The second season of the American version of The Office is much longer, at a more typical 22 episodes. Each episode is roughly 22 minutes long. The series is set in the paper company Dunder Mifflin. Michael Scott is the branch boss and as set up in the first season, there is the ever looming threat of downsizing, and thus redundancy. However, this event is almost certain and the fear is noticeable in the office… at first, despite Michael’s efforts to try and stem it.
Michael himself, while being the main character, is a selfish, petty and cowardly person. He thinks he is funny but he is quite the opposite. Adding to that, Michael is constantly offensive, sexist, racist, and every other negative thing you can think of. This often puts him in an awkward situation that forms the basis of most of the humor in the season. Despite sometimes feeling the awkwardness in the air, and in the rare circumstances where he is feeling depressed because of it, his staff comes around to help cheer him up even though he doesn’t deserve it.
Among the other supporting characters are Jim, a salesman, and Pam, the receptionist. The pair continues their flirting throughout the season. Pam and her fiance are shown to be in an unhealthy relationship. It is obvious that Pam is a lot happier with Jim, smiling more genuinely and laughing more. However, the point of the show is to tease their relationship and while it is shown to be a good thing, it also somewhat encourages bad behavior as Pam almost crosses the line to cheating. Don’t expect that the relationship will go nowhere though because here are some hefty developments in the season.
Finally there is Dwight who is the more serious salesman and is often poked fun of. He is a suck up and wishes to gain promotions and more power. He is at odds against Jim who often plays pranks on him. However, Dwight’s actions will get on your nerves as he is not helpful and often screws thing up real bad. While Dwight is supposed to be funny with his unusual behavior, all too often he just comes off as unreasonable and stubbornly annoying.
Despite Michael being apparently useless at his job and telling horribly unfunny jokes, there are times where he does shine through. These moments are rare but when he does come through personally or professionally, you feel that there is a glimmer of hope for this guy. Then in the next moment he returns to being childish. Michael is definitely a guy that you do not want to work with or for, but is funny as a character. Michael often wants to be “in” with his staff, be friends with them and generally be included. He always has an ulterior motive though and when he doesn’t get his way; he forces himself into it anyway. In these scenarios, Michael often copies whatever the other person is doing, trying to form his own group and comes off more like a spoiled kid than a grown adult. Yet he remains oblivious to all this even when he staff calls him out on it.
The relationships around the office start becoming ever more complicated. It not only focuses on Jim and Pam but on Michael as well as other supporting characters. To be honest, it is surprisingly someone likes Michael or Dwight considering their unique personalities but that’s the way it goes. There are so many embarrassing moments though. It seems to emphasize the characters’ weirdest traits. This has the flaw of making the characters seem a bit too one-dimensional at times. The humor and pacing in this season flows a bit more naturally compared to the first. The actors looks to be more comfortable with their roles and there is genuine chemistry between them. As the season plows through, it ends with a pretty significant development.
Overall, the second season of the American The Office ends up improving quite significantly compared to the first season. Gone are the awkward acting and jokes as everyone starts to fall into their roles more naturally. The humor is hit and miss, while the characters are also fairly divisive due to their personalities. It’s an enjoyable season but nothing too stellar.
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