A new term I learned recently is 'para-social relationship'. In the sense that people who watch too much television, mostly the same show, tend to form 'para-social relationship' with the show and its characters, and come to this strange place where they consider the characters to be real. They tend strongly with one character or other, and react strongly against other characters, and the actors that play them. This means deeply, pedantically analyzing the actions through the course of the series in minute detail and passing judgment based on that. Often the amount of agency and 'identification' given to those characters is far beyond what the original creators ever thought or considered. "Why did Michael to so-and-so, it makes no sense in that context, he should have known it would be unwise," they will ask, forgetting if the characters hadn't made interesting out-of-the-way decisions it would be the story of a boring regular paper company no one cares to watch. It's a show people, characters act bizarrely and makes strange decisions and all imperfect, that's the point of the show. This is where the comedy arises from. No weirdos, no show.
I bring this up as somebody who's listened to and watched every episode of The office at least a few dozen times, and participate in online forums (passively, but still) and have consumed all form of media there is to on it. Including hahah three different podcasts on it, all going strong still almost ten years after the show ended.
It's important to remember what's fantasy and what's real. In the lack of a reality that people find underwhelming or disappointing, people seek fantasy they'd rather be a part of, and project themselves into it.
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