My love for "The Office"has followed a strange path. As John Green might say, "it happened slowly, and then all at once."
It caught me unassuming. I had, after all, tried it twice already and found it to be lacking. Its irreverence was, I thought, far too much for my personal taste.
To be frank, I found Michael Scott cringeworthy, and I don't like cringe humor too much in my shows. I'm the kind of person that turns the channel when characters are about to embarrass themselves, so virtually every Michael Scott scene challenged my very willingness to keep watching.
In those early days, I didn't see much heart in the show, only humor. The plotlines seemed so simple, so devoid of real conflict, that I couldn't imagine myself getting drawn in as I had to other shows like "How I Met Your Mother", "Arrested Development", and "Freaks and Geeks".
And yet, as I write this, I just ended my nine-season "relationship" with "The Office", and I have no regrets.
How is it that I, once so disinterested in this ever-popular show, became as entranced as everyone else?
It started with my brother. And my friends. And all of social media. There had to be a reason everyone loved this show, I reasoned – that's why I tried it the first two times. When about 50 percent of my Facebook feed consisted of "The Office"memes, I felt that I had little choice but to educate myself.
But as I said before, I tried twice and gave up with little interest. So the pop culture craze for the show got me to try it, but it didn't keep me there. Nor did the show's famed irreverence that I mentioned before, though I did grow to love it.
No, what really drew me to "The Office" was the most down-to-earth storyline: The office flirtations between Pam and Jim, the two most likable characters on the show. Where I found myself drawing back from the antics of other characters, the real dynamics between the show's power-couple-to-be disarmed my defenses.
Before long, I found myself laughing at Jim's pranks right along with Pam. And once I started laughing, I started finding humor in the rest of the show, too. It is undeniably over-the-top in a brilliant sort of way.
As unlikable as they would seem to the casual observer, I grew to like each of the show's cast. Of course, there were moments where my affection waned; when characters like Dwight, Andy, and especially Michael, tested my love. But credit to the writers for creating characters that turned out to be so likable despite their ridiculous (and sometimes downright mean) antics.
And through it all, the storyline of Pam and Jim remained wonderful.
By the end of the show, I didn't want it to end at all. It's funny to look back and think how I barely wanted it to start.
And so it was that "The Office" won over one of its most stubborn converts.
(NOTE: I would be remiss if I didn't say that I enjoyed the antics of Creed, the unsung hero (and also criminal) of the show from my first viewing.)