The Office: A Nerfy life
-
- April
- 12
Watching Stanley gawk at the watermelon guts all over his car before the credits rolled on tonight’s episode of the Office, I felt let down.
Even before that, seeing there was just nine minutes to go in “Safety Training,” I felt like it just started. And not in a “This is so great it’s flying by” way. More like a “Nothing’s happening” kind of way.
Pam didn’t lay it on the line with Jim. Karen didn’t flip out at Pam. Andy kept his cool, despite being shunned. Heck, Jan didn’t even show up.
Don’t do it Michael.
I was ready to concede that Anna over at TV Squad might have a point when she cited six reasons why The Office is in a slump.
(Not so fast Ms. Johns: 6. The conflict is under the surface; 5. Dwight’s never been believable; 4. Ryan and Kelly made me squirm several times tonight; 3. Jim and Dwight may be friends, but at least Andy is shunned; 2. Jim and Karen are supposed to be boring; and 1. Jim and Pam—well, you’re right about Jim and Pam.)
But upon further reflection, and after seeking some Office therapy from some understanding friends, I’ve decided this was a darn good episode. And in keeping with the theme, here’s six reasons why:
6. Gambling—Having Kevin’s NCAAs withdrawal be the basis for a daylong gambling fest was genius. Besides background action, it also staged one of the best laughs when I realized they had a pool going on how long Ryan could get Kelly to drone on about how NetFlix works. It also provided early tension when Kevin went on and on about how many hours Jim used to spend at reception, right in front of Karen.
5. Menace—Matt over at the That’s What She Said podcast told me Roy’s threat to kill Jim introduced an element of menace into the show. Well, putting Michael up on the roof with the real possibility he might jump three stories onto a carnival bouncy castle certainly continued that element.
4. Lingo—Darryl, who gave us “Dinkin’ Flicka” and “bippity boppity gimme the zoppity,” added to the lexicon with “Sittin’ on yo’ biscuit, afraid to risk it.” Oh, and “You live a Nerfy life.”
3. Shunning—Dwight shunned Andy. Then he unshunned him to ask him a question. Then he shunned him again. His understanding and implementation of Amish culture as a weapon is astounding. And yet it could barely contain his rage at the suggestion that he knows nothing about bear attacks.
2. Karen’s continuing realizations—Last week she acknowledged Jim would probably rather get his butt kicked in front of his peers and the woman he loves than talk to her at length. This week she admitted she doesn’t know the Scranton office very well. And she lost her shirt over it.
1. Jim and Pam in the parking lot—This was as close to a Season-2-type episode as we’ve seen since, well, Season 2. Jim and Pam side by side trying to rescue Michael from himself (though that ultimately fell to Darryl), was a sight for sore eyes. Grief Counseling could have been that, but Jim was still in Stamford exile then.
There’s only four episodes left to wrap things up. If the road to Jam is a mile long, we’ve moved two inches in two episodes.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at 10:53 pm by Brian Howard.
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