Our discussion today centers on the intriguing premise: what if "The Office" were a tangible reality? This episode delves into the implications of the beloved American sitcom, exploring the dynamics of workplace interactions if such characters as Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute existed in our contemporary professional environments. With a blend of personal anecdotes and critical analysis, we dissect how the often absurd scenarios depicted in the series might translate into actual office culture. Joining me in this discourse are my esteemed colleagues TJ Blackwell, John Erdely, and the returning Alex Matthews, who brings her unique perspective after a significant hiatus from our show. Together, we shall navigate the complexities of humor, camaraderie, and the stark contrasts between fiction and the often mundane reality of the workplace.

The latest installment of Systematic Geekology delves into an intriguing hypothetical scenario: what if 'The Office' were a tangible reality? This episode marks the return of Alex Matthews after a prolonged hiatus, alongside hosts Laura Wittman, TJ Blackwell, and John Erdely. As the hosts navigate this thought-provoking subject, they ponder the implications of a workplace reminiscent of the hilarious yet cringeworthy experiences portrayed in the beloved sitcom. The conversation is initiated by Laura, who leads the discourse with both enthusiasm and insight, inviting her co-hosts to share their personal anecdotes that echo the absurdities depicted in 'The Office'. The dialogue explores the dynamics of office relationships, the boundary between camaraderie and professionalism, and the potential repercussions of Michael Scott's infamous management style in a real-world context. The hosts contemplate how HR departments would respond to the antics of the Dunder Mifflin employees and whether the characters would thrive or falter in an actual workplace setting. Through captivating storytelling and relatable experiences, the episode provides a nuanced exploration of the intersection between fiction and reality in a corporate environment.

Takeaways:

• The concept of 'The Office' as a real workplace illuminates the complexities of workplace dynamics and relationships.
• Michael Scott's desire for friendship with his employees highlights the delicate balance between personal and professional relationships.
• The humorous yet cringe-worthy scenarios depicted in 'The Office' would likely lead to significant HR interventions in a real-world setting.
• The show's enduring popularity and cultural relevance provoke contemplation on how office environments have evolved in the current digital age.

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Do you often find yourself staring into a camera that isn't really there or interviewing in a side room while the rest of your friends are actually off doing their work? Maybe you actually work in the Office.

And maybe the Office and Michael Scott and all the things you've watched on TV are happening in real life around you. Our topic today is all about what if the Office was a real workplace? Today I'm joined by my friends TJ and tj. Do you want to say hi?

Hi. Hi.

And we also have John Transylvania, famous author, world renowned, here joining us as well. Do you want to say hi, John?

Hi, John.

No.

Hello.

How is everybody?

Good. I'm good.

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So as we get started today, one of the things we want to talk about is what would it be like if the Office was a real life workplace? So first I'd like to ask both of you, have you ever had an experience at work that felt like the Office?

I mean, I've definitely. We've had some.

Some crazy stuff happen, but I think the crazy stuff that happens in my workplace is a lot closer to something that would happen like Trailer Park Boys than the Office. So, like, it.

It's.

The scenarios are there, but they're not.

I don't want to say restrained because the, you know, the Office is not really restrained that much, but less reasonable than what happens in the Office.

Usually I say yes, definitely. I mean, I've worked in a myriad of different places and careers, but there's always characters at every place you work at.

There's someone who's just, you know, really goofy and like characters that kind of reflect the people in the Office. There's. There's always someone I could compare them to in my real. My real life workplaces that have been.

Definitely, yeah, I will say, like their.

Their fire episode, that's probably the one I can, like, relate to the most because we've definitely had a lot of fires and, you know, our restaurant just kind of happens. The fryer is on fire because someone dropped a piece on fire. Yeah, that kind of thing. Before I was working at a restaurant, I was a welder.

More fire.

More fire.

Really fun prank for welders is if you notice someone is just smoldering a little bit, you go up and you start talking to them until they realize they're on fire.

You don't say like, you just.

No, no. You distract them until they notice. That's so good. Yeah.

I was going say I was in construction and I've seen. I've seen people catch on fire doing some welding.

So, yeah, I have never witnessed someone catch on fire. I work in churches. That doesn't usually happen.

