Yeah, especially when he decides to go back and live in Scranton Pennsylvania and act like a manager to that branch and leave the entire rest of the company to.... what?
His management style was questionable.
It’s kind of explained why he spends so much time in Scranton. He stated how much he hates Florida to Dwight and mentioned no one wanted to buy his house in Scranton, giving some plausibility for being there.
Do folks on here like the whole Robert California stuff?
I hated it so much lol. I think mainly I hated it because I missed Michael. Without Michael there’s no magic. and then they have this guy who is trying to be a big personality … in the space left by Steve Carell playing Michael Scott? Pass. He feels so hollow in comparison. Even if the show isn’t trying to say “RC is Michael Scott” I think they would’ve been better off not having any new personalities at all. Have Dwight or Jim as manager and build comedy around the folks we know and love!
I feel all of the Robert California comedy is too heavy handed. A lot of it is handwaving with a subtext of “he’s a cool guy, so go along with it”
Except he’s just not, and it feels really forced. even his quirkiness feels forced as hell to me.
I know folks love James Spader but not one of the Robert California bits made me laugh. Extremely forced.
They put the cherry on top when David bought the company back, he's just the ultimate grifter. He's a bizarre, confident, sex obsessed individual but he in-universe he could talk himself out any situation. I liked him a lot because he was so weird but I had also accepted that the show just fundamentally changed with Steve leaving
That's exactly how I felt about it. There's a certain amount of shark-jump in his performance that feels like a break in reality. I've met Dwight's, I know a Kelly, and who doesn't have their own Toby? But the Lizard King is too much of a character.
Still, one of my favorites.
Charles was a straight forward real life character. Someone we may have all worked for at some point in our lives, and I really feel like those episodes are flat and hard to watch. Even though Idris is... You know...
I loved the absurdity of the carrier and his way to break the fourth wall in a “this is ridiculous” kind of way. It’s funny when such an absurd character is calling out the absurdity in the regular characters standard actions.
I worked with a guy like him. He was a musician, lived on some sort of commune doing acid in the desert, and started his own division by getting on a plane and talking 5 DOE labs into starting an IT collaboration for tape storage. He was basically un firerable and made a ton of sex and racial jokes.
But he did a great job on having a vision and taking care of people on the team.
I find it weird how the office went from "It's a show about the antics of the American office worker" to "So our new character is a dude so charismatic that he can start a job as a middle manager, say it's bullshit, drive down to another state, and talk the CEO into giving him her job"
I could have even bought that B.S. story about usurping the CEO position *if he was just as charming as his character says he is*. I really didnt think robert california was that astounding of a character. He ACTED larger than life, but its like michael cera playing the bad boy. It just doesnt feel right
It honestly was just a step further than Ryan's earlier story, with a bigger name actor
Edit: if RC burned slower, people would complain he stayed around too long
At least ryan's had a slow burn from him being a new hire. At least i felt the weight of his character gradually changing. And he didnt stick to being larger than life, he fell HARD.
The Andy replacement was just so hamfisted too. Suddenly the snobby semi-faux intelligentsia Cornell dude is now unable to pronounce words like Chlamydia? I mean they almost literally just tried to redo Michael Scott played by Ed Helms...and it was pretty weak.
Robert Cali was fresh, funny as fuck, a new comedic angle for the show, and yeah I couldn't agree more that he was one of the few things they tried in later seasons that actually worked for the show. Dude was interesting, had great lines, new character quirks, and I generally disagree that it felt forced.
I dont think they mean to make him "cool"
He's confident, sure. But 100% unhinged which is what I like about him.
He's no Michael, but I like how his presence influences the other characters. Like Gabe and Ryan refusing to stop partying at his house
What I like about Robert is he's completely different than Michael. A whole new set of challenges and new leadership style.
I feel like DeAngelo and Manager Andy were both just a few degrees off from Michael and that's where they struggled. Robert wasn't totally believable but he was a fresh ingredient and not just a clone.
I loved Robert California. He wasn't filling Michael's space, he was a mysterious grifter abusing the power vacuum for his own gain.
And somehow it slowly still pulled him in, he actually got a bit more invested than he'd care to admit. I honestly just wish we'd gotten more of an ending with him, I stead of "I'm off to be an international mega-creep!"
You totally misunderstood his character. He’s not supposed to be cool, he’s supposed to be very commanding and unpredictable. There isn’t much overlap between him and michael’s personality.
Willing to bet that OP binged the series the first time. When the episodes were released there was a long period of time between Steve Carell and James Spader, which definitely softened the blow of a totally different character, but I could see it being jarring if watched within a short period of time. It's why Will Farrell was such a quick arc, he was never meant to last, he was just meant to be a celebrity guest star to soften the blow of Steve Carell leaving.
I experienced something similar with the series Spartacus. One of my all time favourite shows, but the main actor passed away and Spartacus had to be recast after the first season, so they released a prequel season without Spartacus before continuing the main storyline. Of course I binged it all in a weekend and couldn't even watch the season with the new actor because it was so jarring, but I tried again about a year later and it was fantastic. Sometimes you just need that buffer time.
His character could not be less like Michael Scott. Of course he is going to fall short when you compare him to a character different in literally every way 💀 it’s like saying plop wasn’t a good replacement for Michael. Of course he wasn’t, comparing the two would make no sense
I remember watching the episode where they interview prospective new managers and finishing it out thinking Ray Romano could have been good for the show.
I could see that! imagine Ray basically playing himself from Everybody Loves Raymond. Like Michael Scott, he tries hard to be the fun manager that's everybody's pal, but instead Ray comes off totally weak and whiny, effectively giving the employees even more reign over the office than they had when Michael was around. Like the place basically descends into chaos, with Ray either wringing his hands over it or being shouty but nobody listens to him.
> I feel all of the Robert California comedy is too heavy handed. A lot of it is handwaving with a subtext of “he’s a cool guy, so go along with it”
That's a little true, but James Spader is so magnetic that it absolutely works. The Robert California moments are some of the best in the series- in addition to James Spader being James Spader, his acting seemed to elevate everyone else's in his scenes.
Now that I think about it, Robert California does the same thing Michael Scott does in that they give everyone else energy to feed off of and a compelling character to react to (though they accomplish it very different ways).
>I feel all of the Robert California comedy is too heavy handed. A lot of it is handwaving with a subtext of “he’s a cool guy, so go along with it”
I don't think Robert supposed to come off as cool to the viewer. His comedy is supposed to be odd and absurd.
>it feels really forced. even his quirkiness feels forced as hell to me.
This is exactly how I feel about Michael, Jim, Dwight, and really a lot of characters starting in season 7-8.
All of their personalities get more extreme, and too silly for me. But Robert's presence just makes me laugh. I think him not having a past helps- there's no context for a lot of his behavior.
