Now that Michael Scott is no longer manager at Dunder Mifflin, "The Office" writers seem to be trying to encapsulate all the insanity of the Steve Carell character into different characters' quirks. Andy is the Michael Scott insecurity, Robert California is the (occasional) good idea (another reason that he is not on the show as much), and this guy Gabe seems to be Michael's suave inability around women.
But Gabe needs to tone things down a little bit. Michael Scott could get away with his huge, wild, inexplicable mood swings and personality traits because he was Michael Scott. No one could take that away from him. And of course the writers and producers of "The Office" don't want to lose that frenetic, edgy, crazy energy that Scott had; but they have. Steve Carell is no longer on the show, so they need to tone everyone else down, especially Gabe. When Gabe came on the show and had that whole pseudo-love triangle with Erin and Andy, it was a little interesting. When Erin told him she didn't want to date and he just beat her over the head with it in every scene, that got to be a little much. In this most recent episode, "Doomsday," Erin is not the object of Gabe's affection, it is Val, one of the women who works in the warehouse. Gabe went so far this week as to go to Toby and ask him if he could make his relationship status known and protect himself from the corporate tie ups.
Of course no one watching "The Office" watches it for Gabe's character. He is over-reaching and it's probably not even the actor's fault. It's the writing and the show's desire to keep all these Michael Scott elements in place. But you can't go home again.
I'm sure if NBC or the show's producers had offered Carell enough money, he would have stayed on so that they could have written "The Office's" end the way they had wanted to. But because they left him in last season, the writers need to leave his personality behind as well. Create meaningful characters who have interesting story lines and make funny remarks in their own way. That's always the way it's been: Jim is wry, Angela is snarky, Toby is lovable, Creed is creepy.
Focus the energy around Jim or Dwight or Pam or Andy or even Ryan; but stop trying to fill in the cracks in your show with Michael Scott facsimiles. You're not fooling anyone.
