Matt

Steve Carall is funny as Michael Scott, but I wished they developed his character a little more away from Ricky Gervais' David Brent. The one thing that sets this show apart is the characters have to some degree gone off in seperate directions from the originals. However, Michael Scott is still pretty reminiscent of David Brent.

I liked how it was awkward, much like most of the original Office was. The BBC Office had lots of pranks, like when Tim put Gareth's stapler in Jelly, while Tim was eating Jelly and denying that he did it from Episode One. However, much of the humour in BBC version came from the awkward pauses.

Well in all fairness, so was Dwight, but the whole Angela relationship has given him more of a centre away from Michael if that makes sense. He's slowly become a little more concerned about her and a little less about Michael. I think the old Dwight would have done what he could to repair the damage between him and Michael than resign simply to keep Angela happy by hiding their relationship. Andy is just trying to swoop in because he thinks he will survive because of it.

I was hoping they'd fire Andy throughout the show, so what happened sucked. Andy was okay at the beginning but now he's just not funny.

I couldn't believe the ending of tonight's episode... I hope that it all gets sorted out next week.

David Brent is hilarious. I find him funnier than Michael Scott, the only downfall for Brent was that he became too pathetic in Series Two, but I figure that was probably to help end the show.

Who else has seen it? Well I saw it on the weekend and I thought it was good, though the ending was a little bit long... I liked how the context of the movie was taken from World War II. Like with the refugee camps being like the Jewish Ghetto in Poland, and the conflicts on the streets of London with random bombings as well as just the police state that has come of it. What I believe is they are making reference to what would happen if we continue along this path to another World War. During the last one there was not too many babies produced during it, if I remember correctly, because all the men were off fighting a war. The conflict was prolonged of course as well, thus it only exacerbated the problem. Today our conflicts definitely don't end on fields and retreats usually work in some way especially with guerilla warfare. No one has really found a solution for guerilla warfare either, in cases like Vietnam, in the end everyone including civilians were targeted because anyone could be working against their army. So, if we were to have another World War, what I believe the movie is suggesting is that no good can come from it and we will only hurt our society's chances of survival.

That actually might be amusing...

Yes I have. The BBC version is the original and the U.S. is based on it. In the beginning the U.S. version even used Episode One from Series One of the BBC version for the pilot, and there were a lot of similarities in a few other episodes. However, the U.S. version has become a little more "out there" and little bit crazier. It's a toss up now as to which is better because they are quite a bit different now, but in the first season there was no question that the BBC version was better.

Well maybe if they got together, it would be better than the Niles/Daphne relationship.

Canada is a collection of provinces who didn't want to be together in the first place. The only reason Nova Scotia joined was for the railway. PEI was in debt and Canada bailed them out, before that they were resisting confederation. New Found Land held out until 1949 because they feared confederation too, but they ended up having too much debt. British Columbia didn't particularly want to join either, they felt more of a kinship with the U.S. than Canada. However, the people at the time were first and formost loyal to the Crown. The Brits managed to convince B.C.'s government at the time the smart plan was to confederate rather than join the States or stay an isolated colony. Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan didn't have a choice, that land was settled by Ottawa and before that it was bought from the Hudson's Bay Company. Also, it is a good parallel because it's the model the E.U. has used, a loose collection of societys tied together. Quebec isn't the only province who has threatened to seperate recently. During the Nineties, there was talk of B.C. seperating, nothing ever came of that. Now there's talk in Alberta too. Also, like I said earlier the federal government, in the beginning only had matters of a national concern to deal with. It's only evolved for them to take on more of a intertwined role. But that took till the Charter was passed and that was after the Constitution failed to be adopted by all the provinces. And with the Charter there's still the "Not With Standing" Clause which allows provinces to ignore the Charter, for example the Supreme Court ruled that Quebec's language laws are not valid, but they continue to exist because of the Not With Standing Clause. It takes time for a Union to form, most of the countries in the world didn't form over night but over time. Germany wasn't even a nation until the 1860s... It was just a bunch of scattered German speaking nations in the same area before. The E.U. has a long way to go itself. I don't think it will be brought down because of the fact that they work better together than against each other. Canada was formed from fear of American invasion that was the catalyst, the E.U. was formed from a shattered continent, they learned to work together, Canada the same, so the E.U. can be like us and work out issues over time. We didn't come to a charter over night neither will they. They haven't come to a national pride overnight, neither has our country, we still struggle with that. So, it's not like there isn't hope for the Union.

