TelevIsm

Image: Pam Halpert from The Office, in front of her watercolors

The Office is a show that focuses on men–four out the five stars are male. Nonetheless, it’s one of my very favorite shows, and I think it has strong, likable, interesting female characters. It’s launched the career of Mindy Kaling, who writes for the show and plays the totally hilarious Kelly Kapoor. And it’s got Pam Halpert (formerly Pam Beesley), whom I like quite a bit. Over the series, she has grown quite assertive, a admirable quality not usually rewarded in women. But her early independent ambition for art has been abandoned so that her professional identity can be attached to her husband Jim Halpert’s.