I did see a kid almost set the altar on fire while they were lighting the candles one time, and that was my kid. So, you know, of course it was. Yeah, that happened now. I will say now. So I've always worked in churches, but now I work on a college campus.

And the office feeling is definitely more prevalent there than in a church setting where I've worked before because there's so many different personalities and things that are meshing together and you never know from one day to the next what's going to happen. So what is your experience with the office like, you know, how often have you watched the show? Are you like me?

Have you watched it like 15 times in its entirety and have an obsession, or is it just sort of of a passing interest?

Well, I've seen the first couple of seasons and I used to binge watch it on Netflix.

And I've also seen kind of a smattering of the later episodes with when Michael Scott wasn't there, and they had, you know, Will Ferrell and a couple other people filling different roles. But I've. I haven't seen the entire series all the way through.

But there's a lot of moments that still live rent free in my head, like the fire drill episode, definitely. And Kevin's Famous Chili and some other things.

I can't watch that scene. It makes me emotional. Like, I just. I can't handle it.

Like, he's carrying the chili and he works so hard on it and he drops sobbing as he cleans it up. I can't.

It looks delicious, too.

It does. It looks so good. And apparently I don't remember the actor's name, but, like, he really does cook chili.

Like, he has a bunch of chili recipes and he works on his recipes all the time. So, like, he actually made a pot for that scene that he had to spill.

I just felt so bad.

I don't know if they still have it, but for a long time, Peacock used to have the recipe in their terms of service agreement. So when you would scroll through and, like, agree.

The actual recipe for the chili was in that terms of service agreement, so you could go and make it.

Yeah. That's awesome. I had, for me, I was actually, like, super late to the Office.

There are people with Thunder Mifflin stickers on their laptops around campus. So I just jumped in, binged it, and then I just kept binging it.

When I finished it, I just watched the Office, like, every day, all the time, for several months. So, you know, I just. Now I'm intimately familiar with almost every part of the series. There's, you know, some things I forget. Like, it does.

It's a long series. But I do still really like the Office. And if we've been through the cycle of, like, oh, the Office was never funny. Oh, the Office is hilarious.

But I'm a big fan.

I think the Office will always be one of my favorite shows, and I think partly because of the ridiculousness of it.

So when I first started working at Lewisburg, where I am now Lewisburg College, you know, the first couple of days are nothing but training and going through, like, ethics training and Title 9 training and all of the things that you should and shouldn't do.

And then, you know, with Office, right off the bat, we're hit with Diversity Day, which is one of the cringiest episodes of any show ever and probably wouldn't exist if a new show were starting today.

But the Diversity Day episode always kills me a little bit because I think even though we all should know better than the way that Michael Scott talks during Diversity Day and the activities that he puts out there, I think we all probably have someone at work that we could point to that would do all of those things.

Yeah, unfortunately. Yeah, I just. It's so funny.

I don't think a show exists that's as good as the Office that starts out as poorly as the Office, because I think most people generally agree, like, season one is not good, or at least not nearly as good as seasons two through five, I think is. I think Michael Scott leaves at the end of season five, and then six and seven are worse.

But I think in terms of, like, Diversity Day, it's a really good example of what not to do. It's almost like a. You know, like, was it. There's always a rule in the handbook because somebody's done it.

And it's like the whole handbook, or most of it was written during that episode. You know, it's, it's, it's one of those really just. Yeah, you said cringy. One of those, like, nail biting episodes.

You're like, oh, my God, I can't believe they did that.

Yeah. It's so difficult to watch these days. It's funny also because of Michael Scott's like, horrible hair. He's like, balding.

That might be the best change in the show. They like got him hair plugs or something. I don't know.

Yeah, he definitely improved over the course of the show for the better. He, he was rough that first season. I don't know what was going on, but they helped him out. Thank goodness.

Yeah. Yeah. And we've got a, we've got a special guest today, actually.

Long time fans of the show might be aware that we used to have a host named Alex Matthews, and she has decided to join us today. She wants to rejoin the show. Alex. Hi, how are you?

Hello.

Hello. We had, we just talked about our history with the Office as a show. So if you want to, you know, fill us in there.

What's, what's your history with the Office?

