The only redeeming part of the episode was lots of ERIN!!! Other than that, it was pretty mediocre. I’m pretty sure they’re setting up Dwight and Ryan for a big fall eventually. Jim’s not that dumb. He and Pam have to be plotting something. As for Michael’s latest stupid act, I will at least give him credit for standing in front of everyone, apologizing, and taking the hit for his failed commitment. He could’ve just phoned it in.
I thought the funny line of the ep was when the students were muttering angrily about the batteries and Michael says “Wait, wait! They’re lithium.”
I agree this was not a great episode. I think part of the problem is that it comes shortly after the episode with the shareholder’s meeting, and both feature similar scenes of Michael outside the office standing up in front of a bunch of people and it being unbearably awkward. Which I think should happen more sparingly.
I forgot another funny bit:
“My Diabolical Plan” by Dwight K. Shrute. “I found it in the copier bin.”
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i found the episode to be a little racist. inner city youths can’t say thank you unless it’s through a step routine? the black kid lives with his aunt?
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i forgot who said it already, but the entire premise is just too ridiculous a gesture for anyone rational to take seriously. everyone from the newspapers, hs principles, HS students would not have actually believed that Michael Scott would follow up on it. it was absurdly distracting. it’s like all of scranton decided to take crazy pills and listen to michael’s ravings for a change instead of patting him on the head and go about their business.
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Jim has turned completely incompetent. i don’t know why the writers thought this would be a good move, but if i’m John Krasinski, i’d be voicing my displeasure.
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kevin has turned from lazy to savant to functionally retarded. i liked it better when he was just lazy.
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uh… what happened to the pranks? pranks are BITS, not something you base an entire story arc on. this is the retarded cousin of basing an entire episode watching jim make jello, and then dunking dwight’s office supplies into that jello.
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the next love interest for michael has to be written for the long haul. pam’s mom ended too quickly. holly ended too quickly. either show him meeting and failing in a single episode (hibachi waitress) or have the love interest stick around for an entire season. 3-5 seasons isn’t enough to develop an interesting enough story. maybe they’re gunshy with the single-episode love interest since they bombed horribly (imo) with the chair model. They did a decent job with the purse saleswoman, but that was eons ago.
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too much dialogue and not enough said. the furtive glances and the shocked silences were what made the show. now everyone has to have a half-assed quip. it might be the result of having too much improv going on, and not enough talent to pull it off.
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they’re definitely not fully exploring their options, and shutting a lot of doors with their writing. focusing on corporate instead of building characters with rival branches is a mistake. trotting out steve carrell into the same general embarrassing situation over and over again instead of surprising the audience with a kelly episode, or a phyllis episode, or a meredith episode, is pretty much strangling their golden goose. you don’t see “community” doing that. i really respect community for trying to tie in a story arc for each individual character. some characters are featured more than others, but generally everyone has a funny bit, and they aren’t all jostling for position to get their lines out like the office cast is. it makes for a cleaner, funnier product.
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tangentially from the last one, less michael. he’s being played out like a bad joke being beaten to death. we get it. he’s a bumbling idiot. he falls into koi ponds, makes promises he can’t keep, and is desperate to procreate. yawn?
What I hated about the episode I was already prepared for, after reading the summery and seeing the commercials. I liked the B-storyline more than most people. If Jim thought it was Andy’s idea, then worked off a MODIFIDE, (Dwight didn’t add “survival skills” because he wanted Jim to win, just to make it authentic I think, knowing it would be omitted), fair and anonymous chart Dwight gave him, it’s not too out there. Though I agree with Munch, the office members would know he wasn’t intentionally make himself EotM. One thing that bothers me is Dwight’s pen didn’t serve him any good but to reveal that he has to up-the-ante.
Liked Erin getting some camera time. The A-storyline wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but it was pretty bad. Whoever wrote this and decided to air it now, after so many of episodes of Michael just being a complete chump, needs to stop. I can handle Michael being a dip in the office… but let’s stop the public humiliations for a long while. If he’s going to be that dumb without his character growing, (to be fair he promised this a long time ago), than let’s stop inflicting him on the rest of the world for right now.
Didn’t care much for the episode but had to admit that I loved Dwight’s impressions over the phone to David Wallace.
Yeah, but check out his pickin’ at 1:48
This was the part I didn’t get. How did Jim not see that he was set up by Dwight? OK, he didn’t know that the employee-of-the-month plan was Dwight’s idea, but he received the statistics on attendance and performance directly from him (rather than getting the attendance numbers from HR and the sales numbers from the sales manager). Surely, given their history, he would have realized that Dwight set him up?
But Jim immediately removed a couple of Dwight’s performance categories. At that point, Jim assumed Dwight was rigging it so that Dwight would win. When Jim took out survivor skills and self defense (or whatever it was), Jim thought that was enough to foil Dwight. Having other things to do that day than come up with A Diabolical Plan, Jim didn’t think any more about it.
I hate to think this, but it appears that Dwight is more devious than Jim. It’ll be fun, watching Jim get some revenge.
