What, no thread? Well, I’ll offer that, once again, Creed has the best lines: “I have plenty more (paper clips)”, after offering a paper clip chain to the baby and being told that the baby might eat them.
I didn’t realize those horrible Six Flags ads were nationwide. Pam loves 'em!
/Slacker tunes up the banjo…
Oh my God, they killed off another Stamford- you bastards!
He’s got to get back to making more Washington Mutual commercials.
I lost it at Prison Mike’s Dementors line.
Dwight’s use of money to bait the former prisoner was hilarious.
I wonder if Michael will eventually drive all of the new employees away.
When is Oscar coming back?
Apollo Creed!!
[QUOTE=Slacker]
I didn’t realize those horrible Six Flags ads were nationwide. Pam loves 'em!
QUOTE]
I loved the “randomness” of Pam’s dislikes. I laughed out loud when he mentioned the Six Flags ad. The end, when Jim turns around and smiles at Pam to let her know it was his idea was so cute.
It was a good episode (especially the above-mentioned paper clip line), but I wanted a little more Dwight. I do love Ed Helms though, so I’m happy seeing him in more scenes.
Can’t speak for nationwide, but Scranton would be in the area covered by Six Flags - Great Adventure in NJ. We get them in NY all summer long, also.
But the show broadcasts nationally. Does the rest of the country know about the Six Flags old man?
I live outside of Pittsburgh and I’ve seen those ads, for what it’s worth. I couldn’t tell you where the closest Six Flags is, what with Kennywood and all.
Midwesterner here. We definitely know who the Six Flags old man is. I’d be really surprised if those commercials weren’t national, considering one of the major “selling points” of Six Flags is that you can get to one within a day’s drive from basically anywhere in the country.
I agree that Creed’s line was the best of the episode. But, why did that mom have her baby at work all day long? She seems to be quite the self-righteous piece of work. If we’re going to slowly lose all the Stamford people, except Andy and Karen, then I vote that she goes next.
The dementors line could have been genius, but it was flubbed when Pam said, “You mean like from Harry Potter?” Would have been so much better left un-expositioned.
I miss Oscar, I want him back.
I was glad to see a glimmer of Jim and Pam’s old flame, but what really seemed lost was Jim and Dwight’s antagonism. I hope the writers get back to that soon.
Overall, a kind of middle-of-the-road episode. I was expecting more from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Then again, I do prefer this version to the UK original. Different strokes.
But the follow-up referring to it being a movie rather than a book was worth it.
Oh, and when Pam smiled so hopefully and sweetly at Jim the first time he looked around at her. Poor girl. And she is crazy-happy when he is back to pranking her.
“Oh how cute, may I?” “Sure!” ::hides under the desk to narrate Look Who’s Talking
That’s great, unless someone doesn’t get the reference. I had no clue they were from Harry Potter. TV writers can assume that the vast majority of viewers are familiar with HP on generic terms, but can’t assume they’ve all read the books.
Not us in the frozen northland. I also had no clue what a “dementor” was, so I’m glad they explained. I thought the ep was a bit over the top with Michael. The writers seem to be reaching too far and might be better off exploring the other characters, letting Michael revert to his ninny self. The Jim/Pam interchange was good, as was Creed’s bit. Gotta go look at the deleted scenes now.
Sure, but it would be impossible to write so that everybody (or even the majority) gets every reference. I’m positive there are tons of zingers that whiz by me. But the jokes I do get, I appreciate even more.
For example, in the episode The Merger, Michael did a video called “Lazy Scranton”, which is apparently an allusion to an SNL short called “Lazy Sunday”. I’d never heard of or seen the short, so I was really only able to enjoy Michael’s video on a superficial, Michael-being-a-weird-idiot basis. That’s okay by me, I’m not going to “get” everything. A show like the Office, especially, leans a lot on popular culture references. They are usually funnier if they’re left unexplained.
Re: Harry Potter, you’re right that the vast majority of viewers are familiar with it on generic terms. I would even venture to say that more viewers are familiar with in on specific terms (specific enough to get the Dementors refernce) than they are with something like “Lazy Sunday”.
Then again, I could be wrong. My original point was that, for me (who is familiar with HP), the joke didn’t work nearly as well as it could have.
I thought that Prison Mike was lame but the rest was great so over all an above average episode.
I love how a Stamford person has quit the last two episodes. It’s gotta be the mommy next.
Other great moments were Pam during her confessional just beaming when talking about Jim’s prank. Then Jim not letting Karen in on a Pam prank because it was special.
Oscar will be back in another couple of months. I wonder if the actor who plays Oscar had personal reasons for not being able to be there for part of the taping so they wrote it into the show.
…huh… I honestly think this was one of the best episodes… actually EVER.
It was cringe-worthy and hilarious. I know I laughed outloud atleast once in every scene and in every talking head.
Angela’s line “As a 90 pound woman in a dimly lit, rarely visited corner of the office…”
Kevin’s: “I had Martin explain to me 3 times what he did that landed him in prison and it sounded alot like what I do here… every… day.”
Andy’s “I’m sooo horny.”
Yeah, he seemed a little over the top. I was glad they had the scene where Toby stepped in to bring him back to reality with his “C’mon Michael. They’re just joking with you. You think they seriously think prison would be better than working here? They’re just playing with you.”
Michael’s reaction was a conflicted “Get lost Toby”, “You’re right Toby”,“Now I feel stupid”,“Now I feel angry”.