I am having an issue with one of my greatest loves. My favorite TV show right now is not scifi, which shames me (more on that in another post). Nope, it’s The Office. I love nearly everything about it, the sharp dialog, the subtle jabs, the dark humor that has you laughing and squirming uncomfortably at the same time, and the bizarre characters.
But the problem I have, and how this ties into science fiction, is the character of Dwight. He is obsessive about hierarchy, rude, myopic, and an utterly hysterical character. He’s also the office geek.
It’s honestly hard for me to see holy concepts like Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars being gushed about by this character who is utterly dreadful.
Dwight at a cocktail party: “Do you watch Battlestar Galactica?”
Confused stranger: “No.”
Dwight: “Well then, you are an idiot.”
It bugs me to see the only person in the office that shows geek tendencies - love of SF, part of a laser tag team, into the martial arts, collector of odd facts (his are about bears - did you know a bear can climb faster than it can run?), paintball enthusiast, and cosplayer (He spent a lot of money on his Sith Lord Halloween costume.) But as I mentioned above, he’s one of the least likable people (also, I grant you, one of the most fun.)
I think what bugs me the most is that I thought the writers would be smarter than that. They’ve created multifaceted characters like Creed, who just gets weirder and weirder every time we hear that he speaks Chinese, has a four-toed foot, and, during the 60s, had sex with “a lot of women. A man could have slipped in there, there is no way of knowing.” And Kelly, the celebrity-obsessed customer service representative who has trouble comprehending people who say what’s on their mind (“What kind of game is that?”)
And then there is Dwight, who, granted, has more depth than most stereotypical geeks, but he still is a socially awkward lover of “uncool” things. He is a practitioner of karate but he attends a school for kids. He misses the cool TV show (“The Apprentice”) by getting drunk with his laser tag team. Every time the show brings in an aspect of geek life, it’s invariably concerning Dwight and therefore is to be mocked.
Characters in The Office have more potential than most sitcom characters, as they have the chance to change as the seasons go on. The writers don’t always make Dwight the loser; he’s brought a room full of salesmen to screaming applause with a speech before, not to mention this season consistently cuckolding his rival who’s engaged to his ex-girlfriend. I just want one of his triumphs to be geek-associated: Let him meet Katee Sackhoff from BSG. Let his Sith Lord costume win an award at Halloween. Let us meet his laser tag team and learn that they’re all really interesting people.
In short, writers, show us a view of geeks besides that which is portrayed in every other sitcom. You stand above all the others in every other way, why not this one?
