Creed’s lines were the best part.
Michael: Why do we hate old people?
Creed: Because they’re lame.
…
Creed: When are we going to get some RedBull in here? You never know when your going to need to ride the bull you know what I’m saying… later skater!
I think Ricky Gervais killed the original series after two seasons because he knew the premise could only hold so long, and he had other things he wanted to do. It didn’t end, as far as I know, because viewers were leaving in droves saying David Brent wasn’t believable. David Brent was completely different from Michael Scott. He was evil. He was lazy, had no interest in doing his job and preferred to spout pretentious, idiotic, meaningless management drivel to getting things done. He was very, very, heartless, unlike Michael. He was a wild exaggeration, to be sure, but I’ve worked with people like David, and didn’t find him particularly unbelievable.
Michael Scott was fine while he just did and said jaw-droppingly inappropriate, cringe-worthy things. Now, as many have mentioned, no one cringes anymore. It’s not difficult to watch. He’s just stupid and cartoonlike. They need to get the emphasis off Michael, but I guess Steve Carell is too big a star now.
“Hey bra!” “I’m 30. I’ll be 30 next month.” ETA: reminded me of the “old guy” on House-- “I’m 21, unless it’s relevant.”
Poor Toby. And then Pam–“Toby, is this your way of teasing us about being together?” I like the PB&J stuff they are showing – the “Now that we’re public, is the magic gone?” convo, and her great smile at the end of it.
Yeah, Angela and Phyllis acting like Pam’s some kind of slut was disconcerting. “The office mattress”? What a hypocrite.
The feral barn cat “Garbage”. That poor other office he got put in. :eek:
You are absolutely right. I didn’t mean to imply that it was canceled, just that Gervais wisely realized that you can only do so much with a character like Brent, and he didn’t push it too far.
I howled with laughter at that line. One of the owners here at work is a Red Bull junkie, especially on days they put job bids together. He’s normally an intense guy, but on RB, he’s batshit crazy.[/slight hijack]
I am going to semantically disagree with most people here. I don’t think Michael is becoming stupider, I think he is becoming insane. I actually think that the OP was right when saying michael drove into the lake almost out of spite of technology, which is not normal. Similar to last week when Michael was going off on some tangent in the meeting room about some goofy animals and stuff. I am not saying the writers are doing it on prupose, but Michaels worls is being threatened and he isn’t responding well.While The Simpsons have Stupid Homer, it seems like the Office has got Crazy Michael.
I thought it was a good episode, especially Creed’s young’n stuff, but I was disappointed by two things:
As mentioned, Phyllis’s reaction to Pam and Jim seemed wildly out of character for her.
The scene where “Monkey” dumped “D” at the restaurant was unnecessary. We could assume when Angela asked Dwight to eat somewhere public what was going to happen. If that wasn’t enough, his reaction the next day drove the point home. To show them at the restaurant strained the documentary format a little too far (and I was the one defending them last time), and beat us over the head with something that was easily inferred from the other scenes.
When I watched the episode I thought he drove into the lake on purpose. Someone mentioned earlier that he did it because he wanted to prove technology wrong. That doesn’t make it less dumb, but it doesn’t fall under the complete buffoon category.
Getting back the gift basket also seemed liken something Micheal would do. He did previously take back a novelty check from an office manager in the “Product Recall” episode.
And he told her to call the Ungrateful Beyotch Hotline. Funny stuff, that.
By the way, did y’all catch the ad for Dunder-Mifflin Infinity after the show? Brilliant. I checked the Web site, but it wants you to register with NBC and I’m too lazy. Anyone know what’s inside?
I love that their “high-tech, user-friendly” Web site opens with an irritating Flash intro.
The whole company is rather baffling at this point. Ryan selling the flashy young product? Dude, it’s paper. If Scranton is able to stay in business doing as badly as it is, how is there a whole corporate structure around this failing business? How can Ryan act like a hotshot when the whole corporation can’t be doing too well?
Perhaps I am taking this a tad too seriously.
They have set up several “offices” of the online presence for D-M Infinity. Each one is basically a fan site run by a volunteer “regional manager.” You can choose which branch to join and “apply” for a job there. Once hired, you can participate in discussion boards and they assign you certain tasks (such as “design a logo for D-M Infinity” and “make Creed look younger”). Completion of a task will earn you Schrutebucks, which can either be used to buy office supplies for your online desk or to earn promotions (everyone starts as a “temp”).
Just to be clear, it’s Dunder Mifflin that’s doing badly, not the paper supply business. That’s doing well, but it’s being consolidated by Staples, Office Max, Office Depot, etc.
He’s acting like the hotshot who thinks he can turn the company around by adopting modern business methods, such as Internet-based ordering and such. That’s not very unusual. It’s not like he’s trying to revive paper supply as an entire industry. He’s trying to follow the models of the companies that are kicking Dunder-Mifflin’s butt.
What is really puzzling is how Dunder-Mifflin survived this long selling only paper. When was the last time a business (i.e., non-retail) merchant sold just paper, as opposed to a range of products that might be needed in an office setting?
When Michael drove into the lake, the first thing I thought of was all the Dopers that that was gonna piss off. That was way over the top.
I loved when Kelly walked in with a bunch of makeup and a fancy new dress and acted like she didn’t know Ryan was coming back that day.
Did anybody catch Ryan’s line about Karen asking him out six months ago? Think that’ll have any significance this season?
Regarding the Jim and Pam relationship, I think the writers have a tricky job. If the couple remains perfectly happy too long, the show runs the risk of getting too mushy and lovey-dovey. On the other hand, nobody wants to see any contrived drama between them. So what should be done?
I enjoyed most of this episode. Like the premiere, if it had been cut down to 30 minutes (or even 40) it would have been a home run.
Both of the hourlong episodes have had pretty obvious breaking points halfway through, I’ve noticed, presumably so that they can be shown later as separate half-hour episodes. I think they’d do better to cut them down, but I doubt that will happen.
That was a bit of revisionist history on his part. In an episode last season, he found out that Jim and Karen were dating and admitted to Jim that he thought they were more casual and that “Karen might mention an e-mail I sent to her…”
That’s what made me laugh so hard about Ryan asking Pam out and her telling him that she was dating Jim. Everytime Ryan asks a girl out, she’s dating Jim.
I loved how Dwight thought that Garbage, the feral barn-cat who once killed a whole family of raccoons, would be a good replacement for Sprinkles, the pampered housepet. Aside from being self-righteous, he and Angela really don’t have anything in common, do they?
I love how Pam smiles so much more now. The change in her char is just great. Changes everything.
You’re right! “You’ve GOT to be kidding me!”
I think that the reason that Michael couldn’t win back any clients is because Dwight screwed things up. Had Herr Killjoy stayed back at the office, Michael could have at least won back the last client (with the nut-allergic daughter).
I think that the show is having some difficulty because it’s between story arcs, but I saw the seeds of new plotlines in this episode. Just you wait; a few episodes from now, we’ll have a better idea of where this season is heading. As of this week, it looks like the writers won’t be drawing from the PB&J well for a while (and I think we can all agree that this is a wise move).