It is my father-in-law's favourite tv show - his second-favourite being whatever half-arsed reality show is currently on the screen in front of him (World's Drunkest Drivers, Scary Immigrants or When Buildings Collapse, etc). I gave him some dvds of Doc Martin for Christmas, but have never actually seen it myself.

God that's the most depressing comment I've ever read on this site.

I started watching with the second season, and enjoyed the first few well enough. But it was 'Office Olympics' that made me fall in love with the show. Still one of my favourite episodes ever.

Yep, have to agree. The physical book is a lovely thing, but really… it wasn't worth it. We already had 'The Enchanter' to see a proto-bit of Nabokov, and 'The Original of Laura' was so far off completion that it didn't really tell us anything about him or his processes that we didn't already know from 'Enchanter' and…

Yeah, I've gotta agree, sadly. 'Both Flesh & Not' was (largely) disappointing. A couple of really great pieces, a few interesting ones, and then a bunch that you know he left out of the previous two collections for good reasons. And padded out with those vocab list excerpts, which despite his love of words, felt like…

Paris & Jess would have made the best (romantic) couple on the show. Discuss.

Not to diminish your point, with which I agree, but it's 'I wouldn't stop for RED lights', isn't it? I mean, nobody would stop for green lights, right?

It could be just that they didn't do the whole play? I've not seen this episode for a little while, but I know that in my high school Shakespeare stuff, we only did bits. We did Macbeth, for instance, but the first task (after reading it & watching the movie version) was to ruthlessly cut it down to 40 minutes or so.…

Look, not to be totally anti-romance, but Mrs Kim really does have a pretty good point about the lessons to learn from Romeo & Juliet.

@avclub-d287ab72140b44071e69e6255b859cec:disqus Yeah, those are fair points. I'm not saying it was the worst thing ever or sunk that series or anything, just that I think the US version made a considerable improvement by having Jim's alternative love interest actually plausible as an ongoing deal, whereas Tim's was…

I always thought that in season two he was the chaser, as it were, while she was with Roy. And then in season three that dynamic was reversed, as she was by then single & he was with Karen. Yeah, 'Casino Night', but watch 'The Merger', when she welcomes him back to Scranton, and later the shot of her realising he's…

I have only watched the awful first episode once, but I've seen its deleted scenes multiple times. When I watch the show, I start with episode 1's deleteds, then move on to episode two.

I agree about Phyllis' knitting, but the first time I saw that episode, I literally curled up & said 'No, Jim, don't', when he put his card 'telling her how he felt' in with the teapot. And I have never been more relieved than later, when he surreptitiously removed it.

100% agree.

Oh, Stanley analysing the voicemail. I'd forgotten that, but it's so perfect. Thanks for bringing it up…

You are correct, but Peanut M&Ms rule them all.

Fortunately, the next time this show experimented with education-institution-based secret societies into which Rory is drawn, they provided us with a storyline EVERYONE loves…

I must admit - I still do this. I bring a book/my kindle to work every day, eat my lunch while working, and then go to a quiet spot for my official Lunch Break, and just read. It sometimes means avoiding friends who work in the same building, though…

@avclub-b22b95593e42f8875155a84dc8a8ab75:disqus I think, in fairness, those commentaries tended to be recorded while those in the cast who did movies between seasons - primarily Carrell & Krasinski - were off making those movies. I do remember one from season three where Krasinski (& I think Rashida Jones) call in…

… which means this feature will last for more than six years.