Dear Office Hairstylist...

Stop it. You know what I'm talking about. I don't know if John Krasinski was rude to you at the craft service table or if you're inexplicably rooting for Roy, but there's no excuse for this kind of behavior. For shame, Office Hairstylist, for shame.

Well that sums things up quite nicely.

Moments in TV Awesome: The Office

Joss Whedon directs The Office! Tonight!

Thanks to Q for pointing me in the direction of this clip. Tonight. NBC. Bats. Vampires. Awesome.

Squirming and Sighing

As Captain Calamity has pointed out, The Office's unique mix of comedy and pathos is what makes it so compulsively watchable. It's a really tough thing to pull off (see Scrubs for a more hit and miss version of the technique) and last night it was perfect.

Andy's a douche. You know it, I know it, deep down maybe even Andy knows it. That kind of brazenly sycophantic social awkwardness doesn't happen overnight, it has to be the result of a lot of terrible years of...something . But every time I'd start to feel too sorry for him (rejected by Michael, obviously hurt by Jim and Pam's prank), he would do something so disastrously funny that I couldn't help but laugh.

And I loved that Jim and Pam were reunited by the common annoyance of Andy, but every time we glimpsed Karen's troubled eyes, watching her boyfriend pal around his former unrequited love, my heart dropped. And that, my friends, is the mark of great storytelling.

Moments in TV Awesome: The Office UK

When Tim finally got the nerve to tell Dawn how he felt, he took her away from the cameras and into an empty conference room, where he yanked off his mic and spilled his guts. Unable to hear their conversation, we could only watch breathlessly as Dawn absorbed whatever Tim said and hugged him in return. Then they exited and Tim calmly informed us that she said no. It was an exquisitely beautiful sucker punch.

So as not to end on a downer, I present you with another Tim and Dawn Moment in Awesome:

The Christmas Special our last chance to see the should-be couple get it together and make love work. After leaving the party with boorish perma-fiance Lee, Dawn opened her Secret Santa gift and found proof that Tim was the one who got away (more accurately, the one she tossed back in favor of day old cod). Encouraging her "pipe dream" with oil paints and a note telling her to never give up, Tim finally got through to Dawn and she quietly broke down in tears. I might have also...but that's not the point. The peak moment of awesome came when she strode into the party to claim her man and we knew, just a moment before Tim, that his life was about to change forever.

"Who did this to you? Where is he?"

You can tell a lot about a guy by the way he handles a woman in tears. And, ladies and gentlemen, Dwight K. Schrute passed the test. In the most perfect scene of last night's Office, he encountered a crying Pam. After his first two instincts -- 1. tracking down the SOB who caused her pain and 2. giving her his jacket (half-way through this gesture he tied it around his own waist), Dwight got it right by handing over a hankie he probably keeps clean for just such scenarios. Patting our sad Pam on the back, he even tried to understand where she was coming from, commenting that she "must be PMSing pretty bad." So awkward and yet so sweet.

The Office: A Benihana Christmas

After last week's bloated episode of My Name is Earl, I was a little worried that The Office's long episode might also leave me wishing they'd stuck to the normal format. In the teaser Dwight dropped a dead goose on Pam's desk and my fears were eased. The episode, directed by Harold Ramis, was not only solid, but one of my favorites yet. Pam reached out to Karen and they banded together to knock Angela off her fascist party planning game; Andy took Michael and his "Entourage" to Benihana to forget Carol; Kevin sang You Oughtta Know and the whole office joined in. Brilliant.

The Pam/Jim storyline was very similar to when Dawn and Tim dealt with the change in their camaraderie after his promotion. I like that the US version uses threads of the UK version while still making the series their own. I could easily see David Brent canceling Christmas because of a break-up, but I never felt for Lee the way I feel for Roy as he faces his first Christmas without Pam.

Unsolicited Golden Globe Opinions

The Golden Globe nominations have been announced and now it’s time to examine the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s silly little ideas of TV excellence (Sarah Paulson? I’d laugh if I got the joke).

DRAMA
My pick of the nominees: Big Love. It’s compelling and interesting. Its exploration of family life and plural marriage is at once deeply familiar and completely foreign.

Overlooked: I love Veronica Mars, but if I have to pick one, I’d say Friday Night Lights. This show appeals to a much broader demographic than VM and the fact that it’s not appointment viewing for more people is a shame. Degrassi may have bogarted the expression, but FNL really does go there.

ACTRESS (DRAMA)
My pick: Kyra Sedgwick. I love The Closer and though the rest of the cast is uniformly excellent, I can’t take my eyes off Sedgwick.

Overlooked: Kristen Bell for Veronica Mars. Lead actresses on critically acclaimed teen shows have been recognized by the HFPA in the past (Keri Russell for Felicity, Amber Tamblyn for Joan of Arcadia), so why does KB keep getting snubbed? She’s the heart of one of the most compelling and entertaining shows on TV and she deserves some props.

ACTOR (DRAMA)
My pick: Bill Paxton. As a thoroughly modern polygamist patriarch, he manages to make me sympathize with someone I would normally find fairly abhorrent. Beyond the foreign concept of his life style, he is simply a father, husband and son stretched to the very limit.

Overlooked: Kyle Chandler for Friday Night Lights. From the accent to the demeanor, everything about the way Chandler inhabits Coach Taylor is dead on.

MUSICAL OR COMEDY
My pick: The Office. I laugh, I squirm, I tune in week after week and am rarely disappointed.

Overlooked: Old school multi-camera sitcoms aren’t dead. Seriously, just ask How I Met Your Mother. While you’re at it, ask why Desperate Housewives stole their Golden Globe nomination.

ACTRESS (COMEDY OR MUSICAL)
My pick: Mary-Louise Parker is spectacular on Weeds, but despite the show’s comedy label, she gives what I would dub a dramatic performance. That said, I would give the trophy to America Ferrera for her effervescent turn on Ugly Betty.

Overlooked: Anne Heche for Men in Trees.

ACTOR (COMEDY OR MUSICAL)
My pick: Alec Baldwin is beyond brilliant on 30 Rock. His sly turn as a corporate stiff among creative bafoons makes me thank God he's not being wasted on something higher brow like Studio 60.

Overlooked: John Krasinski for The Office. Steve Carell is great, but the most affecting performance has been Krasinski’s and after taking the reins for the Stamford portions of the show, he has graduated from supporting character to capable leading man.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
My pick: Elizabeth Perkins is black comedy gold (would that make her comedy oil?) on Weeds. She’s awesome as a thorny (and horny) cancer survivor whose family and community at large kind of hate her.

Overlooked: Ginnifer Goodwin, Chloe Sevigny and Jeanne Tripplehorn for Big Love. Without the perfect combination of spouses, Bill Paxton’s performance would be nothing.

SUPPORTING ACTOR
My pick: Justin Kirk for Weeds. Completely overlooked by the HFPA for his performance in Angels in America, it’s about time he get some recognition for being so dead-pan awesome.

Overlooked: Neil Patrick Harris for How I Met Your Mother. He’s easily my favorite part of a damn fine show and Harris has proven that his hilarious cameo in Harold and Kumar was no fluke.