We laughed; I think my wife cried. The Office threw a super-sized wedding party and we were all invited. I mean, who’s going to RSVP “No” to Pam and Jim’s wedding?
Okay, so this wasn’t the television event of the year, but I’m sure it was pretty big for a lot of us. So then was it our fault? Did we hype it up too much, building it to mythical proportions that no television show in history could possibly meet?
It’s either that, or the thud that The Office wedding made when it landed smack on the ground was all of its own doing. I’m not sure what it is … Jim and Pam are off for me, but that wasn’t the problem tonight. Something else is just feeling wrong. Unfortunately, this was one party that we’ll never get to experience done better.
Also, what happens now? Jim and Pam worked when they were a question mark, when we didn’t know what was coming but we wished that it would be them finally connecting. Now, save for the unknown of a baby (huge, I’ll grant you), the two are pretty much settled into a routine, having been domesticated for a while now. What is it exactly that lies ahead for them?
Even so, I definitely did laugh tonight. I think the difference, in a nutshell, is that usually my wife and I sit and watch The Office with big grins on our faces. The entire atmosphere is frivolity. Now we laugh here and there, but there shouldn’t ever be any down moments. The up moments, though?
I actually found the Chris Brown’s “Forever” dance aisle to be pretty stupid. Besides the fact that it looked very DVD extra, why would you ruin your wedding like that? Maybe I’m just a little more Love Actually wedding ceremony music.
While we’re waiting to see what will be with a married Pam and Jim next, some quotes:
“Is there something about manager that makes you say stupid things?” – Jim
“I have not found that to be the case.” – Michael
“The peeing is fast, Oscar; it’s getting my tie back on.” – Kevin
Getting your what, Kevin?!?
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Oct 08, 2009 @ 23:16 EST5EDT
I didn’t see the episode, but you have a problem with Chris Brown’s “Forever.”
Methinks you haven’t seen the awesome internet video that it must have been an shout-out to:
*POST AUTHOR*
Definitely not; not a huge fan of the song, because I prefer Chris Brown’s voice and not a digitally altered version, but the song’s fine.
Unfortunately, my wife and I made the mistake of checking out the youtube video after watching the scene tonight – okay, I shouldn’t say it like that, because everyone’s entitled to the wedding of their choosing, but Jim and Pam’s wedding should have been a glorious, beautifully touching moment, not a joke.
It is cool that, millions of views or not, essentially random people got a shout-out on The Office. I wonder if they were watching.
Hey, for us, watching all the beloved characters except Darryl and Holly dancing down the aisle was the glorious, beautifully touching moment.
*POST AUTHOR*
You’re a Holly fan?
Where was Roy and a shotgun? Or a free-with-purchase AK-47?
To me, Holly’s the female Michael Scott. I have no reason to hate her, or anyone else, even Jan, Charles Miner, or that weasel Ryan.
Roy’s busy playing the perfect love interest on Drop Dead Diva: a smart, witty, compassionate, understanding successful attorney that’s wooing the main character.
*POST AUTHOR*
A lot of people say that, but I’ve never once felt that way … maybe because I find Michael extremely funny and Holly falls flat every time for me? I don’t hate any character on this show – although Ryan pushes the limit for me – I just don’t think she brings anything to the table.
Busy or not, how could this have been right without a Roy sighting? Think logically about this … with all the history there, he wouldn’t make his presence felt at all? A phone call? E-mail? Letter? Sending his brother? Come on; they screwed up.
Oh, I don’t feel she’s as funny as Michael, but I still enjoy watching her. She’s the equivalent of Michael in their alternative personalities, slightly warped worldviews, and awkwardness, although she definitely has more self-awareness than he does.
I can believe you were foolish enough to use the word “logic” in discussing The Office. Have you been watching the same people I have?
On the other hand, the last time we saw Roy, he seemed to have made his peace with the situation and left his anger with Pam and Jim behind him. In that sense, not crashing their wedding or drunk-dialing Pam’s phone would be a hopeful step forward for him.
