Surprised not to see a thread started on the super sized opening!
To sum up the episode:
Dunder Mifflin Scranton competes with other offices in a biggest loser contest. Pam pursues a design program in New York. Angela evades her upcoming nuptials. And a face from the past returns to the Office.
I thought it was excellent. The story flowed really well, and the jokes made me laugh uproariously. They did an excellent job of continuing where they left off from the finale. With an opener like this I have a great feeling about this season.
It’s going to be great watching Kelly torture Ryan with her love for Darryl.
I loved how happy Kelly looked to be eating food only to be told she had to stop again.
Oh man, it’s nice to see poor Phylis get the upper hand!
The HR Lady continues to be hillarious.
Ryan’s Nixonian list was terrific.
Poor Toby!
I think my favorite part was Angela’s “That’s HOW I SLEEP AT NIGHT” confessional.
Oh yeah. Jan was barely in it, but they made her brief appearance really funny. The candle joke was funny. “Oh? They found her?” But, so was Michael’s reaction to the pregant belly “Who’s your daddy? You don’t know do you!” Comedy gold for the whole season. And, then she will have the kid and they can introduce a kid character like all good shows do.
I thought bringing Ryan back as the receptionist was great. You know that Michael’s motivation was purely “I <heart> Ryan”, without considering that it might be humiliating for Ryan to return to D-M in an administrative role.
I love his list, too.
No comments on Jim and Pam? I squealed, I’ll admit it.
Have to say the premiere didn’t do much for me. I did like the way they used the weigh-ins to move the timeline along in order to speed up Pam’s absence.
They didn’t address Ryan’s legal problems did they?
I loved it… especially the PB&J long distance stuff, I have to admit.
Question - I tuned in about 2 minutes after the hour, (on an Atlantic canada station I get in my cable package,) and there were several minutes of commercials before the theme song, and the first scene of the ‘last meal.’
Was there a teaser that I missed, or was this how the show started? (Not necessarily that it started late everywhere - but, theme song and then the last meal.)
I forget the details exactly, but, after the camera crew had picked up on her booty pages, it was a cut to Angela in a confessional, saying, “I have a cup of warm milk, I read about a chapter of my book, and I get under the covers - THAT’S HOW I SLEEP AT NIGHT.”
Did anyone else think they might be setting up Angela to be pregnant? They were showing Angela Kinsey’s postpartum body pretty freely (not that she’s fat at all, but it’s clear she is still a bit puffier in the abdomen), she said, “My doctor wants me to gain weight,” and at least one person on the team was gaining weight each week. Of course, having her actually have a baby would probably suck plotwise, so maybe not.
I gave a delighted gasp when Jim went down on one knee. I love the writers - they knew they needed to surprise us as much as Pam.
I loved Holly’s Michaelesque moment with Oscar. Along with Jim’s comment, it makes clear how she and Michael are compatible. WHY didn’t he turn around and say, “Say, I’ve got these tickets, want to go see the Counting Crows”??!! Oh, yeah, because he’s Michael.
The scene before it was Angela and Dwight coming out of a section of the warehouse dishevelled. Cut to the confessional where Angela says something like (very very paraphrased because I honestly don’t remember)
“I have a cup of tea and then brush my cat’s fur. I read exactly a chapter of my book and then place it on the nightstand next to me. Then it’s lights out by 8:30…AND THAT’S HOW I SLEEPT AT NIGHT.”
Well yes, they did go out of their way to make clear that Andy hasn’t had . . . privileges yet, didn’t they? Maybe they are setting it up. I suppose it could be like Stargate: Atlantis, where a major character has a baby, and the pregnancy and birth are used for drama, and then the kid goes to magical daycare where he never intrudes on the plot again.
Did anyone catch Creed measuring out his rice like it was, well, something else?
I also loved the denouement of the “Kevin is retarded” meme - especially how Angela, who had called him an idiot two seconds earlier, got all smug and said, “That is totally inappropriate.”
Yeah that had me worried for a second too because that guy cracking jokes was kinda like a heftier Jim. The whole he’s here, Jim’s not thing. But I was very excited when Jim went down on one knee…I swear I called it when he pulled up to the truck stop in the rain. “He’s gonna do it, right now.” Thought that mainly because he had just been talking about how his summer sucked and he hasn’t seen Pam in ten days, then the “let’s meet halfway for lunch” then the rain…it was perfect. I was not happy when Andy screwed it up for him during Toby’s party. I love the show as a whole, all the characters, but I do have a very soft spot for Jim and Pam.
Michael had the goatee from the start of the episode, after (we later learn) seeing Ryan’s while helping him move.
A few weeks later, Michael shaves after seeing that Ryan has shaved of his goatee (and Dwight has started to grow one!)
In between, however, there’s a brief scene with Jim eating lunch in the breakroom with Michael and Holly (afterwards Jim TH’s that lunches will be hard to get used to) - and Michael’s goatee is gone! He has it in the scene before and the scene after, but not in the lunch scene.