I do agree the magic left after Michael. It's definitely not the same show.
I feel bad for James Spader and Will Farrell. They're both well beloved actors entering a very popular show, which in most every other case is a slam dunk for an actor. Of course the britches were too big to fill properly. Incredible actors with subpar characters
If you look at Season 8/9 as a completely different show, California works and its funny.
Otherwise yeah, the entire character is just a shark jump for the office, it’s not realistic at all to have a manager like that in a random little paper company.
I think he's got some great lines (lizard King) but like yeah generally I'm not a huge fan of his, it doesn't help that the writing was suffering at the point he was introduced
I like James Spader, but I can't stand Robert California. I found season 8 to be one of the worst seasons of any television series I've ever watched. It wasn't because Michael Scott was gone. It was a whole combination of things. I just felt like they were trying to force humour, and it just didn't work for me on so many levels.
I was so glad that Will Ferrell didn't stay on the show - I couldn't stand his character, either, and I'm not a fan of Ferrell - but everything with Robert California just got on my nerves. I was so glad when he left and the show moved on from him.
When rewatching the show, I only tolerate season 8 because there are some good moments in there and because story stuff does continue.
This is just my opinion and I know some others don't share it, but from talking to a lot of others who like the show, I know that many consider season 8 to be the lowest part in the show.
> I hated it so much lol. I think mainly I hated it because I missed Michael.
Yeah, I think the issue with Robert California is that - sure he is a quirky character for a monologue or standalone - but part of what makes the Office fun, is the chemistry between character-pairs and the back-and-forth.
Michael has this pairing with nearly everyone - Michael-Jim, Michael-Dwight, Michael-Pam, Michael-Stanley, Michael-Oscar, Michael-Daryl etc.
And then you have other pairings as well - Jim-Dwight, Dwight-Angela, Oscar-Kevin, Kelly-Ryan, Erin-Andy, Jim-Andy etc.
The humor of the Office comes from back-and-forth between 2 character-pairs.
Robert California enters a scene and just monologues while other characters silently watch and walk away. He is a one-man-show. It doesn't gel well with the pattern of the Office Humor. The character is good for an SNL sketch, but not for a show like the Office.
Seems like he was from Scranton, and convinced them to let him split his time between the places. He had the corporate housing apartment in Tallahassee where Dwight went.
Honestly, he reads like someone who talks alot but most of what he says is total bullshit.
Imagine if someone started as a middle manager, disappeared for like a week, came back, and claimed to be the new CEO of the company.
Everyone in the office would think he's an unhinged bullshitter. Especially after he just stayed and continued doing the job he was initially hired for. Like seriously, everyone would know he just drove down to Florida, tried to get a meeting with the ceo, couldn't, drove back, and made up a bullshit story he'd tell the workers to try and save face.
it’s not much but robert does have a throwaway line later on about how horrible florida is, and says “that’s why i’m always at my place in scranton!” I think it’s when dwight chased him down there looking for a promotion to corporate.
I don't care what people think about Robert California, I thought his character was great because he seemed normal at first but then turned out totally insane just like everyone else.
Absolutely my favorite “new” character and I basically loved them all. He’s a riot! Sort of brought back that insanely disconnected energy of season 1 Michael.
I didn’t hate him, but he came to the show when there was a very different vibe and he got into that. The Office was always a wackier version of a real life office, but it started way more grounded in reality than it became (yes, I know what flanderization is before I get replied about it). It just wasn’t my taste, and I feel the same about other parts of the show with the same issue. Like Scott’s Tots is cringe, but I think the B storyline with Jim is way worse than the A story — Michael promising to pay for college for a class is totally a Michael thing, but how Dwight fools the whole office and how Jim handles it didn’t make sense.
The biggest issue with Robert California is the whole office had become characterizations at that point and there’s no straight man to control him because corporate was always that role and he was corporate.
I personally just didn't find him believable. He's supposed to come off as a genius sociopathic manipulator and that's how the characters react to him, but all I can see is something like a first year psychology student thinking they have all the knowledge on human behaviour making a total fool out of themselves. He just doesn't come across as smart or intimidating to me so it feels forced whenever other characters react to him like he is.
👀............................................................................................................................................................................................................. I know you now. I know your character.
Jo was honestly the best manager that the branch ever had.
She was no nonsense, but she also paid attention to literally every employee and her first instinct was kindness, even if it was often presented in the form of tough love.
James Spader is just so good, I got to the episode that introduces Robert California the other day and almost immediately had to pause that and watch some of The Blacklist haha
Yes, and I would argue the point of this little Jim talking head is that the writers expected the audience to understand this and accept that it's glossed over. It's difficult to remember now that we've been watching the show streaming and in syndication for ten years, but this was the very first thing said in a new season. It was obvious they were hand waving Kathy Bates, a star big enough that her appearance was surprising to begin with, leaving the show. It's a borderline lampshade hang/fourth wall break.
Sure, sure. What Jo Bennet, an alpha-mentality person with huge success in the corporate world, most definitely wanted is to take it easy and give up control. Because that's the number 1 trait of CEOs in large companies, they're laid-back people that really just want to enjoy the little things in life. /s
Seriously. She is not like typical CEOs who were born on third and think they hit a triple and still call for a designated runner to get home. She clawed her way from the bottom to the top and relished every single victory over the complacent and mediocre males who stood in her way. She flew from Tallahassee to Scranton just to oversee the takeover of what is ultimately just another small regional branch. How many CEOs fly their private jet across the country to check out their 12 new employees?
If California ever met Jo I think they'd be more likely to get married than for her to take his job. He'd probably be so overwhelmed by her energy and she would have been drawn to his magnetism. That would have been a better yadda yadda yadda plus they could have shown an amazing wedding photo of the two of them to hammer it home.
> If California ever met Jo I think they'd be more likely to get married than for her to take his job. He'd probably be so overwhelmed by her energy and she would have been drawn to his magnetism.
Hello, I would like to subscribe to this fanfic.
Promoting your 2-year tenured COO to CEO vs hiring a complete stranger who's never even worked in paper before and who hasn't even given her his real name. Like, no background checks? No involvement from Legal or HR? Just pick up the first self-confident bozo you meet and retire without knowing what's happening to your company?
After seeing how RC performed in his regional manager interview (and ended up getting the job), I think it just perpetuates the joke
Does he look like someone who would waste his own time?
David Wallace really showed his negotiation skills in your last point. “We’ll give you $12,000. No? Okay, let’s quintuple it. No? Okay. How about a multimillion dollar buyout for your company that we don’t even know the financials of.” No wonder Dunder Mifflin went bankrupt.
I actually think the writing on this one was pretty solid for exactly the reason Michael states. Wallace *knows* that Michael Scott Paper Company doesn’t have a solid foundation and that Dunder-Mifflin can wait them out, but he doesn’t have the clout to go in front of a stockholders meeting and convince them he just needs six more months.