For me personally, Jam is just one plotline of many. So I actually preferred the unheard proposal and that their wedding was not all about them.
*POST AUTHOR*
I will give you Holly’s little incident with Kevin (hysterical!), but other than that she wasn’t for me. It might be because she was meant to stand toe-to-toe with Michael and in my eyes failed … I don’t know. I really like Jan, though.
You know what I mean by “logic” ;). I hear you on Roy … I just felt like it was missing. To go to a comparison I see you find wanting, on the How I Met Your Mother wedding, Scooter pops up, when we had no reason to imagine that he was still out there pining. It’s just one of those things, and especially with the history there, including Dwight’s taking Roy down, I felt a little cheated. Nothing major, and nothing that ruined anything for me (the episode didn’t need help in that department :-)), but it was an omission of ease in my mind.
Yes, I agree that Jim and Pam are but one of many stories, but if the episode’s about their wedding, it would have been nice if I left feeling like that’s what I’d gotten. Just a perception thing, I suppose.
I liked Holly as soon as she did the Yoda voice, saving Michael from his usual embarrassment.
Gah, don’t remind me of Scooter. Way to ruin what could have been a perfect wedding episode. I so wanted to see him get smacked around.
Good point; I had forgotten the mace incident. With Dwight attending the wedding, Roy would have known to stay far away from Jim and Pam.
For me, it’s usually the little things. The wordless scene of them staring out at the falls, Pam’s head resting on Jim’s shoulder meant the world to me. *sniff*
*POST AUTHOR*
I actually thought Jim was off in the emotion department. The words were right, but there was something about the sentiment that was lacking. Maybe they’ll come back from their honeymoon clicking again….
Handy DVR let me pause when I watched it:
Don’t Column:
make a big scene
cry
talk to our family– VERY BUSY! (very busy was underlined)
firecrackers
Do Column:
Have a good time
Dance when its appropriate (last word underlined)
Eat dinner
Gotta say, I wish there weren’t so many gag-inducing things in the episode… like say the opening… (I was just having dinner … sigh)
The fact that Dwight actually included a turtle along with his turtle boilers… did not sit that well with me.
I was initially exasperated that after deciding in Cafe Disco they wanted the full cheesy wedding… that they just eloped here, but the way it was intermixed to compensate for the “Forever” entrance… I kind of like how it turned out. It was still cheesy enough to totally be Pam and Jim… and ultimately, it was just them– which is also fitting.
But yeah, I agree with the kind of “off” feeling to the ep.
I did like Dwight calling Michael on his lie about sharing a room.
And WOW… Phyllis’ hat… it was like the technicolor version of Aretha’s.
*POST AUTHOR*
Thanks! Totally did not think of pausing it…. :)
Yeah, I purposefully was avoiding the cold-open. We’d just finished dinner.
The turtle thing was very Dwight. I didn’t think of it on my own, but when I saw the turtle I was like “yeah, that’s about right.”
I was also surprised that the Niagara Falls part was almost non-existent. Couldn’t we have gotten more?
The gift (including the turtle) did fit Dwight… it just didn’t help the overall queasiness I felt during the episode. Darn that opening! And then they HAD to end it with Kevin sticking his feet directly into the ice machine… again.. fits the character, but really wished he would have just gotten a bucket!
Yeah, during the extended dancing bit I was hoping they would switch back to Niagra Falls sooner than they did.
I was disappointed, too. For me it’s not so much that I am concerned about Jim and Pam finally being married, it’s that so far in this season, there is no chemistry at all between them. You used to be able to feel it when Jim looked longingly at Pam, or feel the energy when Jim proposed to Pam at the rest stop, or when they hugged at the end of last season’s finale. Now, I don’t get anything from them. I don’t think I’m cynical (I still cried at the shot of Pam and Jim exchanging rings in front of the Falls), but the vibe between them just isn’t there anymore.
Also, there were several times this episode when I knew what Jim was saying was supposed to be sweet, but again, it felt like he was just saying the lines (like the big line in his toast, or the line at the end about Plan A). Is it just me? Does anyone else feel this way?
