Overacts outs the wazoo

Totally agree.

Not entirely her fault because the show is trying to develop the characters more and all that, but beyond the plain girl-next-door attitude, Pam is an uninteresting whiner and Fischer just isn't a very good actress and only accentuates her lesser qualities.

I'm sure lots of people will accuse both of us of being trolls but I'm a fan of the show and I have grown to really detest her character the past two seasons.

W.W.G.D.
What Would Gibson Do?

I'll defend her a bit.

The show originally was written for someone (and she was cast as) that was supposed to be as boring as possible. She is no longer written that way so maybe the current writing isn't her forte. That being said, I think in the bulk of her scenes she does a great job, but the writing of the series seems to have gone a little bit downhill, and she tries to make up for that.

I still enjoy watching her though. I think The Lover was just an awkward episode altogether. I think people falling out of love with Pam has nothing to do with Jenna, just weird writing.

she never was a good actress period

Even before that episode aired it was clear from the promo that that wasn't a serious scene requiring serious acting. It was basically Pam overacting.

Not that I disagree with your main point.

Charles is right about the promo, but I will agree about certain parts of "The Lover."

We'd never really seen Pam angry prior to this episode, but even given that -- I have to admit that the scene in which she screams in the parking lot (immeadiately after coming back from commercial) seemed very forced.

Pam Beesly is supposed to be the perfect female. Attractive, Humble, Sweet, Kind, Loyal, Faithful, Chaste, Funny, Smart, Artistic, and Submissive.

Or take a look at the list of things she is definitely NOT: Ugly, Arrogant, Prudish, Slutty, Mean-Spirited, Selfish, Ditzy/Stupid, Humourless, Cold, or Agressive.

Once you start fiddling w/ her character it is easy to lose the humble, sweet, kind, and submissive qualities -- the ones that are the very core of her appeal. Still, even the Season 6 version of Pam Beesly is definitely wife-material to me, though not as perfect as, say, Season 3 Pam.

Plus, the original BBC Office was 12 episodes plus a special, which was perfect amount to tell what is essentially a love-story surrounded by a comedy (not a traditional romantic comedy). The US version of The Office is at or nearing 100 episodes ... that is the essential problem. Once Pam and Jim (or Dawn and Tim) get together, the story is ended (or should be). In other words, *maybe* a special after the end of Season 3, and then close up shop w/ dignity.

I think there are two basic possibilities to describe what everyone's talking about in regard to Pam becoming less likable.

The first is that Pam started out as pretty idealized, as described above. Now that she is more comfortable and happier, the character could be simply more comfortable and showing her true self more, which is someone with flaws.

The other possibility, or in combination with the above, is that the new Pam is much more like the real Jenna. She seems a lot like how she is portraying Pam -- not to say she's a terrible person or something, she seems fine. But she has a pretty raunchy sense of humor, as judging by pretty consistent movie choices along these lines, and is kind of dorky and "ordinary". She's stronger and more outgoing than Pam is.

That being said, I completely agree with "the show is best when viewed with the end of the 3rd season being the end". Now it's basically a sitcom, which is often very funny, but much less remarkable.

"Pam's now regular bouts of rage just comes off as forced and unnatural. Best examples are in "the Lover" and her line in this promo, *gag* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp_WvSc1qfI. "


In Pams defense, that scene was from the episode "murder" in which the office workers were play acting some kind of "whodunit" type of murder mystery game.

So the "overacting" was "Pam" trying to act out a part, not Jenna Fischer overacting as Pam.

Make sense?

Yeah looking back that promo was a bad example :/
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"So fair, yet so cold"