Tag Archives: Pam

December 4, 2008 · 11:28 pm

The Office – “Surplus”

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“Surplus”

December 4th, 2008

Last season, an episode like “Surplus” would have felt like a godsend at this stage of the season. After getting bogged down in hour-long episodes with no direction, something so driven by office politics and Michael’s inability to make a decision would feel like a breath of fresh air.

Instead, it felt a little bit too slight. While the charm was there, and it was a nice showcase for Jenna Fischer’s Pam in particular, I think I was missing something to set the episode apart. While the central storyline had its charms, the B-Story felt more like a predictable distraction, and I’d rather have eschewed the plot entire in favour of a more complete reaction to the crisis of Copier vs. Chairs.

But, nonetheless, I consider it a good sign for the show: a show that has a problem with excess needs one of these every now and then, an episode that is almost entirely fat-free and plentiful in, if not stuffed with, comedy.

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The Office – “Frame Toby”

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“Frame Toby”

November 20th, 2008

Michael Scott is not a heartless man – he may hate Toby with every fibre of his being, and he may act as if his return is in fact a 911 emergency, but this does not mean that Michael is a terrible person. Under the circumstances, it makes perfect sense that Toby (Paul Lieberstein) returning would make Michael upset: he didn’t know he was there for a week because he refuses to go into the annex because “that’s where Holly worked,” and his most hated person replacing the person he loved would be highly problematic for anyone, yet alone someone as devoid of stability as Michael.

What works about “Frame Toby” (Michael’s initial reaction to his return, Dwight’s contribution to the eponymous effort, the conclusion of that particular story arc) works fine, but it felt like there was a bigger story here. The last time Michael was this adversarial with a co-worked was in “Goodbye, Stanley,” an episode where Michael finally came to his senses at episode’s end and he and Stanley actually talked out their differences. One of those scenes here could have gone a long way to formalizing Michael’s Holly issues, but the episode never goes there; instead, it spends a bit too much time on Pam’s non-triumphant return to the office, and never quite feels like a cohesive episode or something that adds to the existing mythology of this epic feud.

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Tagged as B.J. Ryan, Dwight's Perfect Crime, Entertainment, Episode Nine, Frame Toby, Jason Reitman, Jim, Michael Scott, Mindy Kaling, Pam, Ryan Howard, Season Five, Television, Toby

November 14, 2008 · 12:17 am

The Office – “Business Trip”

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“Business Trip”

November 13th, 2008

When episodes like “Business Trip” end up being solid entries into a season, it’s not really because of anything they do in an isolated fashion. This is an episode that is all about whether or not the rest of the season has properly built to this moment where we take a bird’s eye view into a thus far untapped side of an office relationship, and where a trip to Winnipeg brings out Michael’s frustration with the decision to send his beloved Holly away.

These are not hilarious topics – Michael’s storyline, in fact, was played almost entirely off screen and was for the most part dominated by sadness. But the episode nonetheless whips along at a solid pace, using this business trip not as a chance to make fun of Canada (there’s much less Canadian-specific humour than one might expect) but rather to bring out those residual feelings that emerge when one is isolated away from their life with people they don’t normally associate with.

The result is an episode that has most of its action and “drama” take place offscreen, allowing the comedy to flow at a unique pace that, for me, worked very well.

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The Office – “Employee Transfer”

“Employee Transfer”

October 30th, 2008

Remember last week? I was a bit underwhelmed by “Crime Aid,” feeling that it felt a bit too much like the show forcing a situation compared to the previous two episodes, but in retrospect (and another viewing) I felt like I was a bit harsh: it was still a very funny episode with a nice running subplot.

However, I feel a bit safer in acknowledging that “Employee Transfer” was by far the season’s weakest episode, all cold open and no comic follow-through, where we said goodbye to our favourite new employee of Dunder-Mifflin while, quite honestly, not doing much else in the process. While another decent subplot, Andy and Dwight battling it out over Angela through Beets and Cornell, was at least bringing some humour, it felt derivative of what we’ve seen the show do before.

This is not to say that Employee Transfer was a bad episode, but rather that it kind of takes the wind out of the show’s sails: we’re losing the season’s MVP, we have very little sense of the show’s overall direction, and it was an episode that never quite gathered a cohesive comic vision.

In short, I think I’ve got it right this time: this is the weakest episode of what has been an otherwise fantastic opening to the season.

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Tagged as Amy Ryan, Andy, Creed, Darryl, Dwight, Employee Transfer, Entertaiment., Episode Five, Holly Flax, Jim, Joker, Michael Scott, NBC, Pam, Season Five, Steve Carell, Television

September 25, 2008 · 10:03 pm

Season Premiere: The Office – “Weight Loss”

“Weight Loss”

September 25th, 2008

There’s something very ironic about the desire to slim things down that pervades this evening’s much-anticipated season premire of NBC’s The Office. The show’s biggest problem in an uneven fourth season was its hour-long episodes, those which felt too bloated and out of control; it was at its best in shorter segments which left no room to breathe between their humour and their awkwardness (“Dinner Party” as the best example). But here we are with another hour long segment, an awkward concept wherein two half hour parts (which will be split for the purpose of syndication) must come together to introduce us to the season ahead.

But, in the vein of “Goodbye, Toby,” this episode feels more an investigation into this office and its character than last season’s opening episodes which felt much more mundane, much more perfunctory. Choosing to, for a change, show us an entire summer at Dunder Mifflin as opposed to dropping us into the fall, it allows The Office to follow up directly on the great elements of last season’s finale: from the wondrous Amy Ryan continuing to impress, to Ryan’s fall from grace, and both Andy and Jim’s ill-advised engagement strategies.

As the episode unfolds, and the ramifications of last season’s finale echo amidst the weight loss storyline, this never feels like an overstuffed episode: it feels like a welcome return to a familiar environment, an episode where characters get to be characters, histories get to be histories, and more importantly almost every joke lands. Not overwhelmed by any one storyline, and ending with a satisfying note on which to jump start our season, “Weight Loss” is everything I wanted in a premiere.

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Tagged as 2008, Amy Ryan, Dwight, Entertainment, Jim, Michael Scott, NBC, Pam, Premiere, Season Five, Season Premiere, Television, The Office Premiere 2008, Weight Loss

April 17, 2008 · 9:59 pm

The Office – “The Chairmodel”

“The Chairmodel”

April 17th, 2008

On its surface, and in its synopsis, “The Chairmodel” was about Michael Scott overcoming an offscreen breakup with Jan by pining over a model he finds in a catalogue. On the surface, his immediate attempt to get the entire office to set him up seems like the typical office scenario: Michael makes a fool of himself multiple times, we all laugh, Dwight plays along, and then Michael comes to a false epiphany that is just so twisted it hurts. It’s a formula that works, and it was nice to return to this type of strong structure that is indicative of the latter fall episodes.

But, leaving the episode, is anyone really thinking about Michael? After Pam’s landlord was given reason to hate Pam forever, the real story kicked in: Pam pondered moving, Pam tested the waters for moving in with Jim and that she wouldn’t do it if she was engaged, and then Jim did it: he said it was coming. An engagement, he said, was going to happen – Pam played along, but her face right afterwards showed some trepidation. And then Jim, in a talking head, says he wasn’t kidding, pops out a ring, and then saying the most twisted thing of the entire episode:

“I bought it a week after we started dating”

Which may be the most compelling argument ever that Michael and Dwight might not be the dumbest people on this show after all.

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Tagged as Engagement Ring, Jim, NBC, Pam, Television