*POST AUTHOR*
I agree. I think the “sentiment” felt anything but.
Hey, it wasn’t perfect but it was perfectly The Office. And the part I loved best was the throw-up scene in the office. Never in the annals of television have we been so exposed and it was a hoot.
I would have liked to have seen Kevin get “lucky” with his hair (it was kind of like Ted (Sam Ball) on Scrubs with his “going out hair”). All it would have taken was for Meredith to sit down in the pew next to Kevin staring longlingly at his hair and rub her hand up his arm. It would have been priceless.
Anyway, in a TV world where weddings, “who shot J.R.”, etc. are all hyped and never fully deliver, this wedding came the closest to capturing the dynamic of the zany creatures who inhabit their show.
That reminds me… what happened to Kevin’s redheaded girlfriend? Would have thought he’d bring her to the wedding.
*POST AUTHOR*
He didn’t seem tied-down … but I wonder why we don’t know about it. Good question.
*POST AUTHOR*
Unfortunately, although it was animated, Family Guy did the throw-up gag, and theirs was even more disturbing to witness. :)
The wedding may have been perfectly The Office, in some ways, but it was not right for Pam and Jim in any way. Phyllis’ wedding being overrun by the other characters on the show made sense – she’s not a main star. But Pam and Jim? For them to be overshadowed by everyone else’s nonsense, when we and they have been waiting for this for so long? Had we experienced their Niagara Falls wedding, I’d say fine. But we didn’t, so all we got was pratfalls, no romance. In my mind, this was as far from right as they could have gotten.
I think you are misinterpreting what happened. Pam and Jim had no part in the “Forever” dance. Pam even said it was in her “Do Not Play” list. Jim also stated once he saw the video on YouTube he created a back-up plan because he knows his co-workers and brothers. They didn’t want anything spectacular, just a normal wedding. They were just realistic enough to see the likelihood of a normal wedding just factoring in Michael is impossible (Remember Phyllis’ wedding?). The dance aside I’m not sure what you were expecting, but it fulfilled all my expectations. Pam and Jim are two people who grew up in a small town, lived a typical middle-class life, and work for a uninspiring company. The Niagara Falls wedding is actually flashy all things considered. Andy desperate search for companionship; Dwight getting a beautiful girl (For those who think this is out-of-character refer back to Night Out S4), Michael doing a speech and stand-up, tender Jim & Pam moments, vomit-inducing cold open, this episode hit every high note. I hope in retrospect you can see minus the NBC hype machine how truly great this episode was on its own and compared to previous one-hour episodes.
*POST AUTHOR*
I don’t think I’m misunderstanding things … my point isn’t whether or not they planned a dance wedding, it’s that the show didn’t give us the wedding they should have had.
Like I said above, had we witnessed their actual vows, maybe it would have balanced out nicely. But without a memory of a Pam/Jim romantic experience, there was nothing right about the episode. I’d go so far as to say it was wasted on joking around that could have taken place at any other time during the season. You’re recalling mainly what everyone else did, but where were Pam and Jim exchanging vows? Where was Jim saying something sentimental that didn’t sound like he was a robot reading from a cue card? Where was Pam getting overcome with happiness?
I actually didn’t experience any marketing hype for this episode, save for the cover of EW with Jim and Pam … was there even a campaign for this episode?
It just wasn’t very good, which is sadly in keeping with how the show’s been for me this season: better than most, but not right.
Coming from an editor I can see why the vows (seemingly the thing that bothers you the most) were done the way they were. The couple got to do things their way, away from prying eyes, including those of the audience. Intercutting it with the nonsense going on at the church wedding was done beautifully. It gave you just a taste, which is the way things have always been with this couple. In fact, they gave you more insight than they ever had before when it came to intimate Jim and Pam moments. We all knew with the running away shot that they were going to elope. I figured our look into that world would end right there and was nicely surprised with the Maid of the Mist cutaways. The couple stayed true to themselves and the storytelling (ie editing) followed suit. Personally I loved it.