You know, I've probably only seen like one and a half episodes of the Office. I know about, like, I know, like, I just, I don't know. I tried it and I just couldn't get. I just couldn't stick with it.

This is, it's not, not my favorite.

This is what I was talking about earlier. The younger people, they don't, they don't like it, they don't care.

Monty Python esque humor. Some people, it's not their cup of tea.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's crazy.

It's so funny because, I mean, I watched the show when it was out, like as it was coming out. New episodes each week. From the very beginning, we were watching that show.

So maybe it's the, like, connection of the nostalgia of, you know, when it came out, when it was happening. I was getting done with college and going on to grad school. And so it was a big part of my life.

But still, I have at least two full watch throughs of the show every year, at least. And that might be lowballing it, but I've watched it in its entirety so many times, it's ridiculous.

Yeah. Is that Alex, you think the show is just for millennials? Is that what it is?

It's okay to say yes.

I mean, I, I guess, yeah. Because I don't know I couldn't relate to a lot of what was happening in that episode that I was watching.

I don't even remember what the episode was about. But, yeah, I feel like it's more for, like, millennials that are more in, like, corporate office jobs, I think maybe.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Yeah. Gen Z. Gen Z is, like, very. Not incorporated, I guess. Like, I know very few people with corporate positions my age.

Mm.

Like, I'm not in a corporate. I'm not in an office. It's just not that common for us.

Yeah.

I don't know anybody.

Cubicle workers.

Yeah. Even. Even the corporations that, you know, us young folk do work for, it's. They don't do cubicles.

They do open floor plans and, like, shared desks and stuff. So we're like. We're so far gone past what the office was about. Yeah. That just not relatable. I still think it's really funny, though, so. I don't know.

I've always been a fan of the dryer side of things.

It is. It's a lot of. Because it's an office, you know, scenario, and it's all complete shenanigans.

A lot of dry humor and a lot of, like, unbelievable things happening inside this office. You're just like, there's no way this would happen in real life. And it's part of the suspension of disbelief that makes it enjoyable.

Yeah. But it definitely found its drive and became, you know, a workplace that I wouldn't mind existing.

But that's what we're here to talk about is what if it was real?

Right.

So I think, for one thing, knowing any good HR department would probably have had several talks with Michael Scott before we even get halfway through the first episode. The dangers of how he talks to people and how he responds to people.

And I think, though, there's an interesting question that comes in there for a lot of different places in which we work and reside and live is where are the boundaries between boss and staff? Person or employee or being friends with the people that you work with?

And I think one of the problems for Michael Scott is that he really wants to be friends with everybody, but there's a power dynamic that shifts that. And they don't really want to be friends with Michael Scott.

What's interesting is later on when he starts working a second job and is, like, serving as a telemarketer, all of a sudden they all think he's, like, this really cool guy and they're inviting him out to dinner. The people that he works with in this separate, um, and they look up to him and they think he's great, but that's because he's not the boss.

And it shows us a little bit about how work dynamics and relationship dynamics can shift how we interact with one another at work in itself.

Yeah. And it's so. And you can tell you feel bad for him because he just so desperately wants to have friends.

He wants to be friends with the people he works with so badly. And none of them are interested at first except Dwight. And he really just does not want to be friends with Dwight at all.

He's like, yeah, I'll be friends with literally anyone but Dwight and Phyllis. But no, if it was real, we definitely. So let's assume that it was a real documentary. Michael Scott's gone by the second episode for sure.

Yeah, he's been hired. He's moved on to other places. Maybe if he's hirable at that point.

For sure, since he's working for a company that has, you know, standards, then he would definitely being fired pretty early on. Unless it was his own company.

In that case, there would have been probably not just complaints, but probably some type of litigation against him at some point.

I think one thing that's interesting in the Office is maybe to note that there is next to no turnover in his staff. As awful as he is, he maintains the same staff for several years over the course of the show.

Yeah, there is. I wonder what they get. They're like, yeah, what they get paid?

That's the question.

Has to be good. I think Peacock should put that out there and just let us know, like what the salary ranges in the Office. But there are actually a couple.

If you go back and watch season one, there are a couple of people like around the Office that don't get introduced. They're not a part of the mockumentary, and then they're just gone.