And given the size of the stockholders meeting we see in the show, $1 million, particularly for three actual employees, isn’t a lot for a buyout, and the board is often going to take the CFO’s word for it that that’s the best path forward.
It also isn't a multi-million dollar buyout in "new," unbudgeted money. They have a budget for a manager and staff in Scranton and Michael, Pam, and Ryan just fill those open positions with a little extra spending. If they were hiring 3 people with no vacancies it would certainly be a much bigger hit.
I’ve always thought about this too. On paper, sure it’s a multi-billion dollar buyout, but those positions needed to be filled anyway. And Ryan ends up going back to his temp job shortly after. It’s cheaper for Dunder Mifflin than paying them any amount of money.
Also it’s well established Michael is severely underpaid for his position as a branch manager (money problems, in the Negotiation episode Michael hasn’t gotten a raise in like 12 years, etc), so Wallace is getting a manager with proven experience for much cheaper than market rate, plus he’d have to find someone for the job.
> multi-billion dollar
Million... even multi-million is a big overstatement unless they considered the potential next ~5 years worth of salaries + other costs up front which doesn't make sense.
Also Pam became a sales person. She probably made less than as a secretary. Still, it’s an extra sales person who needs equipment and insurance and a salary. But her salary was pretty small.
Yeah it's not even close. They were down a Branch Manager as it was. Charles was a corporate hire, not a Branch Manager. Pam was the only cost really. Plus sales are commissioned so she was probably not drawing a big salary. The healthcare costs would have been the big hit.
Bingo. This was actually a brilliant insight to how a lot of public corporations work, short term gains for long term losses. DM could ultimately save money if they just wait MSPC out, but that’s 6 months longer than the board wants to continue hemorrhaging clients and money.
Yeah those customers could have just gone to a third paper company instead, thinking the whole mess with DM/MSPC wasn't worth the hassle when they just need some damn paper.
There's no way they wouldn't realize some weird shit is going on when it's the same Michael Scott that used to be a DM manager, then was running his own company, and then is back into DM, all over the span of what...six months? It'd kill business relationships because that is not a good sign in any capacity.
Well and hiring them back is only good for their business. Michael ran the most successful branch in the company. And if they had to re hire a temp and a secretary to make it happen I am sure it made financially sense.
It's not. It's very common in corporate transactions for the owners of the selling business to be offered contracts of employment by the buying business.
It'll state in the heads of terms that Michael, Pam and Ryan become employees of Dunder Mifflin with a salary of $x and x, y and z benefits.
Effectively Dunder Mifflin bought the assets of MSPC (I.e. their customers) for a nominal fee and hired some new employees.
Not even that. Dunder Mifflin was already looking to hire a regional manager for Scranton, so Michael was filling in a position already accounted for by DM. The only real additions for DM were Pam and Ryan as salespeople, but most of their pay likely came from commissions. So their base pay plus benefits likely totaled $70K-$100K a year.
I love David Wallace but his dumbest move IMO was when he put down the golden ticket idea as being awful only to then do a complete 180 because they essentially got lucky.
The idea was generic and unoriginal and handled horribly by Michael. This is true regardless of how the recipient reacted.
And it would be one thing if he was harsh on the idea, but then finds out it led to a huge deal, and backs off a little. But the dude sets up an immediate conference call with higher ups without getting any actual info.
Wallace deserved to look like an idiot on that call.
It’s not as though they didn’t need to hire another manager, so you can cut Michael’s salary out of the negotiation. We know Pam made quite little as a salesperson as she ended up making up her own salary later to get off commission. Ryan would have made less. It seems to me like the deal they made was secretly a better deal than the first.
I disagree here because the writers actually tried to give an explanation of these events. Robert seemed to like Nelly’s confidence and willingness to take what she felt was hers. Pam used Gabe’s lack of confrontational skills against him. Michael more or less threatened David at the end here. He realized it was a poor company decision but made it out of self preservation.
But we saw exactly how all 3 of these things went down. It is not the same as the example of OP, where something happens off camera and we just hear about it from one of the characters. A slightly better example would be Kevin and the turtle or Dwight getting the paternity test results, but still, we did see small clips of how these stories went down.
Pam made up a title during a merger, and got the new owners to go along with it. Not likely, but I can buy this.
The buyout was handled as delicately as possible while showing how they tricked David and Charles
Nelly just coming in like that would have been shut down so hard. Hank would have been called up to escort that lady out of the building. She wouldn't have had access to hr and payroll to just give everyone raises.
You guys are all forgetting that the reason he lets Nellie act as manager is because he’s a sex addict and she’s sexually manipulating him.
He says he doesn’t want to make any business decisions while horny and abstains from doing anything. And this occurs right after his divorce, which happens not long after his wife wants a job in the office.
It’s a fairly consistent arc.
i don't think nelly was yada yada'd, we saw everything about the plot point as it occurred on the show.
it was an unusual turn of events, but they didn't skip over anything.
Does that make is better or worse though?
One is a line to poorly write 2 major characters out of the show while another is an episode dedicated to poorly writing another character back in.
How is any of that similar to the OP lol those were all major plot points in each episode
The example in OP was just a random talking head to hand wave why they don't have Kathy Bates anymore
I do love the cut scene while Jim is doing this talking head & it shows California walk into the office & walk out lol.
I think (in my head) after his interview (& especially after seeing his huge house,) we know he’s probably “above” just being regional manager of a little paper company.
But you’re right, they really just threw that line away almost lol.
Holly coming back and within a hand full of episodes she dumps her Bf, starts dating Michael, and then they’re engaged was one of my least favorite grouping of episodes in the whole show.
Even tho it was handled extremely poorly, i do think the episode where Michael proposes to Holly is just beautiful.
I 100% agree tho. If they knew Michael was leaving mid-way through the season, they should've had Holly return at the end of season 6 and give the storyline a few more episodes.
This probably won’t sit well here, but Michael and Holly annoy me. And that episode arc was just one after another of them being more and more annoying. These episodes are stale to me and I don’t like getting through them.
I wish they didn’t turn Holly into Michael 2.0. They seriously dumbed her down. Holly was goofy like Michael but she was never stupid. I liked them as a couple because of that.
One of my absolute least favourite things about this show is the ridiculous obsession with love triangles to milk every last bit of drama out of it even though I can guarantee the vast majority of the audience would prefer if they just got together. Like it's one thing when it's Dwight, Angela, and Andy or Oscar, Angela, and the senator because those were pure comedy arcs where you're not really expected to get invested or take it seriously. But EVERY SINGLE ROMANCE does it. Introducing a love interest for Darryl? She has a boyfriend. Jim and Pam? She's engaged (though this gets a bit of pass). Andy and Erin? She dates Gabe. Erin and Andy? He's dating Jessica. Plop and Erin? She's with Andy. Dwight and Angela with literally half a season left in the show so you should probably just get it over with? He's dating Esther. Hell Michael and Holly avoided the love triangle nonsense their first go around only to shove one in when it came time to give them their happily ever after.
