Without Dwight Schrute, The Office would likely not have been near as much of a success as it turned out to be. While Micheal Scott is the main character up until the middle of the seventh season, Dwight is also an iconic character who made the show what it was.
While Dwight might be eccentric and annoying, he is also loved by many fans. There are reasons why he is both underrated and overrated, and they might not be what you think.
Underrated: He was the best salesman at the branch
While this fact does get mentioned a few times on the series, it doesn’t get near enough attention. It’s true that working with a date would have been really obnoxious, but he was the best salesman at the Scranton branch.
This likely had a lot to do with the fact that he had a great work ethic and really loved his job.
Overrated: Because he treated many clients poorly
On the other hand, while Dwight might have been great at making sales, he wasn’t always great at working with people. This is rather confusing and a bit of a conundrum as people skills are an essential part of a sales job.
He was especially not great at working with women, and the fact that he didn’t really know how to sell to half of the population was both pathetic and nonsensical.
Underrated: He actually made friends with some of his co-workers
Given that Dwight is weird and unique in many ways, and also that he wasn’t exactly friendly, it’s surprising that he eventually ended up making friends with some of his co-workers.
He grew to have an odd but endearing friendship with Pam and even ended up being friends with Jim to the point that he asked Jim to be his best man.
Overrated: He was really sexist and homophobic
While The Office might seem like a fairly recent show, it actually premiered 15 years ago. Because of this, there are many things that feel a bit outdated already. While Dwight might be understood as a somewhat odd and unlikeable person, just how sexist and homophobic he could be was sometimes hard to watch.
Since the show made him somewhat likable at the end of the day, it’s hard to ignore some of the things he said, and these things shouldn’t be excused.
Underrated: Because he put up with a lot from Jim
The truth is that Dwight was kind of a jerk a lot of the time. He didn’t treat people that well, and he could be judgemental and hard to work with. So, the fact that Jim wanted to troll him made sense.
While these pranks were often funny, and Dwight often deserved them, sometimes Jim took things too far and took advantage of Dwight's naivete.
Overrated: He said he was loyal but really wasn’t
Dwight always made a big show about being loyal to Michael, but he actually really wasn’t. While it’s hard to blame him given that Michael didn’t treat Dwight well much of the time, Dwight sometimes went back on his own values.
The most obvious instance of this is when he went behind Michael’s back to try to get Jan to make Dwight the manager instead.
Underrated: Because he really loved Angela
There are a lot of things that could be said about the relationship between Angela and Dwight, and not all of these things are very good. While Dwight made some mistakes, he also did seem to love her a lot.
He listened to her and even respected the fact that she was a vegetarian which is something he likely wouldn’t have put up with from anyone else. Plus, he even lost his job temporarily for her.
Overrated: His relationship with Anglea was pretty messed up
On the other side of the coin, the relationship between Dwight and Angela is far from being a healthy or functioning relationship. They engaged in affairs while Angela was with other men, and Dwight even killed her cat and didn’t tell her.
Their entire relationship was full of issues and uncomfortable moments that can’t be ignored.
Underrated: He ended up being a good manager
While it took Dwight a long time to get there, including a brief and horrible earlier stint as acting manager, he did end up being good in this role.
Once he went through some character development, he actually ran the branch well and made good decisions to help the business thrive. While he made a lot of mistakes in the past, he did finally learn from them.
Overrated: Overall, the way he acted was unacceptable
While at the end of the series, Dwight was given a happy ending with his dream job and a happy family, this doesn’t necessarily make sense given how he acted over the years.
He did many unacceptable things such as shoot a gun in the office, hide weapons, and ruin the R training doll. He should have been fired long before he got the manager position.