Right.

That's pretty much the only turnover we see. But let's just. What if. So, like imagine the Office was a documentary actually releasing just like it did, but it was a real company.

Like they were actually just the company that sells you your paper.

Well, how would you react if you were just tuned into it one night and the dude who just got you to agree to buy a thousand reams of paper from him is putting his co workers things in blocks of jello.

It's like, it's funny, but you didn't. And it's funny to think about, but in reality you're just like, you know, what Cruel, you know, twisted, like what.

Kind of Psychopath am I buying from?

Yeah, I think it's interesting because, like, in my job, I mean, my department, so I work in two different places within my job. I teach, I've got my faculty side and then I have my student life side. And that office is huge.

There's a lot of people that work in that space, but we're all close. So, like, those practical joke kind of things would be funny, at least to me and maybe to a couple of people in the department.

But if somebody, you know, if you're not actually friends with somebody, then it's. Is it just bullying and you're just being mean to the people that you work with?

Because I think that was the tension between Jim and Dwight the whole time is that Jim was kind of a jerk to Dwight most of the show in a way that might not have been funny to Dwight.

Yeah. Like, they just actually hated each other for almost the entire show. They were just like, they have a few bonding moments here and there and.

But they're not, like, close until the end of the series.

Right. When suddenly they're best friends.

Yeah, yeah. And then you find out there was a time, like, in.

In one skit, they're like, yeah, me and Dwight, we used to, you know, go on all of our sales calls together and get so many sales. Okay, sure. Sure you did. I could tell.

Rivalry.

Yeah. But I just. I know for a fact this company would either get shut down, you would think at least corporate would be like, okay, this can't.

Somebody has to get fired here. Or they would just. Would be losing business at such an insane rate for sure.

Or would be like one of those companies that bizarrely, like, has a lot of media attention, is kind of like Jersey Shore kind of a thing where it's like somehow they're famous and popular or like Keeping up with the Kardashians, they stay in business. Or like Pawn Stars, they stay in business because of all the attention they get.

And they don't fire anybody because they're attention getters like Chumley.

Yep. Yep.

I think that's probably what would happen today if we had the office and it was real is people would start trying to get their paper from the office just for the exposure.

Yeah. Well, I think about, you know, for a while there was that show Lizard, like, towing. That was big Lizard Lick is not far from me.

But everybody was, you know, like, suddenly we're all very interested in these random places that show up on TLC and other, you know, television networks that show a glimpse of, like, reality There was a show even a few years ago about a zoo that's not too far from where I live in Rocky Mount that was called It's a Zoo Life and it was all about their family and all the animals they have and stuff. And so people suddenly started visiting because it was on TV and they wanted to connect reality with what they were seeing on, on tv.

So yeah, I agree. I think people would just start buying tons of paper even if they didn't need it.

Um, yeah, you just in the, in the queue waiting for your call to go through the Dwight or Jim or Phyllis just to, just to buy some paper or even Stanley. I would let Stanley sell me paper if it meant I was going to get famous about it. But I don't know.

Would you be willing to work in an office where that's happening to you? Like you're just every day you're at work you're on TV.

I feel like I would but I'm an enneagram3 so if there is a camera you know, I'm like yay. That's probably not the rest of the.

World I think, I don't know if.

I can do it.

I think it would be fun to do something like that. Like if to work in an environment like that definitely be something new, something different every day.

So yeah, yeah. I just, I don't know if I got it in me because you know I feel acting out right. John gets me, John understands.

And I would probably be like, like I couldn't deal with the stress of like the craziness going on every day. I would take everything personally. I would hold grudges and it would be just, it'd be ugly real fast.

Yeah like being on tv. Like I know you're all going to start acting crazy because we're on tv. I'm just trying to sell my paper man. Like please leave me alone.

I'm trying to make a sales call right now.

Don't put my stapler in jelly.

What is wrong with you? Like how many hours did you stay up creating a wrapping paper desk just.

To mess with me?

Where's my desk?

That's the one that always got me. I'm like how much wrapping paper? Like that stuff's not cheap either.

And you know, I mean I'm a big fan of the dollar store wrapping paper at Christmas because it's cheap and it rips well but you couldn't possibly. That had to be like the, the school, you know sell where they sell like the twenty dollar wrapping paper that's like Sturdy.