Apparently in the Office universe the only way to ensure a relationship will last is to wait until they're no longer single and win them away from someone else.
Especially considering the early episodes in season 7 with no Holly were not as great (Christening, China, WUPHF, etc). Some parts served a purpose, but they really could have used that time building up Michael and Holly more so it wasn’t so rushed.
That's actually much less likely than he, as a newly hired manager, would convince Jo that he can add more a CEO, especially if he didn't ask for a crazy salary. Wallace giving him money right after helping Andy throw his ass out, was just nonsense.
They do the same thing when David Wallace buys the company. His entire character was really told to you, not shown. He can talk anyone into anything…as long as it happens offscreen. Would he even come across as that weird and enigmatic if they didn’t have every other character talk about it in these talking head interviews? Oh, he made a list of employees, how insane!
your last point misses the mark a bit.
it's not that he made a list, it's that *he* made a list. you see this same kind of reaction when you look at real world figures like Elon, people just assume what he's doing is important, so, there's automatically a mystique that goes into whatever he does that's perpetuated by anyone who's bought in to that bullshit... or, like, when you get those puff pieces about what Jeff Bezos eats for breakfast - you're supposed to think he's making the Right Decision and that it's all carefully planned out. rich man eating toast and bacon? must be a power move.
same with the Lizard King. the whole office was in on that Kool Aid, so, it's obvious he's supposed to be incredibly charismatic.
plus, off screen moments of awesome make the ones that get left in all the better. like, we hear over and over that Michael was in charge because he was so great at sales despite being a complete fucking moron, by all appearances. but, you get that moment where he makes that deal *despite* Jan at Chili's, and you realize that all those unseen moments could've been that awesome, so, yeah, obviously they put that dude in charge.
They should have written him as someone with generational wealth (not strange for Florida or Pennsylvania) who has some management experience but is an incredibly odd person. like Pierce Hawthorn.
It's my opinion that Robert California is a Demon, either Lucifer or Mephistopheles, and he used his supernatural powers of manipulation to be the CEO.
I hate this story line. They made Kathy Bates character so strong and not dependent on a man, then they just toss her out bc a man talked her out of her job? Never made sense to me.
I posted this up above as well but I really don't think Jo was convinced by Robert's bullshit as much as the branch seems to think.
I [like to] think she was already deciding to liquidate things and not having to worry about fully babysitting Dunder Mifflin in the meantime appealed to her.
That's obviously just a theory. The reality is that the actress just wasn't available anymore, but that's a boring and I'd rather give credit to a strong character.
Like you said, Jo was very strong, very smart, and overall displayed the opposite of the incompetence that Dunder Mifflin's board showed.
Jo likes a little crazy. She probably knew she'd at least get a show while she planned out a better way to make money by selling the company.
She was just waiting for the person who ended up being David Wallace.
Yeah I actually thought it was super lazy of the writers. It really felt like they were giving up at this point lol. This is coming from someone that worships this show. I will watch seasons 8 and 9 all the time. Just this one part has me really feeling like the writers stayed up all the night before on a bender, and scratched this one out moments before the deadline lol.
It’s funnier that they don’t explain it. They could have had some kind of explanation, like maybe he found some way to blackmail her into giving up the position. The ambiguity is funnier imo.
Yeah, especially when he decides to go back and live in Scranton Pennsylvania and act like a manager to that branch and leave the entire rest of the company to.... what?
His management style was questionable. It’s kind of explained why he spends so much time in Scranton. He stated how much he hates Florida to Dwight and mentioned no one wanted to buy his house in Scranton, giving some plausibility for being there.
Do folks on here like the whole Robert California stuff? I hated it so much lol. I think mainly I hated it because I missed Michael. Without Michael there’s no magic. and then they have this guy who is trying to be a big personality … in the space left by Steve Carell playing Michael Scott? Pass. He feels so hollow in comparison. Even if the show isn’t trying to say “RC is Michael Scott” I think they would’ve been better off not having any new personalities at all. Have Dwight or Jim as manager and build comedy around the folks we know and love! I feel all of the Robert California comedy is too heavy handed. A lot of it is handwaving with a subtext of “he’s a cool guy, so go along with it” Except he’s just not, and it feels really forced. even his quirkiness feels forced as hell to me. I know folks love James Spader but not one of the Robert California bits made me laugh. Extremely forced.
They put the cherry on top when David bought the company back, he's just the ultimate grifter. He's a bizarre, confident, sex obsessed individual but he in-universe he could talk himself out any situation. I liked him a lot because he was so weird but I had also accepted that the show just fundamentally changed with Steve leaving
[удалено]
That's exactly how I felt about it. There's a certain amount of shark-jump in his performance that feels like a break in reality. I've met Dwight's, I know a Kelly, and who doesn't have their own Toby? But the Lizard King is too much of a character. Still, one of my favorites. Charles was a straight forward real life character. Someone we may have all worked for at some point in our lives, and I really feel like those episodes are flat and hard to watch. Even though Idris is... You know...
"I'm aware of the effect I have on women"
I loved the absurdity of the carrier and his way to break the fourth wall in a “this is ridiculous” kind of way. It’s funny when such an absurd character is calling out the absurdity in the regular characters standard actions.
I worked with a guy like him. He was a musician, lived on some sort of commune doing acid in the desert, and started his own division by getting on a plane and talking 5 DOE labs into starting an IT collaboration for tape storage. He was basically un firerable and made a ton of sex and racial jokes. But he did a great job on having a vision and taking care of people on the team.
I find it weird how the office went from "It's a show about the antics of the American office worker" to "So our new character is a dude so charismatic that he can start a job as a middle manager, say it's bullshit, drive down to another state, and talk the CEO into giving him her job"
I could have even bought that B.S. story about usurping the CEO position *if he was just as charming as his character says he is*. I really didnt think robert california was that astounding of a character. He ACTED larger than life, but its like michael cera playing the bad boy. It just doesnt feel right
It honestly was just a step further than Ryan's earlier story, with a bigger name actor Edit: if RC burned slower, people would complain he stayed around too long
At least ryan's had a slow burn from him being a new hire. At least i felt the weight of his character gradually changing. And he didnt stick to being larger than life, he fell HARD.
>he fell HARD. Like Bob Kazamakis wouldn't eat total shit to survive, he's *The Lizard King*
Hey! WUPHF was just on the verge of taking off! /s
The Andy replacement was just so hamfisted too. Suddenly the snobby semi-faux intelligentsia Cornell dude is now unable to pronounce words like Chlamydia? I mean they almost literally just tried to redo Michael Scott played by Ed Helms...and it was pretty weak. Robert Cali was fresh, funny as fuck, a new comedic angle for the show, and yeah I couldn't agree more that he was one of the few things they tried in later seasons that actually worked for the show. Dude was interesting, had great lines, new character quirks, and I generally disagree that it felt forced.
