1554 Cheers, Friends!

Mike is not as good at advice as, say, Thomas, but he does know a lot about old television shows. That might be part of why he is the way he is. He kind of believes that everything will be okay if you just make it to the end of the episode. Either Ed isn’t picking up on the references, or he’s ignoring them. I’m not sure which. I think with Mike he understands that what he says tends to come from a place of wanting to help, but not knowing how exactly. In many ways Mike is a much more pure person than the rest of the cast. He wants to do his best and help other people do their best in a way that is more selfless than Thomas, or Jess. Early on people tended to see Mike as an antagonist, but he never really was. If you look back on the early pages he’s doing his best and the other characters are the ones reacting as if he was the cause of the problem when he really isn’t. He’s seen as an outsider though. They don’t trust him, so the reader tends not to either. The good intentions always show through though and he becomes part of the family. Mike really could be a great leader if he had confidence in himself and followed what he knows is right. The problem for him is he’s caught in a framework that is broken at the corporate level. It’s actively working against him all the time, but he resists. I think that’s what eventually endears him to everyone. I bet if you worked with Mike after a while you’d get the feeling that he’d stick up for you if you were unfairly treated. He’d never ask you to do a job he wouldn’t do himself if he could. When he’s in trouble you’d want to help too.