That's the kind of wrapping paper it had to be. There was a time and a financial commitment to that whole bit.

Yeah. And that was like, you know, he's close to New York. He definitely like went Times Square. Like big market, expensive wrapping paper.

Spent the entire night doing it just to mess with me.

Probably use the company's money.

Probably use the company money. Might have borrowed the company car. Despicable.

The environmental burden.

Yeah.

The fire drill episode.

Yeah.

Dwight had locked the doors on purpose or, you know, the office. Dwight, whoever the person would be in real life, you know that there'd be some consequences. I'd probably have to like, I don't know, I'd call a.

Call the cops. I don't know, make. I'd be suing somebody. I'd be like, they locked me in there. My life was in danger.

Yeah. Yeah. He's going to jail for sure. And that's not even the only time.

Like, throughout the show, we find out Kevin has been committing fraud for the past 11 years by inventing a new number that he uses to balance the sheets. Sure. Kevin. And also no one else noticed that.

Even though they have a three person finance department.

Yeah. Their finance department is three people. And no one noticed. Kevin's just got new numbers on his sheets at any point.

See, Jim and Dwight also admit to committing fraud by inventing a third salesperson to get sales under so that they can circumvent their commission cap. So, like, that's three right there. Going to jail.

Yeah. Pam Stills, Staples from the Office. I mean, you know, I mean, at that point.

It'S a slippery slope in Scranton.

Wow. I like the alliteration. It was nice.

Thank you.

Slippery slope.

Thank you. I. But I do know if I was their HR person, you know, if I was Toby. Have you heard the theory that Toby is the Scranton Strangler?

Yeah, I definitely would.

There's the episode where they do the murder mystery night and Michael Scott's like, you. Or was it there's a murderer and it was. And then he just bolts. Gone.

Yeah. But I feel if, if it was real, who do you think's quitting? Because they're definitely not going to keep selling paper.

Like, there's not a world to me where Meredith keeps selling paper after she's famous.

That's very true. But you got to remember the benefits because she was getting like Outback steakhouse gift cards on the side.

So, you know, what are the real financial implications for Meredith if she quits?

Yeah. Which is also a bribe to a salesman.

Of course.

Also the person who worked for the company that bribed her probably also fired.

I think Phyllis would quit. You know, she's got Bob Vance from Vance Refrigeration. He doesn't need the office money.

She's like, the only normal person there.

Yeah, it's true. Phyllis is the most normal person there by far. Even, like her weirdest thing, she was, like, reading 50 Shades of Gray in the office.

That's happened to me. One of my co workers was reading 50 Shades of Gray in our lobby, like, three weeks ago. Wow. Which is crazy. What are you doing? This is a restaurant.

What's wrong with you?

But I think some of this begs the question. You know, we talked about, like, the millennial thing and the corporate office thing. What would the office actually look like today?

I mean, would it be more of, like, an influencer culture? Would it be like, Instagram stories? And that's the sneak peek we get from the office, you know, is it TikTok? I'm sounding old. Okay.

Like, I'm talking to my students. Like, would it be the TikTok or the Instagram or whatever other social media you young people use?

I feel like it would have started out like every other office, but then they keep trying new ways to be cool and to attract customers. So they keep. They do all these weird things.

Like, they'd probably start in Instagram, Facebook, Tick tock and all these things, but it would all be cringy and it would all be like zoomers.

Yeah, I definitely. I don't know. Alex, I assume you use TikTok.

Yes.

Okay. Yeah. I don't know about you, but I also assume John and Laura do not use TikTok.

There you go. Assuming you would be correct.

But you assuming, wow, I have TikTok on my phone.

Oh, but you know how to use it. That counts.

I've opened the app once or twice.

Yeah, my for you page, all the time.

I get these companies that just are like, manufacturers, like, like, they make bats or hats or shirts or whatever, but their TikTok account is just them going around to all of their employees and being like, hey, what do you think about this? Or, hey, name five, whatever. I get those a lot.

And I feel like that's what this would start out as if they're rebooting the office, then it'll just grow from there. They get picked up by, like, some big syndicator on YouTube maybe.