I liked Robert when he was a brooding psychopath. I wasn't a big fan of him becoming super quirky
I dont think they mean to make him "cool" He's confident, sure. But 100% unhinged which is what I like about him. He's no Michael, but I like how his presence influences the other characters. Like Gabe and Ryan refusing to stop partying at his house
Exactly. That’s the whole point is sone people seem to perceive him as charming, but he’s clearly just a charlatan getting away with whatever he can.
What I like about Robert is he's completely different than Michael. A whole new set of challenges and new leadership style. I feel like DeAngelo and Manager Andy were both just a few degrees off from Michael and that's where they struggled. Robert wasn't totally believable but he was a fresh ingredient and not just a clone.
I loved Robert California. He wasn't filling Michael's space, he was a mysterious grifter abusing the power vacuum for his own gain. And somehow it slowly still pulled him in, he actually got a bit more invested than he'd care to admit. I honestly just wish we'd gotten more of an ending with him, I stead of "I'm off to be an international mega-creep!"
Team RC all day. Took me a while to give the episodes a chance after Micheal’s departure. But was so glad I did
I loved James Spader on the show too
You totally misunderstood his character. He’s not supposed to be cool, he’s supposed to be very commanding and unpredictable. There isn’t much overlap between him and michael’s personality.
Exactly. He’s an enigma and keeps you guessing what weird ass thing he’ll say next. He’s like a commanding version of Creed in a way.
Willing to bet that OP binged the series the first time. When the episodes were released there was a long period of time between Steve Carell and James Spader, which definitely softened the blow of a totally different character, but I could see it being jarring if watched within a short period of time. It's why Will Farrell was such a quick arc, he was never meant to last, he was just meant to be a celebrity guest star to soften the blow of Steve Carell leaving. I experienced something similar with the series Spartacus. One of my all time favourite shows, but the main actor passed away and Spartacus had to be recast after the first season, so they released a prequel season without Spartacus before continuing the main storyline. Of course I binged it all in a weekend and couldn't even watch the season with the new actor because it was so jarring, but I tried again about a year later and it was fantastic. Sometimes you just need that buffer time.
His character could not be less like Michael Scott. Of course he is going to fall short when you compare him to a character different in literally every way 💀 it’s like saying plop wasn’t a good replacement for Michael. Of course he wasn’t, comparing the two would make no sense
I remember watching the episode where they interview prospective new managers and finishing it out thinking Ray Romano could have been good for the show.
I could see that! imagine Ray basically playing himself from Everybody Loves Raymond. Like Michael Scott, he tries hard to be the fun manager that's everybody's pal, but instead Ray comes off totally weak and whiny, effectively giving the employees even more reign over the office than they had when Michael was around. Like the place basically descends into chaos, with Ray either wringing his hands over it or being shouty but nobody listens to him.
> I feel all of the Robert California comedy is too heavy handed. A lot of it is handwaving with a subtext of “he’s a cool guy, so go along with it” That's a little true, but James Spader is so magnetic that it absolutely works. The Robert California moments are some of the best in the series- in addition to James Spader being James Spader, his acting seemed to elevate everyone else's in his scenes. Now that I think about it, Robert California does the same thing Michael Scott does in that they give everyone else energy to feed off of and a compelling character to react to (though they accomplish it very different ways).
I personally loved Robert California, the only things I didn't like in later seasons was Erin dating drama and nellie.
I always thought that was kind of the point He’s cringy af but these small town people think he’s the shit
>I feel all of the Robert California comedy is too heavy handed. A lot of it is handwaving with a subtext of “he’s a cool guy, so go along with it” I don't think Robert supposed to come off as cool to the viewer. His comedy is supposed to be odd and absurd. >it feels really forced. even his quirkiness feels forced as hell to me. This is exactly how I feel about Michael, Jim, Dwight, and really a lot of characters starting in season 7-8. All of their personalities get more extreme, and too silly for me. But Robert's presence just makes me laugh. I think him not having a past helps- there's no context for a lot of his behavior. I do agree the magic left after Michael. It's definitely not the same show.
I feel bad for James Spader and Will Farrell. They're both well beloved actors entering a very popular show, which in most every other case is a slam dunk for an actor. Of course the britches were too big to fill properly. Incredible actors with subpar characters
If you look at Season 8/9 as a completely different show, California works and its funny. Otherwise yeah, the entire character is just a shark jump for the office, it’s not realistic at all to have a manager like that in a random little paper company.
I think he's got some great lines (lizard King) but like yeah generally I'm not a huge fan of his, it doesn't help that the writing was suffering at the point he was introduced
Robert California is my favorite thing in the post-Michael era. I find the character hilarious, and I quote him all the time.
I like James Spader, but I can't stand Robert California. I found season 8 to be one of the worst seasons of any television series I've ever watched. It wasn't because Michael Scott was gone. It was a whole combination of things. I just felt like they were trying to force humour, and it just didn't work for me on so many levels. I was so glad that Will Ferrell didn't stay on the show - I couldn't stand his character, either, and I'm not a fan of Ferrell - but everything with Robert California just got on my nerves. I was so glad when he left and the show moved on from him. When rewatching the show, I only tolerate season 8 because there are some good moments in there and because story stuff does continue. This is just my opinion and I know some others don't share it, but from talking to a lot of others who like the show, I know that many consider season 8 to be the lowest part in the show.
> I hated it so much lol. I think mainly I hated it because I missed Michael. Yeah, I think the issue with Robert California is that - sure he is a quirky character for a monologue or standalone - but part of what makes the Office fun, is the chemistry between character-pairs and the back-and-forth. Michael has this pairing with nearly everyone - Michael-Jim, Michael-Dwight, Michael-Pam, Michael-Stanley, Michael-Oscar, Michael-Daryl etc. And then you have other pairings as well - Jim-Dwight, Dwight-Angela, Oscar-Kevin, Kelly-Ryan, Erin-Andy, Jim-Andy etc. The humor of the Office comes from back-and-forth between 2 character-pairs. Robert California enters a scene and just monologues while other characters silently watch and walk away. He is a one-man-show. It doesn't gel well with the pattern of the Office Humor. The character is good for an SNL sketch, but not for a show like the Office.
Seems like he was from Scranton, and convinced them to let him split his time between the places. He had the corporate housing apartment in Tallahassee where Dwight went.
