The Office: The Deposition review

I saw this episode, and since most of it revolved around the legal world, I thought I would chime in and say that I thought this episode was great. Even if I wasn't a lawyer, I would think this episode was pretty funny. It's on the rewind website, so judge for yourself. I won’t speculate on how I think the case would actually go, other than it would provide some humor for whatever clerk or transcriptionist read the transcripts and diary exhibits. Also, I'm not sure why Jan’s whole case would come down to Michael Scott, and I don't think his testimony would be that fatal to her case, but hey, it's tv.

I will also comment that I don't think it's that small a leap to say that the idea came from the HR heroes website. See That's What She Said - The Job (suggesting that Jan may have a suit for wrongful dismissal). The complete write-up on the HR heroes blog about this episode is much more engaging than my review.

At the very least, I see this episode as a rare example of the intersection of the internet and tv (although Arrested Development is a different example of crossing recent pop culture references with tv shows, with mixed results). At the very most (but in a rather abrupt segway), the episode does not change my impression that Hollywood writers have no real basis to strike.

Now, this statement is not premised on my assumption that the writers of the Office lifted this idea from the internet. If at all, the HR heroes website probably just sparked the idea, and there is no problem with that. And I like (for the most part), the writing for the Office. After watching the Office writer's video blurb about the strike though, I'm beginning to think that this strike is more about someone's poor negotiation strategy more than anything else. At the same time, though, I still say that the current writing for tv shows (currently and generally) isn't that spectacular, and the writers are walking on eggshells as a result of this strike.

I just wonder whose lawyers are going to win out in the end. My money is on the networks'.

Tags: hollywood writers strike, the office deposition review