Neither one of us felt very good after our booster shots this past Wednesday, but Daina was hit the hardest. Fever, chills, body pains, the whole works. We curled up on the couch and watched the last remaining season of The Office on Netflix, mostly just to get it done with. Whatever humor we found in the show was in the early going, when Jim was chasing after Pam and vice versa, Michael found himself under the thumb of Jan, and Dwight was trying to establish his authority, albeit he did that throughout.
There were some characters I hated in the past, some of them listed here, but Andy Bernard would have to top my list. Comedy is about getting under your skin. We've seen that with the flack comedians have gotten recently for hitting a little too close to the bone with their brand of humor. The problem with Andy is that he is not funny, not in the least. He grew from an annoying distraction in the office to a mean-spirited bully with no redeeming traits. I don't normally get so worked up about a bad character, but it just galled me the way Ed Helms was able to hijack this show. My wife would repeatedly tell me to calm down.
He was fine as a surrogate for Dwight in the Stamford branch that Jim briefly inhabited in Season 3, when Jim felt he had to create some distance from Pam. I never expected Andy to become such a prominent figure in the show. Those big bug eyes and all those wild antics made him look like he was literally trying to ape Michael. I just wondered how the rest of the cast could take him, as they had to see him as an unnecessary and unwanted intrusion.
Apparently, they were all impressed with his improv skills, to read this article. Ed really does play guitar and banjo and is able to carry a tune, but most of the cast was pretty good at singing. Brian Baumgartner actually learned to play drums for Phylllis' wedding. Some of the writers have since said that "The Hangover calculus" had a lot to do with keeping him, as Helms was now considered a genuine star. NBC wanted someone to boost the flagging ratings and paid him handsomely. So, he was kept when the two branch offices merged in Season 4.
The writers were running low on material now that Jim and Pam were back together. Karen, a refreshing Rashida Jones, moved to Utica, finding herself odd woman out. The rest of the Stamford branch had already moved on. That left Andy to ingratiate himself to Michael and nudge his way past Dwight, but not before attempting to steal Angela away from him too.
Andy became an ever more pathetic character. A dumbed-down Michael if one man-child in the office wasn't enough. The writers tried to humanize him a little by sparking a romance between the new receptionist Erin and him, but this was overshadowed by Michael finally finding his true love in Holly. Neither of these relationships measured up to that between Jim and Pam, as they were played mostly for vulgar laughs. What do you expect when you have someone like B.J. Novak writing the scripts.
The show didn't seem to know which direction to head. So many twists and turns, one making no more sense than the other. As my wife says, it all looks like it has been written by teenage boys. Why would anyone be interested in Andy? she said that Michael at least had a heart. Apparently, NBC thought Ed Helms was their prized peacock and he got more and more lines, or rather situations in which to improvise.
I can't help but think this must have galled the cast and writers. Ed Helms is not overly talented. The more space he was given the more he floundered. By the end of Season 7, the writers had broken into the Dwight and Andy camps, as Steve Carell had said this was his last year. There would be a new boss but no one was quite sure who? It couldn't be Jo, she already owned the whole thing. They flirted with Will Ferrell as DeAngelo Vickers but he took a nasty fall. James Spader had an engaging interview as Robert California. Alas, another Hangover movie was on the event horizon, so Ed Helms was seen as having the most star power.
After a few twists the turns, the Nard Dog,was given the boss' chair, much to the chagrin of Dwight and I imagine half the writing team. It was doomed from the start, but we go through a whole season of trials and tribulations just the same, as the writers seemed at a loss for funny lines, opting for Ed Helms' buffoonery instead. It probably all would have come to a crashing end had not NBC convinced the cast to stay on for one more season. Seemed like under the condition Andy be given less air time.
Unfortunately, he came back in the closing episodes after a three-month cruise down to the Bahamas to sell the family yacht. A convenient way to cover for Ed as he filmed Hangover 3. Once back, Andy tried to assume his old role as boss only to find no one had any respect for him anymore. Surprise, surprise. As luck would have it, he got one more shot, but it was short-lived so the writers chose to completely debase his character, literally having him poop on David's car, and became a viral hit, Baby WaWa, after his failed attempt on America's Next A Cappella Sensation.
There have been insufferable television characters in the past, but Andy Bernard really takes the cake. The only explanation I have for the depths of depravity Andy had to suffer was because they all hated him on the show. Not even Michael or Dwight were forced to stoop that low. Yet, somehow, Andy is warmly embraced by his colleagues when he comes back for the final night, in which they face their audience after a long run as a reality show on PBS. I would have thought Michael be given top billing, as he was the true star of the show, but he just came back for Dwight's long anticipated wedding.
Anyway, I'm glad we're done with it and can move on. We feel much better this morning. Whatever was racing through our system has run its course and we look forward to a pleasant weekend. We may even go watch The French Dispatch at the movie theater. It's been the talk of our office this past week.
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