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Why "The Office" Still Has One Of Television's Best Gay Characters

[caption id="attachment_99317" align="aligncenter" width="601"]Oscar! Oscar worthy (NBC)[/caption]

Tonight is the second-to-last episode of The Office before NBC's long-running sitcom about folks selling paper in Scranton, ends for good on May 16. Which means there are only a few more chances to spend time with Oscar Martinez, one of the most interesting gay characters on television.

Oscar (played masterfully by straight actor Oscar Nunez) got a lot of buzz back in 2006, when he came out in the Season 3 episode "Gay Witch Hunt." At the time, he was one of the only openly gay characters on network TV. (The ep even earned showrunner Greg Daniels an Emmy.)

Things have changed since then, of course: Now there are gay characters appearing regularly on The New Normal, Modern Family, Go On and Glee–not to mention cable series like True Blood, Nurse Jackie, and American Horror Story. (Even starchy old PBS has Downton Abbey's Thomas.)

But Oscar is a still a character worth celebrating: For one thing, his storyline this season has been fascinating. For weeks, he was having a secret affair with Angela's husband, Senator Robert. Since Angela worked two feet away, that created all sorts of crackling drama–and nervous laughs when Oscar accidentally agreed with Angela's assessment of the Senator's morningtime behavior.

Whoops.

Eventually, though, the affair was mentioned in a promo for the documentary the staff is being featured in, which prompted Senator Robert to come out and reveal his love for another man. Not Oscar–another dude altogether.

Whoops again.

In last week's episode, "Living the Dream," Angela's entire life was falling apart–the government even took her cats!–prompting  Oscar to invite her to stay with him for a while.

Suddenly, the man who was cheating with a woman's husband was extending his hand to her in friendship. I love this storyline not only because it's meaty, but because it's not specifically about Oscar being gay. Well, okay, his sexuality made the affair with Angela's husband possible. But the storyline isn't about bullying or marriage equality. It's not about Big Gay Themes. It's about Oscar's relationship to Angela–his kindness, guilt and humanity.

And it was just one of the interesting things that happened on the episode: Andy quit, Jim and Pam made major relationship decisions, and Dwight got promoted to branch manager. Oscar and Angela were folded into the larger community of events.

In other words, Oscar is allowed to be part of the larger tapestry. There are also plenty of episodes where his sexuality doesn't get mentioned at all. That's something to cheer: On The Office, being gay is un-special enough that we can forget about it entirely sometimes. But it's also acknowledged enough that it gets treated with depth and sensitively when it is the center of attention.

I'll be interested to see what happens to Oscar in the next two weeks: I hope he finds a boyfriend. I hope he connects with the rest of the staff at Dunder-Mufflin in an interesting way. And I hope gets remembered fondly after the show goes off the air.

 

Mark Blankenship has never dated a senator. He tweets as @IAmBlankenship.

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