(This is the third part in an ongoing series looking at The Office’s rabid online following through chats with the podcasters, bloggers and fan site operators who fuel the mania. Also check out Remote Access’s chats with The Office Alliance and Give Me My Remote.)

Matt Sommer considers himself a passionate fan of The Office, but he doesn’t see why he shouldn’t criticize the show when he sees something he doesn’t like.

Too bad not every reviewer of his podcast at iTunes or comment poster at its companion blog sees it that way. Maybe Sommer should be used to that. After all, he even got a bad review just because he got sick and couldn’t post a new episode for a few weeks.

“I’m inexplicably flummoxed by people that,� said the 35-year-old high school English teacher from Racine, Wisc., who has been recording his and his friend Ian Casselberry’s musings on Michael Scott and Co. since August 2006. “That’s the kind of (expletive) that just really drives me crazy with doing something like this, I’ve got to say.�

But it doesn’t get him or podcast partner down.

“We kind of realized pretty early on that even if we loved every minute of the show that that would be a really boring thing to listen to,� Sommer says of his and Casselberry’s approach to reviewing the show. “We obviously love the show, and I don’t know who would spend their life doing something like this if they didn’t deep down love the show in some way.�

It’s just that they’re not above saying what it is in particular they don’t like about what it is they love overall.

For instance, Sommer thinks Season 3 has been rocky so far, and some episodes have been better than others. Traveling Salesmen, for instance, is his favorite because it shows the cast at work, being good at what they do. Too many episodes have been based around a party or some other forced gathering, he says, instead of the mundane drudgery of office life that was the show’s hallmark.

Phyllis’s Wedding is an example that also lacked what he feels is the balance between the show’s normal and wacky characters.

“Michael, when written well, is a perfect character,� he said. “There’s a lot of things you can do with him. But when you just have him running around, acting insane for 22 minutes, it’s too much.�

Part of the problem this season, too, is that the writers have humanized characters like Michael and Dwight, Sommer says. It’s hard for him to watch Jim prank Dwight after Dwight drove to New York to save his girlfriend’s job.

And the awkwardness index is way up this year too, Sommer said.

“I have to say that Gay Witch Hunt almost had me questioning whether I was going to do the podcast or not,� he said.

But press on, he did. Initially inspired by comic book podcasts, a few of which he contributed to, Sommer came to appreciate the value of a quality production after becoming a fan of the movie podcast Filmspotting.

So he capitalized on a hole in the Office fandom – no podcasts – and cobbled together some basic recording equipment and quality free recording and mixing software and got rolling with Episode 0.5 on the eve of Season 3. He quickly realized that one person talking for an hour could grow wearisome, so he invited Ian to call in each week from his home in Ann Arbor, Mich. They chat for a half-hour first, then hit record.

Sommer admits he was inspired to create an Office podcast when cast members gave a shout-out to some of the leading fan sites on the Season 2 DVD commentary. He also admits he was perturbed when another Office podcast launched several weeks after his own, but he quickly realized that wasn’t fair.

He avoids the Office Alliance podcast, not out of animosity – he credits OA with offering a unique, female perspective – but rather to avoid influencing what he says on his own show.

“And for another thing I already spend 15 hours a week working on my own Office podcast, so that’s about as much of The Office as I want to take during the week,� he said.

Among his own family and friends, there are few podcast or Office fans. His girlfriend is one, but she lives a few states away.

“It’s not like my doing this is ripping time away from our relationship,� Sommer quips.

If he was going to talk to anyone about The Office, it would have to be the world. Ian brought the perspective of a more casual fan; he hadn’t seen many episodes at the start. Sommer, on the other hand, had them all on his iPod and watched obsessively.

“Again, it was kind of an experiment to see if I could do it, and if anybody would listen at all,� he said.

Turns out they would. His recap of Business School in February drew about 7,000 downloads over a three-week span, he says. Being promoted on iTunes has helped the podcasts’s popularity. Then again, his recent hiatus, which ironically coincided with the show’s, has hurt his ranking.

He puts 10 to 12 hours a week into preparing for, producing and editing the podcast. The off-mic portion can be like a job, he admits, but actually recording it is fun.

What about the dominant storyline, the one that might be expected to appeal mainly to the show’s female demographic? Is the man behind the podcast a Jammer? Well, Sommer admits he shed a tear on Casino Night, but he feels like the writers have dropped the ball on that storyline.

“I’ve said before that if they would have ended the show, like the series finale would have been after Casino Night, then it would have been a perfect, 28-episode show. That would have been a perfect way to end the show,� he says.

Those are fighting words in some circles. But he believes the idea of a drawn-out, “will they/won’t they� storyline doesn’t work.

“Aside from The Initiation, the phone call between (Jim and Pam), I haven’t seen really any spark between them this season,� he said. “I’m hoping that they catch me. I’m almost a little over it, I’ve got to say, right now, unless they can, over the next four episodes, win me back, make me care.�

And what of Roy’s ominous “I’m going to kill Jim Halpert� at the end of Cocktails? Sommer believes that line introduced an element of menace into the show, and he doesn’t know where that’s going to go.

One big difference in Season 3 has been that the episodes have been more plot-driven, he thinks. But still, the good in the show still far outweighs the bad, in his view.

Meanwhile, he says, The Office has led the way for other great but quirky comedies on NBC like 30 Rock and Andy Barker, P.I.

“Part of the tragedy, I think, is that the ratings still aren’t there. I remember when all the NBC comedies were in the top 10. I don’t know why.�

Maybe its dry humor doesn’t appeal to the masses. After all, the show isn’t always laugh-out-loud funny. Often it’s more subtle.

“Sometimes you’re just not in the mood for that,� Sommer concedes. “Sometimes you just want to see Tracy Morgan seeing a weird blue monster or something.�

Bonus Round:

1. Jim or Dwight: Now it’s Dwight, actually.


2. Jam or Karim: The original.


3. Dwangela or Jachael: Dwangela.


4. Poor Richard’s or Chili’s: Poor Richard’s, I guess. It’s probably influenced by the last episode.


5. Pink the color or Pink the person: Pink the color.


6. Stamford or Scranton: Scranton, definitely.*


7. The conference room or the Parking Lot of Doom: The parking lot, I think.


8. Season 2 or Season 3: Season 2, definitely.


9. Beet farmers or volunteer sheriff’s deputies: I’ve got to go with the beet farm, man.
   


10. David Brent or Michael Scott: Michael Scott by far.


11. Jazz babies posters in the office or JamaicanJanSunPrincess posters in the warehouse: I’ve got to go with the warehouse

*Matt answered Scranton to this question, and I inadvertently typed Stamford.