Then they'd get the streaming deal, and by the time they get to the point where they're producing for the streaming Deal. It's all falling apart. That's what I think.

They would just incompetently not be able to keep up with social media.

Yeah.

Oh, for sure that's true. Because it would be millennials trying to do social media stuff, be relevant with the kids. It's funny because with the kids, the youth.

A few years ago at church, I had talked about setting up like a tick tock account for our church, and all my young people were like, please do not. And I'm like, why don't you want us to, like, be out in the world?

They're like, no, because you're gonna do something embarrassing and then nobody will come to church. And I was like, daggers. I'm not that old. Okay? I'm old. I'm not, not that old.

I think there is, like a worst, like, age range to try. So I think, like, really old people making TikToks is kind of endearing. Like, it's sweet at that.

Like, if you're like 65, 70 year old woman trying to make TikToks for your. Whatever. I like. That's cute. That's fine. No matter how bad the content is. But if you're like, you know, just. Just an adult, your content's bad.

And at that point you're just. I just kind of. I'm off. I don't know. It's a dangerous world out there. I have a very finely curated for you page.

At this point, I can't waste more than a couple of seconds, you know, that's fair. That's all it takes. That's fair. Yeah. Yeah. That's like, if I. If I interact with this for too long, it's just gonna show me a bunch of this.

Like, I can't afford to.

Yeah.

I think that's the annoying part of tick tock. Like, you just. You look at one thing and then your whole for you page for the next month is that.

Oh, yeah. I've been getting so much stuff about tornadoes for like the past two weeks. Just tornado because.

Paranormal stuff for the past month. Because I liked one video.

Yeah, we saw you like this. So here's 10,000 of these.

Yeah. Yep. There was.

There was a girl who was like a meteorology student and she was just trying to put out the storm network that she was worried about for people in my area to see. And I was like, wow, that's insightful. So I looked at her page, saved that video, moved on. Nothing but tornadoes for at least three days.

Yeah. My wife had my phone and she liked Dr. Pimple Popper or something on my phone. And now I get all this nasty, gross, gross out stuff.

I'm just like, you have infected my entire feed.

What that shows us though is that people will watch and ingest anything as long as you find a way to make it entertaining. Right.

So maybe there is something to people watching the inner workings of a paper company, even if it seems like nobody should be interested in the inner workings of a paper company.

Yeah, that's like. It'd be kind of like how it's made. Except I've. Like how it's made is just, I think, just very interesting actually. Just because that's. Those cool.

Or they could do like how it's ran. Do a couple weeks at a paper company, a couple weeks in a brewery. It'd be a cool series.

I feel like the conspiracy theory page would be like Dwight, if he was like a real employee person. It would be like all the weird conspiracy theories and things about different employees and be real interesting.

Yeah, I. I really would be interested to see how the Office.

Because they're very apolitical on the office and I would like to know if that would have remained the case, because I doubt it.

Yeah.

It seems like everything is at least a little bit political now.

Yeah, it's hard not.

It'll be an interesting episode for sure to see like. See the kind of. The battlegrounds take place in between the little cubicles.

Yeah. Or like Andy goes to a Trump rally.

Michael Scott tries to play both sides.

Yeah. Michael Scott tries to convince the office to vote for Andrew Yang because he shook his hand. And that.

That means Michael thinks they're friends because he shook Andrew Yang's hand.

Yeah, there would definitely be. I don't know how they would interact with the political world.

I feel like they had like, you know, sort of specklings of it here and there throughout the show. But I wonder how they would address and work within the world around us today and the things that are happening.

Yeah. I would love to see Dwight's reaction to them declassifying the JFK documents.

Dwight already probably knew all the information.

Yeah, I had this yesterday.

Yeah, I actually wrote it, I released it.

Yeah. Dwight, God, has been working a second job in the CIA.

I feel like I could buy into that though. Maybe that's something Dwight could actually do.

Oh, totally. For sure. I, I would. I believe it.

That whole little group he had that did security at night that he didn't tell anybody about, but they would meet secretly, that was actually the CIA.

Yeah. Yeah, that was the ECIA the real they're in like they're close enough to her it to just be true.

It's true.

