classes, having an art show, the coal walk was her breaking point and when she had the courage to do that, the rest is the rest.

Comment on The Alliance by: Linus

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 03:12:05 +0000

I have a lot of brothers, and I have to say, that dynamic can pretty much go either way. Pranking can either be a method of asserting power or claiming power, and Dwight (perhaps because of his age) always seemed to me to be an older brother figure from whom Jim claimed power via his pranks, rather than asserting it. There's also the way in which Dwight's personality fits that of an oldest brother -- rule-bound, authoritarian, humorless. Say this as an oldest brother who spent a certain amount of time getting pranked by his younger brothers. But I could just have low self-esteem or something.

Comment on The Alliance by: Philip

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 02:05:09 +0000

Well, maybe I'm a good guesser then, I dunno.

Comment on The Alliance by: Kristin

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 02:24:23 +0000

Only child or not, Philip, I'd say you hit that pretty much on the head. I have two younger brothers and your statement pretty much encapsulates their relationship.

Comment on The Alliance by: Philip

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:09:37 +0000

Good recap, but I want to say one thing Re: Jim and Dwight having sort of a brotherly relationship--I've always viewed Jim as the older brother and Dwight as the younger (setting aside their exact ages). Dwight's obviously the less mature of the two and the one who lives more in fantasy realms. It's not so much that he looks up to Jim...he clearly doesn't...but he's always trying to one-up him in different ways. Dwight seems to get tons of immature glee out of anything trivial that he perceives as some kind of "victory" over Jim; for example when he wins the "salesman of the year" award and how much he tries to rub Jim's face in it. And Jim, of course, wants nothing to do with the matter.

But more importantly, it's the way Jim treats Dwight that suggests an older/younger brother relationship. The constant pranks, jokes, etc., actually say a lot. Jim really understands Dwight's mindset, and how he densely lives in a world all his own, and he's able to take advantage of that...and that's why Jim's pranks always go so flawlessly. He knows they'd never in a million years work on someone with a normal mentality (The Andy cell-phone prank doesn't count here because it's in a world all its own).

But anyway, Jim's treatment of Dwight, and Dwight's naively falling for it every time, to me very much suggest that Jim is the older brother who gets infinite pleasure out of having fun at the younger's expense. Especially since Dwight deserves it every single time.

But I'm an only child, so I probably am not the ideal person to speak on the matter.

Comment on The Alliance by: Kristin

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 13:33:57 +0000

Amazing recap, Linus! Thanks! Even though I'd rather be reading recaps of new episodes, it's cool to be able to look back on situations from earlier seasons through the filter of what we know from S3 and the truncated season four. I totally got what you were saying under The Office, Then and Now section and thought that was good insight about the office dynamics. I agree with Karin and Katayla for the most part about Pam's transformation but at the same time kind of feel like there was something abrupt somewhere along the way between S3 and S4 and that her new persona doesn't quite fit as well as the old one. But maybe we were going to see something happen with that in the new episodes.

Do I want more Flashback recaps? Absolutely I do.

Comment on The Alliance by: katayla

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 22:30:29 +0000

I agree with Karin. I think we saw a lot of growth from Pam in season 3. She seemed ready to start something with Jim when he came back-~~remember, she asked him out for coffee~~-but he was with Karen. And even when she got back together with Roy, we saw her standing up for herself in that relationship (she told Roy he had to be willing to do stuff she wanted if it was going to work). Plus, she was able to walk away from him, which she wasn't able to do before. And then in the finale, she was so happy and confident in herself, even believing that she'd never be with Jim. So it worked for me.

Anyway, great analysis! Sometimes I focus so much on what has changed since season one (Michael's character in particular) that I forget how much was there from the start (Jim & Dwight's rivalery).

Comment on The Alliance by: Karin

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 06:01:36 +0000

I dunno, I think we do see emotional growth from Pam during the 3d season. I admit, early on we see she has fun scheming and pulling pranks, but for the most part she's putting out a quiet just-get-me-through-today demeanor. As season 3 progresses, I think we do see her pulling away from the Pam that would just take crap from people constantly (aside from her, for example, telling Kevin he's rude when he points out Katie's more attractive than her in the 6th episode of season 1) (it was the 6th, right?). Yeah, she does a stupid thing and goes back to Roy, but we all make stupid mistakes and her recovery from that, to me at least, shows that she's done some thinking and is going to be, dare I say it, an independent woman. I dunno. I didn't have too many problems with her progression.

But it's been a long day and I'm not in an awake enough position to really come up with examples and stuff at the moment to back up my position. Awesome recap, dude! Nice analysis. I enjoyed it.