While The Office was always clear about being a mockumentary, it started to embrace this aspect of the show more in later seasons, with plot lines involving The Office characters interacting with the camera crew, such as the introduction of the character of boom operator Brian Wittle. While the show never hides being a mockumentary, making it more explicitly part of the story in later episodes encourages the audience to look at older episodes through this lens as well. It brings up the question of the goals of the documentary, why the crew chooses to film the moments they film, and why the documentary crew doesn’t intervene more often.
This decision changes the documentary from a framing device for The Office to an actual plot point in the show and an acknowledged component of the characters’ lives over the course of the show. While we don’t see them reacting to the documentary crew in the same way in earlier seasons, this choice reminds us that The Office is a show even within the universe it takes place in, and this could be an aspect of their life that they choose to keep off-screen.
Cathy Was Planted By The Office’s Documentary Crew To Create More Drama — Theory Explained
Some Decisions That Cathy Makes In Front Of The Camera Make More Sense If She Was Acting For The Camera
The creators of the in-universe documentary choosing to keep some aspects out of the final product suggests that they also made purposeful decisions about what to include, from deciding to follow Jim to a new Dunder Mifflin location or a few employees to the Michael Scott Paper Company to keeping the crew’s own appearances in the show. A fan theory on Reddit suggests that Cathy might have been planted by the documentary crew just to create drama within their documentary.
The theory explains why details such as Cathy’s phone call are filmed, as well as why she keeps her microphone on during that conversation. Being so new to being filmed, it doesn’t make sense for her to forget that she has a mic, so the whole thing could have been staged.
In addition, the reason for cameras being set up in Jim’s room in Florida could be because the crew knew to expect something to happen with Cathy in The Office. Jim looks at the camera, implying that he knows that he’s being filmed during this scene, and it seems unlikely for Cathy to knowingly try to seduce Jim in front of a bunch of television cameras filming for a documentary (via Reddit).
The Focus Of The Documentary Could Have Been More Than Just A Paper Company
Another Fan Theory Suggests That The Documentary Was Focused On Pam
Though the documentary was supposed to be about people working at a paper company, it outlived Dunder Mifflin as it was at the beginning of the show. This brings up questions about the purpose of the documentary within the context of the universe of The Office. While one possibility is that the reason Dunder Mifflin was chosen to be filmed is because of a past suicide, another fan theory suggests that the focus of the documentary is on Pam’s life rather than on paper company employees more generally.
In the “All About Pam Beesley” episode of Office Ladies, Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer discussed this theory. Fischer mentioned that she thinks the theory is unlikely because the documentary doesn’t follow Pam as much during her time at art school, but both Kinsey and Fischer liked the idea. Another potential theory that was brought up by Fischer is that the angle of the documentary could have changed over time as they learned more about their subjects. Spending so much time with the Dunder Mifflin employees could have pulled the documentary crew to the characters and stories we see most prominently in the show.
The documentary crew might not have set out to make a documentary about Pam, but Jim and Pam’s relationship could have drawn them in, much as it’s drawn in so many fans of The Office over the years. Characters such as Jim, Pam, and Dwight may have so many appearances because they fascinated the documentary crew. Deciding to follow specific members of Dunder Mifflin such as Jim and Pam more closely could have caused the documentary crew to stir up drama in order to make their documentary as interesting as possible.