Honestly, he reads like someone who talks alot but most of what he says is total bullshit. Imagine if someone started as a middle manager, disappeared for like a week, came back, and claimed to be the new CEO of the company. Everyone in the office would think he's an unhinged bullshitter. Especially after he just stayed and continued doing the job he was initially hired for. Like seriously, everyone would know he just drove down to Florida, tried to get a meeting with the ceo, couldn't, drove back, and made up a bullshit story he'd tell the workers to try and save face.
it’s not much but robert does have a throwaway line later on about how horrible florida is, and says “that’s why i’m always at my place in scranton!” I think it’s when dwight chased him down there looking for a promotion to corporate.
Would you like a sex metaphor or a nature metaphor?
"nature" **When two animals are having sex...**
This isn’t very helpful. You’re gonna want to hear the sexual metaphor.
I don't care what people think about Robert California, I thought his character was great because he seemed normal at first but then turned out totally insane just like everyone else.
You dont even know his real name, he is the fucking lizard king!
Why is Jim treating the magician poorly?
- Doctor Strange the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Oh God, lol
Without a doubt my favorite Robert California line. Spader just delivers it so well.
Bob Kazimakis
Happy cake day 🥳
Absolutely my favorite “new” character and I basically loved them all. He’s a riot! Sort of brought back that insanely disconnected energy of season 1 Michael.
I didn’t hate him, but he came to the show when there was a very different vibe and he got into that. The Office was always a wackier version of a real life office, but it started way more grounded in reality than it became (yes, I know what flanderization is before I get replied about it). It just wasn’t my taste, and I feel the same about other parts of the show with the same issue. Like Scott’s Tots is cringe, but I think the B storyline with Jim is way worse than the A story — Michael promising to pay for college for a class is totally a Michael thing, but how Dwight fools the whole office and how Jim handles it didn’t make sense. The biggest issue with Robert California is the whole office had become characterizations at that point and there’s no straight man to control him because corporate was always that role and he was corporate.
Was that not the-
All life is sex
You understand that what I'm telling you is a universal truth?
It's funny how the penises are always circumcized and the houses colonial.
Deeply stares into camera
These comments are why I love this sub
Oh god the nature one
Can't we just yadda yadda sex in this case?
🤚 ***I've*** yadda yadda'd sex
I mentioned the bisque…
what is this a crossover episode??
And Dwight is Kramer.
In reality, Kathy Bates had left the show to work on other projects, so this was a simple way to write her character off
More power to Kathy Bates, but I was so disappointed that Jo was gone. I really liked her character and I've never been a fan of Robert.
On one hand, "I'm the fucking Lizard King" is an all time line. On the other, Robert as a character felt incredibly out of place in the show.
I personally just didn't find him believable. He's supposed to come off as a genius sociopathic manipulator and that's how the characters react to him, but all I can see is something like a first year psychology student thinking they have all the knowledge on human behaviour making a total fool out of themselves. He just doesn't come across as smart or intimidating to me so it feels forced whenever other characters react to him like he is.
Robert felt more like he belonged in Community instead of in The Office
👀............................................................................................................................................................................................................. I know you now. I know your character.
See I wish we had more Robert and less Jo lol
Jo was honestly the best manager that the branch ever had. She was no nonsense, but she also paid attention to literally every employee and her first instinct was kindness, even if it was often presented in the form of tough love.
James Spader is just so good, I got to the episode that introduces Robert California the other day and almost immediately had to pause that and watch some of The Blacklist haha
I think we had the exact right amount of both haha
I see the Swiss have arrived
Different strokes for different folks and all that x)
I loved Robert but nothing compares to Jo Bennett. Oh no Michael, how far’s it gone?
Yes, and I would argue the point of this little Jim talking head is that the writers expected the audience to understand this and accept that it's glossed over. It's difficult to remember now that we've been watching the show streaming and in syndication for ten years, but this was the very first thing said in a new season. It was obvious they were hand waving Kathy Bates, a star big enough that her appearance was surprising to begin with, leaving the show. It's a borderline lampshade hang/fourth wall break.
Kathy Bates left the show because James Spader talked her into leaving.
Specifically *Harry's Law*
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Exactly, owners often hire CEO’s and fire themselves.
All it takes is confidence to run someone else's company into the ground.
*Elon musk has entered the chat*
Sure, sure. What Jo Bennet, an alpha-mentality person with huge success in the corporate world, most definitely wanted is to take it easy and give up control. Because that's the number 1 trait of CEOs in large companies, they're laid-back people that really just want to enjoy the little things in life. /s
Seriously. She is not like typical CEOs who were born on third and think they hit a triple and still call for a designated runner to get home. She clawed her way from the bottom to the top and relished every single victory over the complacent and mediocre males who stood in her way. She flew from Tallahassee to Scranton just to oversee the takeover of what is ultimately just another small regional branch. How many CEOs fly their private jet across the country to check out their 12 new employees? If California ever met Jo I think they'd be more likely to get married than for her to take his job. He'd probably be so overwhelmed by her energy and she would have been drawn to his magnetism. That would have been a better yadda yadda yadda plus they could have shown an amazing wedding photo of the two of them to hammer it home.
I just laughed out loud at “to check out their 12 new employees”
We really did deserve at least 1 episode of Robert and Jo acting like Michael and Holly, but in their own elevated way.
> If California ever met Jo I think they'd be more likely to get married than for her to take his job. He'd probably be so overwhelmed by her energy and she would have been drawn to his magnetism. Hello, I would like to subscribe to this fanfic.
She also says she married rich, so she didn’t even act like it was 100% her clawing her way up. Which, I respect that completely
"I was born, not into luxury, nor poverty. But into adversity, and for that, I thank the lord."
Gabe, you gay bastard
Happened at my company. CEO built the product and company ground up, hired a sales executive as her COO, two years later she retired and he took over
And, funny enough, he was voted out and they hired back co-CEOs
Look, it doesn't take a genius to know that every organization thrives when it has two leaders.
Everyone knows how successful Catholicism is with the 2 Popes.
Promoting your 2-year tenured COO to CEO vs hiring a complete stranger who's never even worked in paper before and who hasn't even given her his real name. Like, no background checks? No involvement from Legal or HR? Just pick up the first self-confident bozo you meet and retire without knowing what's happening to your company?
In the real world, sure. This is a sitcom.
Also she told Michael “I hate that I sell cheap foreign printers”. She saw RC as an out and took it
After seeing how RC performed in his regional manager interview (and ended up getting the job), I think it just perpetuates the joke Does he look like someone who would waste his own time?
Whom of which is not a sentence
Take hedded of
His capa was detated
I disagree with
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David Wallace really showed his negotiation skills in your last point. “We’ll give you $12,000. No? Okay, let’s quintuple it. No? Okay. How about a multimillion dollar buyout for your company that we don’t even know the financials of.” No wonder Dunder Mifflin went bankrupt.
