r/DunderMifflin • u/drguillen13 • 5d ago

Lee Kirk, Jenna Fischer's real-life husband, directed one episode of The Office (S9,E14: Vandalism). In it, Jim is depicted as a slob and a non-ideal roommate.

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u/ASeaofStars235 5d ago

When you live with friends, you see a side of them you didn't really know was there. Small things start to annoy you even more than they probably should. If you work AND live with them, this is even more true.

I always saw this episode as a take on that idea. The things that Jim did were made to seem super annoying to get the point across. Jim has always been a reasonable guy, but showing Darryl getting annoyed with him let us see a side of Jim that I've always though was handled pretty well in the show: he isn't perfect. He's a good guy with flaws that gets main character treatment. From Darryl's perspective, though, he's just a friend and a coworker.

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u/bubba_nomad 4d ago

To me it just didn't make sense, because we already saw Jim's living space when he had the barbecue. It was neat clean and tidy. For me it just didn't make sense for him to be a great roommate in the beginning, to go to a slob.

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u/ASeaofStars235 4d ago

Idk, man. I lived with friends and coworkers for a few years in my early 20s. It started great, everyone was respectful, good room mates. As time went on, people got lazy, stopped cleaning up after themselves, etc. By the time I moved out, the entire first floor of the apartment was covered in everyone's crap - dishes, fast food garbage, etc. We fought about the mess regularly, and nobody gave enough of a crap to clean it up. I'd have to wait until everyone was at work to clean if I wanted it clean.

I honestly don't remember the time frame of them living together, so Idk, maybe it did feel like a sudden 180 and I just didn't pick up on it.