Many moons ago, Mockingbird put together and distributed a little teaching series called “The Gospel According to The Office.” When we made the transition to the new site a couple of years ago, it somehow fell through the cracks. The show’s finale seemed like as good a time as any to put it back into circulation. Like the show itself, we don’t vouch for how it may have dated–but it sure seemed like a good idea at the time! You can download it by clicking here.
While we’re on the subject of the show, if you’re at all like me and didn’t catch the last couple seasons (and are checking back in for these final episodes), you may have missed the surprisingly powerful instance of grace in the recent episode “Living the Dream”. It involves Angela, the cranky accountant who has served as the office moralist since the show began. Through a series of unfortunate events, her Pharisaical facade is finally ripped away, at which point her nemesis, Oscar–whom she has consistently mistreated (and vice versa)–shows her unexpected mercy. Having hit rock bottom at last, Oscar’s gesture allows Angela not only to accept but confess what is really eating away at her, and their interaction is genuinely touching. Fast forward to the closing five minutes if you’d rather not watch the entire thing, ht HS:
A Few Bonus Tracks:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6njBHQH2eOM&w=600]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=qdq-zqTMS1U&w=600]
COMMENTS
4 responses to “The Gospel According to The Office”
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Love it. I once had a Dwight Schrute bobblehead on my desk. And now you know that.
I loved in the retrospective when Mindy Kaling said that most fans thought they were like Jim and Pam, but were actually more like Ryan and Kelly.
The Office at its best was full of grace-infused irony, and concrete proof that the two are not mutually exclusive. I’ve not watched the British original, but I wonder if it had the same quality.
The British version blows the American version out of the water! One of my fave bits of tv, and full of poignancy. The Garth character, as opposed to Dwight, takes the role to another level.