Michael Scott

Michael Scott is the regional manager of Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch, and he wants, more than anything, to be liked — by his staff, by the camera crew documenting his day, by the world. He tells bad jokes, disrupts productivity with team-building schemes, and calls himself a friend first, boss second, entertainer third.

Carell finds the ache underneath the cringe: every terrible joke is a bid for love, and you feel it land badly before he does. The show risks making him unbearable, then keeps letting flashes of real warmth and loneliness through, so you laugh and wince in the same breath, then find yourself rooting for him anyway.