I don’t really know what to say anymore. Every week I want to like The Office. Really I do. But this episode combined with the two before it have just left me so underwhelmed. It’s almost as though they just stopped trying because they know that Steve Carell Is leaving. That’s not to say that this episode did not have its funny moment. I think all the episodes at least a have a few funny moments, it’s just that we have to sit through a lot of awkwardness (not the funny kind) and minutia to get to the 2 or 3 funny moments the show has. Let’s try to separate the good from the bad shall we?
Last week I discussed how the Office used to do the cold open better than any other show on TV. While this was still not anywhere near what the cold opens used to be, at least it made me chuckle once or twice. Michael running through all the nicknames they have had for IT people was fun. The crux of the episode was spent on the office people who invested in Ryan’s awful social networking site Wuphf.com. A major part of this season of the office has really been looking for closure in the relationships that Michael has for people in the Office. They actually did this really effectively in the beginning of the season with Michael and Toby. I had a problem with the way they did it in this episode with Ryan. It’s not so much the execution but the idea itself. Ryan has become a huge D Bag. I know that’s the way his character is supposed to be and I am amused by it. But he has gotten to the point where even Michael shouldn’t be able to find a redeeming quality about him. Yes it was nice to see Michael admit to Ryan’s poor qualities but in the end he still stood up for him, even after Ryan had advised Michael to take a 2nd mortgage out on his house. Along the same line, I hated the Dwight storyline. The character or Dwight has become such a caricature of himself that you can’t even enjoy his crazy behavior anymore. The fact that he was going to name himself the “Hay King” could have been seen from a mile away. I’m so bored with him that I don’t even know what is supposed to be going on with him and Angela now. Ok, Kevin getting stuck in the maze was funny. And where was Mose?! This seemed like the perfect kind of story to bring him in. The even mentioned him! I was very disappointed when he did not show up.
I did enjoy the Jim storyline. It seems like often times throughout the last two seasons they have really not known what to do with Jim. They have forced him and Pam into the same storylines and it has not worked. However, there have been a couple episodes this season where they have let Jim do his own thing and it has worked. It was nice to see “grown up” Jim try to regain the cleverness and youthful exuberance it took for him to waste so much time back in seasons 1-3. His prank on Gabe was so deserving, so refreshing, that for one second I forgot I was in the middle of the worst stretch of episodes in the Offices history.
QUICK HITS:
“Try big boobs with a Z”
“New investors are key, that’s actually why I came into today”
“Those are show bales not play bales”
“If I can make mashed carrots seem better then a boob, I can pretty much sell anything”
“I always wanted to be Hay King, but the world shines on Mose”
“Oscar is my queen, that’s an easy one, give me a hard one, that’s what Oscar said”
Stanley’s dream of owning a lighthouse
Another week, another weak episode. I’ll give it a 5 out of 10, and continue to hope for signs of improvement.
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