The Office
Let’s talk about The Office. Up front I think we can all acknowledge that it’s season eight, Michael is gone, and the show has lost its luster. I’ve been thinking for a little while about what has gone wrong with the show (and in fact, I may have a post soon just on that topic), but I’m having trouble putting my finger on it. Sure, there’s an element of fatigue that has set in, and sure, there are some glaringly obvious troubles with plotting, but the show still has most of the elements that once made it great (minus Michael). So why can’t the writers remember how to put this parts together to make a satisfying whole? I’m still trying to figure out how to answer that, but in the meantime, I want to talk about this week’s episode, “Last Day in Florida”.
Certainly, this wasn’t the best of the week. I could have chosen to highlight Cougar Town or Happy Endings, both of which are better sitcoms right now. Or I could have talked about Awake or Justified, both of which had better showings this week. However, I’m focusing on The Office because for the first time in a long, long while, I enjoyed myself while watching it. And that’s really saying something. I haven’t been excited to watch this show in months, well, actually, years, and I usually arrange my DVR watching so that I get this show out of the way first before moving on to Parks and Rec or Community, my decadent desserts. But this week, The Office managed to cobble together a watchable episode, and I think some attention must be paid.
The success of this episode relied, as other episodes have in the past, on the rapport between Dwight and Jim. Some classic episodes have been based on this rivalry/friendship, like “Conflict Resolution,” “Travelling Salesmen,” and “The Injury.” In this episode, Jim, upon learning that Dwight will soon be fired as VP, has to suck up his excitement to be rid of Dwight and warn the guy who has become his sometimes friend over the years. Personally, I think the writers got this story line so well. The way the two characters come at each other, Jim not trying too hard, and Dwight being so full of himself that he won’t listen, rang perfectly true. Of course Dwight would think it was a prank. And of course Jim would man up and do the right thing. I especially liked the physical wrestling part in the middle; for me, it harkened back to other physical bits in this relationship, like when Jim slaps Dwight in “Travelling Salesmen.” When Jim protects Dwight at the end, by distracting Kelly, who is asking too many questions, was also very nice. Heck, I like it when the people on The Office are nice to each other.
Other parts of the episode weren’t so effective, but I guess I didn’t mind them as much because the A-story put me in a more receptive mood. The B-story with Darryl and Toby fighting over the girl scout cookies territory (ie. Kevin) was pretty funny for a while, but it seemed to lose direction at the end. In fact, now that I think about it, it never got resolved. Did Kevin buy cookies? Is the kiss with Meredith something that will come back? Did the writers just give up and think we wouldn’t notice? I do think that some of the stuff that Toby and Darryl had to do, like singing the WB frog song, could have been better. How awesome would it have been if they had to compete in a round of flonkerton? I would have loved that. The other B-story with Erin was quite cute, and I liked the reversal of roles between her and the older woman. “It’s not called ‘doing a video chat.’ It’s just ‘video-chatting'” I feel like this was mostly set up for next week, though, where Andy goes to bring Erin back.
Finally, I don’t want to even talk about the Florida office politics. I saw that Catherine Tate was added to the credits as a regular, but god, I hope that’s not real. She is so irritating, I can’t stand it. I’d rather have Packer, and that’s saying something. If it is real, I imagine that I will never highlight The Office again. And that makes me sad. Oh, well.
Mary the TV Maven 