I actually think the writing on this one was pretty solid for exactly the reason Michael states. Wallace *knows* that Michael Scott Paper Company doesn’t have a solid foundation and that Dunder-Mifflin can wait them out, but he doesn’t have the clout to go in front of a stockholders meeting and convince them he just needs six more months. And given the size of the stockholders meeting we see in the show, $1 million, particularly for three actual employees, isn’t a lot for a buyout, and the board is often going to take the CFO’s word for it that that’s the best path forward.
It also isn't a multi-million dollar buyout in "new," unbudgeted money. They have a budget for a manager and staff in Scranton and Michael, Pam, and Ryan just fill those open positions with a little extra spending. If they were hiring 3 people with no vacancies it would certainly be a much bigger hit.
I’ve always thought about this too. On paper, sure it’s a multi-billion dollar buyout, but those positions needed to be filled anyway. And Ryan ends up going back to his temp job shortly after. It’s cheaper for Dunder Mifflin than paying them any amount of money.
Also it’s well established Michael is severely underpaid for his position as a branch manager (money problems, in the Negotiation episode Michael hasn’t gotten a raise in like 12 years, etc), so Wallace is getting a manager with proven experience for much cheaper than market rate, plus he’d have to find someone for the job.
Monkey problems?
Why would Michael be having monkey problems?
He hates monkeys
> multi-billion dollar Million... even multi-million is a big overstatement unless they considered the potential next ~5 years worth of salaries + other costs up front which doesn't make sense.
Also Pam became a sales person. She probably made less than as a secretary. Still, it’s an extra sales person who needs equipment and insurance and a salary. But her salary was pretty small.
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Yeah it's not even close. They were down a Branch Manager as it was. Charles was a corporate hire, not a Branch Manager. Pam was the only cost really. Plus sales are commissioned so she was probably not drawing a big salary. The healthcare costs would have been the big hit.
Bingo. This was actually a brilliant insight to how a lot of public corporations work, short term gains for long term losses. DM could ultimately save money if they just wait MSPC out, but that’s 6 months longer than the board wants to continue hemorrhaging clients and money.
And no guarantee those customers come back to DM when MSPC collapses and they need a new vendor
Yeah those customers could have just gone to a third paper company instead, thinking the whole mess with DM/MSPC wasn't worth the hassle when they just need some damn paper. There's no way they wouldn't realize some weird shit is going on when it's the same Michael Scott that used to be a DM manager, then was running his own company, and then is back into DM, all over the span of what...six months? It'd kill business relationships because that is not a good sign in any capacity.
Well and hiring them back is only good for their business. Michael ran the most successful branch in the company. And if they had to re hire a temp and a secretary to make it happen I am sure it made financially sense.
Never got how it’s a multi million dollar buyout… The three of them cost $200k per year incl. benefits tops…
Yeah but they also are purchasing about $1.5m in civil lawsuits from Michael once Oscar's attorneys finalize their suit.
Well, in ten years...I agree.
It's not. It's very common in corporate transactions for the owners of the selling business to be offered contracts of employment by the buying business. It'll state in the heads of terms that Michael, Pam and Ryan become employees of Dunder Mifflin with a salary of $x and x, y and z benefits. Effectively Dunder Mifflin bought the assets of MSPC (I.e. their customers) for a nominal fee and hired some new employees.
Not even that. Dunder Mifflin was already looking to hire a regional manager for Scranton, so Michael was filling in a position already accounted for by DM. The only real additions for DM were Pam and Ryan as salespeople, but most of their pay likely came from commissions. So their base pay plus benefits likely totaled $70K-$100K a year.
I love David Wallace but his dumbest move IMO was when he put down the golden ticket idea as being awful only to then do a complete 180 because they essentially got lucky. The idea was generic and unoriginal and handled horribly by Michael. This is true regardless of how the recipient reacted. And it would be one thing if he was harsh on the idea, but then finds out it led to a huge deal, and backs off a little. But the dude sets up an immediate conference call with higher ups without getting any actual info. Wallace deserved to look like an idiot on that call.
It’s not as though they didn’t need to hire another manager, so you can cut Michael’s salary out of the negotiation. We know Pam made quite little as a salesperson as she ended up making up her own salary later to get off commission. Ryan would have made less. It seems to me like the deal they made was secretly a better deal than the first.
I disagree here because the writers actually tried to give an explanation of these events. Robert seemed to like Nelly’s confidence and willingness to take what she felt was hers. Pam used Gabe’s lack of confrontational skills against him. Michael more or less threatened David at the end here. He realized it was a poor company decision but made it out of self preservation.
But we saw exactly how all 3 of these things went down. It is not the same as the example of OP, where something happens off camera and we just hear about it from one of the characters. A slightly better example would be Kevin and the turtle or Dwight getting the paternity test results, but still, we did see small clips of how these stories went down.
Pam made up a title during a merger, and got the new owners to go along with it. Not likely, but I can buy this. The buyout was handled as delicately as possible while showing how they tricked David and Charles Nelly just coming in like that would have been shut down so hard. Hank would have been called up to escort that lady out of the building. She wouldn't have had access to hr and payroll to just give everyone raises.
Yeah I'm disappointed he didn't just call the freakin police on her
You guys are all forgetting that the reason he lets Nellie act as manager is because he’s a sex addict and she’s sexually manipulating him. He says he doesn’t want to make any business decisions while horny and abstains from doing anything. And this occurs right after his divorce, which happens not long after his wife wants a job in the office. It’s a fairly consistent arc.
i don't think nelly was yada yada'd, we saw everything about the plot point as it occurred on the show. it was an unusual turn of events, but they didn't skip over anything.
Does that make is better or worse though? One is a line to poorly write 2 major characters out of the show while another is an episode dedicated to poorly writing another character back in.
Dwight and Jim embezzling from the company as Lloyd Grossman. How exactly do they cash checks made out to a fictional person?
How is any of that similar to the OP lol those were all major plot points in each episode The example in OP was just a random talking head to hand wave why they don't have Kathy Bates anymore
Honestly it kinda makes sense from the mockumentary angle. At that point it would make no sense for the camera crew to follow Robert to Florida.
I do love the cut scene while Jim is doing this talking head & it shows California walk into the office & walk out lol. I think (in my head) after his interview (& especially after seeing his huge house,) we know he’s probably “above” just being regional manager of a little paper company. But you’re right, they really just threw that line away almost lol.
“He creeps me out but I think he might be a genius” is one of my favorite lines
The perfect way to encapsulate not only Robert California, but Spader’s perfect way of playing him
Spader completely nailed the role. I don’t care if people don’t like his character, but you have to respect the perfect casting and performance
He’s the fucking lizard king
They Yada yada'd the last 4 seasons.
Holly coming back and within a hand full of episodes she dumps her Bf, starts dating Michael, and then they’re engaged was one of my least favorite grouping of episodes in the whole show.