"Frasier" proved it could be done, this is basically the Niles/Daphne relationship of the '00s and well the jokes were funny once those two were dating, so while the show is going it could work.

As a Canadian, I think I have something to say on the subject. The EU is basically set up like the Dominion of Canada. In the early days, the federal government had almost no power except over national projects (like the intercontiental railway and trade). Even today, the provinces have a huge amounts of autonomy compared to the States. Generally our legislatures (national assembly in Quebec) can pass whatever the please of a local interest, so health care and most social programs fall under a provincial scope, while the government can help out and even take those projects national. So, I doubt the E.U. will fail, but the times will be turbulent, however, there will be prosperity too. It just might not seem as stable as in many other countries.

Yeah, it is. I think that it's being dragged out too much like I said, and him and Karen have been together a long time for the show now, so... and the fact that he didn't even want Karen living two blocks away kind have says he doesn't really like her all that much, like you mentioned about it from the episode before. So, maybe they will start to break down the Karen and Jim relationship, I just hope it doesn't end up with Jim and Pam seeing other people again in the end.

I'm glad they beat the Russians to win the Gold...

I remember when the SP creators were on Jimmy Kimmel talking about Team America and they made a good point that the left wingers had no problem with them making jokes about right wingers, but when they joked about the left wingers all of a sudden they didn't find that funny.

The last episode was good, I just thought that it's time that Jim and Pam either get together or they move on, they've been hinting at it for a long time. Even Niles and Daphne ended up getting together before the end of Frasier, so I can't see there being a problem with these two getting together. Plus the jokes about those two are not nearly as funny anymore, so it's getting to the point where they are beating a dead horse...

I personally didn't mind the banner at first, I just think it's a tad bit old now considering the movies on DVD now and all...

So, Canada won the Jrs again this year, thoughts?

The new CD was bland, their last two efforts have been okay, but not that great.

I haven't really enjoyed much of Kerns' work since Ryan and Kurt Dahle left the AOE. I feel that Todd Kerns has spent too much trying to recreate the sound he had with that band, and well most of the songs on "Make A Pest A Pet" were written by Ryan Dahle, not Todd Kerns.

I did not really enjoy either disc of "In Your Honour", it was just kind have bland. I listened to a couple songs from the live album on Myspace during the album preview, and I discovered thought the same about this one too.

The movie is definitely interesting. Jarrod, he does show a lot of scientific graphs that are not usually shown when talking about Global Warming that illustrate his point effectively.

Dion is an ardent Federalist, he's the one who created the Clarity Act to set out how the process will go, and wasn't he Unity Minister under Chretien or something along those lines?

exactly. I dislike these power-hungry types. And Scott Brison is certainly one of these. I remember him running for the PC leadership around 2001-2002? back when Peter Mackay won. Brison obviously lost, and then shortly after when i turn on the TV he's sitting as a Liberal in the House of Commons. Same with Belinda Stronach. I can see people seeing some ideas differently, but how do you go from being running for leadership of a major conservative party to sitting as or running for leadership of a very liberal party (which the Libs are, in many ways lean socialist). Its B.S., all these people want is power. Both Belinda & Brison & these types are douchebags. God i hate politicians. Scott Brison is an openly gay politician, he did not believe merging the Alliance and the PCs together was a good idea either. He made the switch because he believed he would become the "gay poster boy" of the party and he preferred to be view on his merits as a politician rather than his sexual orientation, plus he wanted to be in a party that closer reflected his moral views, the new Conservatives did not do this. So, the week they merged, Brison switched.