But yeah, no, I think that's about. Could rate the show. Do you wanna. I don't know. It's kind of hard to rate. I think just because they had four really, really good seasons.

One okay season and two seasons that were polarizing, I would say.

I mean I give the office a 10 because it's my go to. I watch it all the time show. It's my comfort show. I know what's going to happen. I don't have to think about it. It's funny.

It's like it's still stupid funny even in places that shouldn't be funny. But that's just me and my millennial being oldness.

But yeah, I mean, obviously the front end of the show is better than the last couple of seasons, but it's a 10 for me.

Yeah. I will say though, like, I do really like some of the other managers specifically. Not the red headed one. I don't like her at all.

I didn't even remember her name and I've seen him a million times. Is it Laurie?

No. Oh my God.

No idea.

That's gonna make me crazy. What is her name?

Digs Bryant. But like Joe Benet, like the CEO of Sabre. She was great character. Robert California. Will Pharrell's two. One episode. Two episodes. So good.

Yeah, he had. He had a good. Oh, Nelly Nellie Bertram. Yeah, her whole storyline was crazy.

And honestly I feel like they did Andy dirty because Andy would have been a good manager if they didn't have the weird side quest where he went off on a boat with his brother and came back all weird. But Andy, Andy had potential and I think he did. I think they did his character dirty.

For sure he did. That's character assassination. Straight up. They did almost kill him, but they brought him back. So, you know. But okay, so you think it's 10?

I honestly, I'm gonna give it like an an 8 overall. Like it really. There are enough good moments in those last couple of seasons for me to give it the pass. And the finale was perfect.

I think the best last episode to a sitcom that I know of. So I would give it an 8.

If I was gonna rate it. I'd probably give it a 7.5 because sometimes the cringy dry humor really does pass over me.

I mean, I do like a good Monty Python, Life of Brian, you know, stuff like that. But sometimes it is just like, like I can't. I can't watch some of the.

The horrible way that some of the employees get treated and there's no repercussions, and they just sit there in their office and take it. Like, I'm like, sometimes I can't watch that. But yeah, at the same time, some episodes are just complete classics. You know, like the.

The fire episode, the Kevin's Famous chili episode. And there's. There's other memorable, you know, things that happen that make the show super enjoyable and rewatchable.

But I probably wouldn't watch the whole thing. I just watched my favorite episodes.

Yeah, that's fair. I think that's what Netflix intended the, like, random episode button to be for. And then they just took it off.

Dang.

But Alex, please give us. Please give us your actual true rating. As someone who's only seen a couple.

Of episodes, I don't know, I don't think my rating will carry much weight. But let me think. I guess from the episodes I did see, because I did see the one with the chili. I did see the fire. The fire drill.

And I also saw the one where they did, like, name cards or something. It's like a team building exercise.

That's the diversity day. Yeah, that's a terrible episode. But yes.

I saw that. That was the first episode I saw. And I was like, wow, okay.

But I would give it probably a six or seven just from those episodes that I've seen because those are pretty good.

So what is it gonna take for us to get you to watch the rest of it?

I don't know.

I mean, not. Maybe not all of it.

Bribery.

You gotta give it. You gotta give it an honest shot.

Maybe I should. Is it on Netflix still?

No, it's on Peacock now.

On Peacock.

Okay.

I think.

Yeah, it's. It's so hard though, because I always feel bad recommending something to somebody and then being like, by season three, it gets really good.

Like, nobody wants to commit to two seasons of meh.

Yeah.

You know, so.

Yeah.

Well, I don't know even if for, like, shows like that, I still push through because I know, like, the first two bow. First two boring seasons are mainly just introduced the characters of the plot.

And then by like season two or three, that's when everything starts kicking.

So. Yeah. So by that logic, you're going to start one piece and catch up?

Absolutely. Absolutely. That's already on my bucket list. I saw the live action, so I know it's not the same, but I do want to start the actual anime.

I feel like they actually tried in the live action Though they were just like, all right, we have this amount of time to go through this amount of stuff. So they kind of truncated a bunch of things. Thought it was enjoyable.

Yeah, it's good enough. I'll watch it again. I'll watch season two. But for us, I think we're going to start to wrap up here. I think we've done our part.