I’m pissed that we didn’t see Dwight imitating any of the women. :smack: That would’ve been funny.
I don’t think Jim can get revenge. He’s Dwight’s superior now, but insecure in the position; he has to be responsible and can’t go pulling pranks. (Never mind that being in a position of authority doesn’t stop Michael from acting foolish for a minute.) I think Jim will be stuck doing the slow burn while Dwight and Ryan conspire against him…until something snaps.
Oh, and I was unimpressed with the “sweet” moment between Michael and Erin at the end because (A) Michael was only nice to Erin because she stroked his ego (though come to think of it, it was a nice echo of the intro with Michael and Andy), and (2) the whole business of Michael suddenly treating Erin like dirt was only introduced in the first place so they could have the reconciliation at the end. That felt very contrived.
The only thing I really enjoyed in the episode was Ryan telling Dwight he wanted to participate in the de-throning of Jim.
Heh, I liked Mike’s totts. They can’t have the same cringe inducing moments in the Office anymore since all the employees are used to Michaels stupidity.
Yea, Jim the office manager vs Dwight and Ryan would actually be a pretty good arc, but the need to get Michael out of the Scranton Branch (and indeed, it seems like they keep jury-rigging a new excuse every episode to get him out). The co-manager thing doesn’t make sense, and plots involving Jim as office manager don’t work if Michael is there looking over his shoulder.
I still don’t get why they just didn’t have Michael bumped up to senior management, it seems the natural progression, would open up new story possibilities, let them introduce some new characters at Headquarters and let them develop the Jim as office manager track.
Thing is, while Dwight was always a dick to Jim, he never really messed with him the same way Jim messed with Dwight, so it sort of makes sense that Jim never really saw Dwight’s scheme as directed against him, but just sort of assumed it was for Dwight’s own self-aggrandizement. I hope they keep running with this idea this season, I like the idea of the two having flipped places. Jim is now too mature to mess with Dwight, but Dwight now has a reason to mess with Jim.
This show needs to end. I seriously laughed out loud at the final scene with Dwight and the Temp colluding to oust Jim. Not because it was funny, because it was patently ridicolous.
Realistically, the show should have ended at season 3, but now it’s getting intolerable (relatively, at least).
Yeah, this is a sad day. Is it true that Steve Carrell signed up for three more years of the Office? Because I can’t stand three more weeks of this. The worst part for me was that Jim just would not be that dumb, end of story.
Holly’s not married yet, right? She just has a boyfriend? Why can’t they bring her back? Michael does definitely need a love interest.
I usually accept that The Office takes place in a world where these things are plausible, but this one was a bit much. The tuition thing in particular–the school would have done all sorts of background checks on him, had contracts and the whole bit to make sure it wasn’t a scam or something. It’s ridiculous to propose that those kids’ futures would have been pinned on someone coming in and saying, “Hey, I wanna pay for your tuition!”
I was annoyed by Jim too. Not so much for falling for the prank, but for not being more insistent that, no, he didn’t purposely choose himself and then Pam, and that he also didn’t want Dwight to take up a collection for a cash prize. It was too much to believe that he would just roll over and not defend himself.
And why are Jim and Wallace such good buddies that they have dinner together? I half expected that conversation to turn out to be Jim’s getting Dwight back for the prank.
I did think the phone calls Dwight made were hilarious, though.
I loved the UK office, and the first thing i thought when they started the A story about the promise of college tuition was “Wow, this is exactly the sort of thing that David Brent would do.”
I thought the idea itself was inspired, and Stanley’s reaction when he heard the words “Scott’s Tots” was a great way to introduce it. The problem, though, was that they never realized the story’s potential. It just petered out and went nowhere. I’m not sure exactly what they could have done to improve it; perhaps not show him going to the school at all, but rather just deal with the aftermath in the office.
Anyway, i’ve become increasingly disillusioned with the show over the past couple of seasons. While it still has funny bits, and some great characters (i love Kevin), it lacks both the borderline realism of the British original, and the tension and humor that characterized the first couple of seasons of the American version.
The great thing about David and Gareth in the British office was that, no matter how embarrassing their antics, they always seemed fairly believable. Michael, on the other hand, has become a mere caricature, bordering on slapstick at times, and Dwight isn’t far off.
I did like Dwight’s voice imitations, though.
david brent was an egomaniacal, self aggrandizing, selfish bastard who fancies himself a comedian trapped in by the mundane trappings of office life. more importantly he was lazier than he was stupid. he decidedly wouldn’t pull a david’s tots. comic relief, he would/did do. this? notsomuch.
i also question the believability of the “antics”. maybe it’s a culture difference but i have a hard time believing that hiding dildos or unwanted kissing of coworkers (same sex no less) would just be easily laughed off. and the LANGUAGE… talk about potty mouths.
Michael’s stupidity already hit rock bottom about 2-3 seasons ago where he “declared” bankruptcy. it was funny then. it’s sad now.