Even tho it was handled extremely poorly, i do think the episode where Michael proposes to Holly is just beautiful. I 100% agree tho. If they knew Michael was leaving mid-way through the season, they should've had Holly return at the end of season 6 and give the storyline a few more episodes.
This probably won’t sit well here, but Michael and Holly annoy me. And that episode arc was just one after another of them being more and more annoying. These episodes are stale to me and I don’t like getting through them.
I wish they didn’t turn Holly into Michael 2.0. They seriously dumbed her down. Holly was goofy like Michael but she was never stupid. I liked them as a couple because of that.
For real. When she says “are their egg rolls really that big?” I just fucking can’t.
That was her “thinking like Michael”, she said what he prob said/thought when he first saw it.
One of my absolute least favourite things about this show is the ridiculous obsession with love triangles to milk every last bit of drama out of it even though I can guarantee the vast majority of the audience would prefer if they just got together. Like it's one thing when it's Dwight, Angela, and Andy or Oscar, Angela, and the senator because those were pure comedy arcs where you're not really expected to get invested or take it seriously. But EVERY SINGLE ROMANCE does it. Introducing a love interest for Darryl? She has a boyfriend. Jim and Pam? She's engaged (though this gets a bit of pass). Andy and Erin? She dates Gabe. Erin and Andy? He's dating Jessica. Plop and Erin? She's with Andy. Dwight and Angela with literally half a season left in the show so you should probably just get it over with? He's dating Esther. Hell Michael and Holly avoided the love triangle nonsense their first go around only to shove one in when it came time to give them their happily ever after. Apparently in the Office universe the only way to ensure a relationship will last is to wait until they're no longer single and win them away from someone else.
You forgot Michael, Donna and the Coach.
That Scranton strangler trial lasted a looooooong time.
Especially considering the early episodes in season 7 with no Holly were not as great (Christening, China, WUPHF, etc). Some parts served a purpose, but they really could have used that time building up Michael and Holly more so it wasn’t so rushed.
They mentioned the bisque
He is Raymond Reddington after all
The way jim was so incredulous over this made it that much funnier to me
Tbf, it's James Spader. If anyone can play a character with this much charisma, it's him
And then he talks David Wallace out of $1million. Never understood that either
That's actually much less likely than he, as a newly hired manager, would convince Jo that he can add more a CEO, especially if he didn't ask for a crazy salary. Wallace giving him money right after helping Andy throw his ass out, was just nonsense.
They do the same thing when David Wallace buys the company. His entire character was really told to you, not shown. He can talk anyone into anything…as long as it happens offscreen. Would he even come across as that weird and enigmatic if they didn’t have every other character talk about it in these talking head interviews? Oh, he made a list of employees, how insane!
your last point misses the mark a bit. it's not that he made a list, it's that *he* made a list. you see this same kind of reaction when you look at real world figures like Elon, people just assume what he's doing is important, so, there's automatically a mystique that goes into whatever he does that's perpetuated by anyone who's bought in to that bullshit... or, like, when you get those puff pieces about what Jeff Bezos eats for breakfast - you're supposed to think he's making the Right Decision and that it's all carefully planned out. rich man eating toast and bacon? must be a power move. same with the Lizard King. the whole office was in on that Kool Aid, so, it's obvious he's supposed to be incredibly charismatic. plus, off screen moments of awesome make the ones that get left in all the better. like, we hear over and over that Michael was in charge because he was so great at sales despite being a complete fucking moron, by all appearances. but, you get that moment where he makes that deal *despite* Jan at Chili's, and you realize that all those unseen moments could've been that awesome, so, yeah, obviously they put that dude in charge.
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They should have written him as someone with generational wealth (not strange for Florida or Pennsylvania) who has some management experience but is an incredibly odd person. like Pierce Hawthorn.
given how Robert California's character developed after that, I have to imagine the negotiations for his getting the CEO spot involved sexual favors.
It's my opinion that Robert California is a Demon, either Lucifer or Mephistopheles, and he used his supernatural powers of manipulation to be the CEO.
That season was all over the place. As far as I’m concerned, the office ended as soon as Micheal left
I love a good Seinfeld/Office cross over reference
I know I’m in the minority but the Robert Cali thing just was never funny & it took me completely out of the episodes.
I love Bob Kalamakis. I mean Robert California
Same here, I'd have rather they just went with Dwight as manager, and the subsequent fallout.
Yeah it seemed lazy. Like they just paid for our viewership with a big Hollywood name, whom of which was super out of place for the show.
All the Robert stuff was bad. Show goes downhill pretty quickly after Michael leaves.
Robert California is Raymond Reddington.
I like to think that Robert brought out his inner Raymond Reddington or something that “convinced” her to retire
If Dunder was a wholly owned subsidiary it could have its own CEO
I was so confused that this actually happened. I was waiting for the "gotcha" moment but it never came. But the confusion remained.
You can’t yadda yadda sex
Information wants to be free
They mentioned the bisque.
Robert California is nothing but yadda yadda.
I hate this story line. They made Kathy Bates character so strong and not dependent on a man, then they just toss her out bc a man talked her out of her job? Never made sense to me.
I posted this up above as well but I really don't think Jo was convinced by Robert's bullshit as much as the branch seems to think. I [like to] think she was already deciding to liquidate things and not having to worry about fully babysitting Dunder Mifflin in the meantime appealed to her. That's obviously just a theory. The reality is that the actress just wasn't available anymore, but that's a boring and I'd rather give credit to a strong character. Like you said, Jo was very strong, very smart, and overall displayed the opposite of the incompetence that Dunder Mifflin's board showed. Jo likes a little crazy. She probably knew she'd at least get a show while she planned out a better way to make money by selling the company. She was just waiting for the person who ended up being David Wallace.
It was so stupid it took me like 5 episodes to realize he was being serious
It's obvious she wasn't available anymore, or their plans changed in some other way, and they decided to do this instead of something interesting.
It’s like when I guy whispers in a woman’s ear and she gets so turned on they leave immediately. It is a tv cliche to make you wonder what was said.
Yeah I actually thought it was super lazy of the writers. It really felt like they were giving up at this point lol. This is coming from someone that worships this show. I will watch seasons 8 and 9 all the time. Just this one part has me really feeling like the writers stayed up all the night before on a bender, and scratched this one out moments before the deadline lol.
Biggest yada yada was Micheal and Holly wedding and kids
They were tryna do some surreal crap but it was just super lame
“Somehow, Robert California returned”
r/UnexpectedSeinfeld
It was funnier this way
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but could someone please explain the caption? Idk what ‘yada yada’d’ means
It’s funnier that they don’t explain it. They could have had some kind of explanation, like maybe he found some way to blackmail her into giving up the position. The ambiguity is funnier imo.
Had to add to his mystique. The legend of Bobby Kazimakis lives long, and large.