Do the Coworkers of "The Office" Date Each Other Too Much?

First it was the crush between Jim and Pam, then came the concealed Michael and Jan affair between superior and subordinate. Not long after, Kelly and Ryan began a very public relationship in the workplace. At the other extreme, Dwight and Angela were so preoccupied with hiding their relationship between coworkers that they were at one point willing to let Dwight lose his job before risking other people find out about their romance. In the background, Toby has a crush on Pam, but his meek advances go unnoticed.

Is that too much? Could that possibly happen in an office of under 20 employees? Let's not even get started with the Karen and Jim romance, or how Andy has hit on almost every office female at least once. There's also the awkward mutual attraction between Michael and Holly, the new HR representative, made even more complicated by Jan's permanence in Michael's life. This otherwise high-quality show has fresh scripts, talented actors, characters that audiences care about, and writers that always come up with great ways to tie long-running story lines together, so what keeps them going back to this tired office romance routine? With Jan and Michael "sorta married" then "sorta divorced", Angela unwillingly engaged to Andy, and Jim and Pam on the road to marriage, the writers have to be quickly running out of dating permutations for these characters.

Truth is, they do it for the same reason that they do slapstick humor with Michael falling down the stairs, or Andy punching a hole through the wall. Romance storylines go down well with audiences--the more obtuse and unexpected the better. It's cheap, but it works, so why mess with it? It helps the show draw in mainstream audiences while still creating opportunities for more creative storylines, unexpected jokes, and their trademark witty, insightful, and hilariously true commentary on modern day corporate life.

As the show enters its fifth season, their writers continue coming up with ways to keep these dating plots interesting, unlike many other shows where creative juices shut off once the central love interests finally get together. Even better, we're all still wondering what aspect of corporate life they will portray next. Given the current environment, audiences would surely appreciate the opportunity to laugh at their own imploding retirement plans, or Dunder-Mifflin's diminished ability to get credit from suppliers, or the worries of how bad the looming recession will be. If anyone can make corporate America chuckle at their most challenging time yet, it's "The Office" and their creative team.