The Office and the eternal return

If I were teaching Nietzsche and looking for an example of the eternal return, I would show episodes of The Office (the American version--it is interesting how the British version does not really engage in this structure). What the characters strive for is a way of repeating that is genuine, that could withstand the test of eternity in the sense that a repetition would be so significant and final there would need to be no more repetition. In other words, they struggle to live according to the eternal return: they struggle to will something into reality such that it could only repeat itself if the universe recurred eternally--and especially Jim and Pam. But besides them, there is also Michael, who falls back into dating Jan. We recognize this as a bad event for Michael because it means falling back into a structure of repetition that does not will eternal recurrance. I had many more examples but, as I have to run soon, I can only list those two. But just think of the last moments of the season finale in season 3: Pam is busy saying that she would will a relationship into reality with Jim except that he and she always seem to time things wrong. It is with this reference to time that Jim walks in and she does will that into reality. The reference to time is so significant here in showing how deep this Nieztschian idea structures the show: towards the end of the episode, as various moments like Pam and Jim talking at the end of "Beach Day" (significantly cut out of that episode and placed in this last one) come before us and before Jim, as the show becomes more and more repetitive in its form, it mirrors the struggle of the characters to find a way of repeating that is willing repetition never, willing a type of repetition that only occurs under the condition that everything recurs eternally, at the end of time. In other words, as the show condenses and becomes more invested in memory, it is at that moment, and significantly with a reference to time, that Pam immediately siezes the moment as well as Jim and repeats in that authentic sense, throwing us into the future. I could explain this all better, but I hope its somewhat clear! Regardless, its an awesome show!