The whole Jim/Pam sequence was contrived and unfunny, with the brothers’ ‘joke’ being just bad writing. The Michael/Holly part was good stuff.
I’ll need to watch it again while not at work; the Pam subplot confused me. Either I was whooshed, or Jim’s brothers really share a horrible sense of humor.
You get the feeling that Jim’s brothers are older, and more successful (married, kids, money) than him. They were probably both on the football team while Jim was in the band or something. They’ve never gotten past the “it’s fun to torment dorky brother Jim” phase.
Did anyone else catch when Jim’s brother looked at the camera and did that Jim-looks-at-the-camera-and-shrugs-and-smirks thing? It was awesome! I thought, “OH! Obnoxious bad-acting runs in the family!”
I really hate when Jim does that crap. OK, it was funny in the first season, but I guess somebody connected with the show still thinks so, because he does it WAY too much. Or maybe I just think that character is kind of a douche, I don’t know.
My other fave moment (already mentioned) was when Darryl started singing along with Michael and Holly instead of his usual response of derision.
No, but it was odd that she’d take a 7 1/2 hour drive in a pickup truck, full of furniture to unload in New Hampshire, in a skirt and heels. Holly strikes me as someone who’s more comfortable in casual clothes than work clothes.
The funniest part to me was Andy trying to take a bite out of the beet. Great faces by Ed Helms.
No more odd than Michael wearing a suit and tie for the whole round trip (and everywhere else). She and Michael are peas in a pod. She’s as much a dork as he is.
I thought the bits about Jim’s brothers were pretty interesting, because they showed that the writers are quite aware of just how much of a jerk Jim can be. What they did to Pam is not really that different from the kind of thing Jim does to Dwight.
In the past I have thought the show seemed to be treating Jim’s treatment of Dwight as a perfectly okay and justified way to treat another human being. But with this episode I see that the show recognizes the ambiguities involved.
-FrL-
“She thinks we should break up, but I’m not going to let go that easily. I’m going to make it much, much harder than it needs to be.”
The line is getting extremely blurred. Last episode, when Phyllis was talking to Dwight about how she knew he was fooling around with Angela, she said, “I know, they know {motions at camera crew}, and you know we know.” I think the documentary crew are practically co-workers at this point.
Regarding Jim as a jerk to Dwight; on the one hand, it seems like he’s been bullied by his older brothers since birth, so he is somewhat of an expert on jerking other people. On the other hand, he does it mostly to Dwight because he hates Dwight and Dwight desperately needs it and can take it. Bottom line, I don’t think Jim’s any more of a jerk than your average human being.
My favourite line (almost at the end) - Pam says to Jim, “Let’s “prank” {older brother} at Thanksgiving about being bald.” 
(Agreed that “Creed” as a psychopath was too accurate.)
His brothers were dicks. Not only for what they said about Pam’s future, but for totally ignoring Pam’s initial prank. Jim doesn’t look like such an ass in contrast to his older siblings.
It will all be addressed in therapy.
I always thought Mussolini was kinda hot…
I don’t know if I like how much they’re addressing the cameras this season. It’s one of those things I have to suspend disbelief for, because if it were for a reality TV show, everyone would have known Angela and Dwight were together in the first place, assuming it’s aired. Not to mention everything else people of the show said or did behind the other’s backs.
It was always my understanding that you really aren’t supposed to think that much about the crew, as they’re mainly there to provide a unique way the stories are being told.
I always wondered if they will ever address this, perhaps in the final episode. But if they aren’t going to have any explanation, than I would prefer the characters and crew didn’t break the fourth wall, aside from the talking heads.
I thought this episode was 2/3 awesome (Andy vs. Dwight was hilarious, and the Michael/Holly stuff was wonderfully sweet while still being funny. Daryl being along was perfect.) and 1/3 abyssmal (the Jim/Pam/brothers thing just didn’t work).
I agree. The Dwight Andy thing was hysterical. The Pam Jim thing was not funny at all and seemed way out of place. Jim is still the same douche that he’s always been though. He’s so smug all the time and he has a huge nose.
I’m getting tired of what I see as incomplete story lines in eveyr episode. There is very rarely any real resolution to any of the story lines. I also feel like 15 of the 30 minutes this show is on is commercials. As soon as the story starts going along they cut to commercial and it’s always like 5 minutes worth.
And why on earth do you all think Holly is permanently gone? I don’t even feel like she was written out of the current story arc in this episode and some of you are acting like this was her last hurrah.
So when is Pam supposed to be coming back to Scranton? At the beginning of the season it was stated that she’d be in NYC for three months, and I’m pretty sure they said she’d be at Pratt for a summer program. The “Weight Loss” episode covered seven weeks of her absence, and that was definitely set during the summer. But this week’s episode established that Pam was still in NYC for Halloween. I’m confused as to whether she’s now enrolled for the fall semester after having completed a three-month summer program, or if her three months at Pratt were always supposed to be during the fall semester.
That was my feeling as well. Jim’s brothers were obnoxious, but not all that different from Jim himself. So what does that say about Jim? Although I guess one could also conclude that Jim’s behavior is the result of having been picked on by his brothers, and that he at least comes up with more clever pranks.
My complaint with this subplot is that it didn’t really go anywhere. It was disappointing that Pam had so little to do when she’s been largely absent from the season so far. Jim’s reaction to his brothers’ teasing did show that he (unlike Roy) genuinely supports Pam’s dream of pursuing an artistic career, but that point could have been made back at the office with the usual characters. At the end of this episode it wasn’t even clear to me whether we’re meant to understand that Jim’s brothers really think Pam’s a loser or not. They were pretty quick with the idea to make fun of her. The text message indicates that they accept Pam as Jim’s future wife, but maybe they don’t think he could do any better.
There have been indications of this in other episodes, most notably “Conflict Resolution”. Michael read through the stack of complaints Dwight had made about Jim and his pranks. Jim (in a “talking head” scene) was amused at first thinking about all the tricks he’d pulled, but eventually admitted that when all the pranks were listed together like that it didn’t seem very funny after all. He did say that he still thought Dwight deserved it, though.
I think they are supposed to be filming material for a documentary, not a reality tv show.
I can only watch in dribs and drabs before feeling “squee”. What was up with the beets at the end?
Andy was trying imitate Dwight. Dwight has a beet farm.
Agree that the Jim-Pam-Jim’s brothers subplot felt very weak and poorly written. I’m not sure where they were trying to go with the two brothers characters. Pam’s original idea of “I’ll tell him I lost my engagement ring” was subpar, too… that felt off to me. Why would that be a funny way to prank Jim?
A poor episode. My usual scale for enjoyment of an episode is inversely proportional to how much of a clueless jerk Michael is (which he wasn’t so much this time). But this one was … different. It just sat there.
Yeah, the “documentary” thing is getting phased out. There were virtually no talking head bits this time. (I think just Dwight once.) Note that during the road trip, there were multiple camera angles from outside the truck used. (Far right, center-right and left.) How does this documentary crew manage that?
Darryl mumbled a word or two in the truck at one point. (Sorry, can’t recall specifically when that was.) I rewound and tried listening several times but couldn’t pick it up. Anyone know?