There's nothing in this agreement about wrapping.

Yeah, it's really small print. We do need you to freestyle for us, John. It is just on you this time. So I'll give you some.

I'll finish what I'm going to say, and then you can, you know, you can start.

All right, cool.

Yeah, yeah. But, Laura, did you have, like, a recommendation for us today? For, you know, for the audience at least?

So I'm really boring, and I just watch the same things over and over again.

So I'm rewatching Grey's Anatomy because I haven't watched it enough, and so I need predictability in my life, and I need to watch things that I already know what's gonna happen. So, like, I just reread the same books over and over again and watch the same shows. No, I do have a recommendation.

Everyone should read Dungeon Crawler Carl or at least listen to the audible, because I'm on book five now, and it is so good. That's my recommendation.

You said Dungeon Crawler Carl?

Yes. The books are fantastic. There's seven books and an eighth one coming out, and it's just so much fun. It's so much fun. It's like a real life.

Like, if you like D and D, it's a real life. I mean, it's not real. It's fiction, but it's like, what would happen if you were in a dungeon. Right.

Um, but I'm on book five after just, like, three weeks of getting into it. So it pulls you in, but you got to be a nerd. There's a lot of nerdiness happening in those books, so.

Okay, I'm with it. So, Alex, do you have a recommendation for our audience? Your first recommendation since your return? Yeah, it's a big one. Mm.

Let's see. Recommendation. I. My dad and I, we just got into this anime called Kuroko's Basketball.

I never thought I'd be into animes that are based on sports like that, but it's actually so good. It's pretty good.

It's so.

I recommend that.

It's so good. There's a couple. You got it. Like, ping pong the animation. Kuroko no basket I shield 21.

There's, there's not a lot of good sports anime, but there are at least like five the kokoro baskets way up there. Yeah. Blue lock now. So I haven't seen blue lock, but see, it's good. The animation quality kind of got a lot worse.

But that's not what I'm recommending. I'm recommending because Laura brought it up that you don't watch Grey's Anatomy. I have an anti recommendation today.

Just cancel out my recommendation.

Yeah, but you changed yours, so you still got one.

That's true.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like actually all the things that Laura said, don't do it. That's my recommendation.

Yeah. That's actually all I came in here to say is Dungeon Crawler Carl is bad and Grey's Anatomy is awful.

It's just messed up.

But I, I do think, I do think you should watch Grey's Anatomy up to season three. Get to the finale of season three and then stop. That's what I did. I think that's the most fun way to watch the show.

I don't disagree with that. Those are the best three years of the show.

Yeah. And it's a really funny season finale if you stop there. But I'm not gonna spoil it. I want you to get there yourself. John. Recommend something good.

All right, let me make my recommendation quick. My laptop is threatened to die. So I recommend Split Fiction, the video game for PS5 that just came out actually. It's on multiple systems.

I think it is a one of the first true couch co op games that have come out in recent memory. It was an absolutely fabulous game. Me and, me and the Mrs.

We played the heck through that and it was a lot of fun, a lot of different puzzles, a lot of really technical achievements I think the game achieved in really bending your mind. Kind of like an Inception type of style where you're basically your two characters that get sucked into your own worlds because they're both writers.

And the whole theme of the story is that this AI company boss is stealing all the writers ideas and I'm just like, well that's pretty topical because. And I feel that personally because I'm a writer and I feel like AI is stealing all our ideas and our creativity and stuff.

So it's was a lot of fun to play and there's a lot of like crack moments where like it take does a side story in one moment you're a sci fi person, the next person, next moment you're a pig flying around and It's. It's just completely random.

Yeah, yeah. I've seen a lot of good things about split fiction.

Yeah, it's the same people that did It Takes Two, right? That came out a couple years ago.

Yeah. Yeah. They're really keeping couch co op market alive. So, yeah, I. I do second that recommendation. Actually.

I need to check it out personally, so I'm going to. But I think that's it for us. There is one extra little thing. The bonus question, which you only get access to if you support us on Patreon.

And today's bonus question, we're all gonna answer it separately. If you could work with one character from the office, who would it be? We're all gonna answer it. You don't get to hear it. Stick around for that. Yeah.

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