I thought this episode was pretty weak. Instead of racing for a rabies cure, maybe they should have had Michael jump a motorcycle over a shark tank.
I had a hard time buying Dwight killing the cat until he said that it didn’t provide milk, wool or meat. Can’t argue with that logic.
The writers need to tread VERY carefully with PB&J. To me, their secret feelings for each other was the real storyline of the previous seasons. So, to pull the trigger on them dating, while had to be done eventually, could turn into a disaster and ruin the show for me. I do have faith in these writers, though.
Overall, I loved the opener and I didn’t realize how much I’d missed it until now.
I really got the feeling they’re setting something up for Ryan’s character. I’m curious to know the litigation costs for this episode. Does anyone have the link handy to that website, you know, the one about the thing?
HR Hero Blogs
Litigation cost is $450,000.
Something about Jan bothers me and I can’t put my finger on it yet. It might the rapid transformation of the character, it’s been too much, too fast.
I wish there was more with Ryan, out of everything that happened at the end of last season this was the plotline that I was most excited about seeing resolve. I’ve got my fingers crossed for next week.
And it does work better as a 30 minute show.
I think my favorite line was: “I saw where it ended, but I didn’t see where it began.”
I think Toby has pretty much given up trying to stop Michael from doing incredibly unprofessional things, like making everybody talk about their religion.
Got the feeling they really don’t know where to go with Jan’s character. I hate to see her reduced to, apparently, an unemployed neurotic.
So it looks like Ryan really managed to break it off with Kelly.
ETA: I know it’s not fair to judge this show on realism, but does it ever happen that somebody like Ryan (who was still a temp only two years ago) gets promoted directly to being his manager’s manager?
Well, it is Dunder-Mifflin.
Note that Ryan got his degree. That put him ahead of the others education-wise and sort of “erased” his previous status.
Of the 3 other known candidates, one was clearly had already “Peter Principaled” himself and wasn’t going to get the job regardless of the not-taking-his-girlfriend’s-job thing, the second apparently withdrew from consideration and that leaves Karen.
So, Karen vs. Ryan. In addition, Ryan was clearly being more “aggressive” (now) in advancing himself.
It also helps when in real life you are one of the people running the show. You can make your character be anything you want.
Is is just me, or did Jan’s t-shirt seem, uh, “smaller”?
Did I miss a joke in the episode?
In one of the previews, they showed Ryan going, “Those days in Scranton are a blur. . .I think I dated a black girl or something.”
Did that joke air with the episode?
At the end of last week’s episode, there were a bunch of snippets where the characters talked about their summer. I think this line was from Ryan’s snippet.
I agree with Hampshire. Just about every “extended” episode ends up seeming off to me. When they pare it down to 30 minutes (well, 22 minutes), it’s just right.
I loved Michael hitting Meredith with his car to start out the season. Totally unexpected.
My favorite part:
When Toby wins the 5k and asks Kelly how far they were from the office. Kelly says. 'Around 5k." They made it a linear course instead of a circle. 
I loved the Rabies Quilt. Had to go back and pause the show to get a good look. There was a patch with a racoon, one with a bat with a Ghostbusters-style red circle with a slash thing on it, and one that appeared to be a racoon biting another animal. Hilarious. 
For those who couldn’t believe Dwight would kill the cat I’m surprised. He has a misguided way of doing right. When the list of medications and problems of teh cat were mentioned I thought myself someone has to put that cat out of its misery. I knew Dwight would be the guy to do it.
Favorite twisted line… You can’t get into cat heaven if you’ve been Euthanised.
By the way, the NBC online store is selling the Rabies Cure schwag. I bought one of the bracelets for five bucks.
Haaha! I missed that one. My favorite line was Dwight to Michael: “It was ONLY Meredith anyway.”
I also liked Stanley’s explanation of how he runs the race but now I can’t remember exactly what he said. it involved not running the race at all. 
I agree that the pacing was not great, but I think this was two episodes stitched together rather than one episode stretched out. The halfway mark definitely climaxes with the “curse” being over and the Jim & Pam reveal. Then we start the “race for the cure” plotline, with of course some elements carried over.
When they air reruns in syndication, that’s where they’ll split it.
I’m actually glad they moved on with the Jim & Pam plotline. I’m not crazy about how they handled Karen towards the end of last season, but I’d rather see them advance the story than make up stuff to keep the J&P tension going for an artificially long time.
I have mixed feelings about Jim & Pam. Of course it’s great that they’re together, and I squealed like a tweenie at Dawson’s Creek when Pam busted it out, but I can’t help but feel cheated that we didn’t get “the moment.” You know, the heartfelt confrontation, passionate kiss, everything-comes-together moment that every good TV couple has. Apparently that happened sometime during the summer, and we weren’t privy to it. BOO.
And yeah, the show’s drama is lost a little bit with the unceremonious J&P hookup. I guess they’re trying to regain some of that with having Dwight & Angela break up, but they’re not the supercouple, so that’ll never work. I don’t think I’ll mind, though… the show will still be ridiculously funny, and that’s really why I watch it.
I liked the premiere alright, though it did get kinda stale, because comedies don’t need to be an hour long. My major complaint with it is that it focused way too freakin’ much on Michael. For the first half hour it seemed like there were maybe 5 lines that weren’t his. I swear, some episodes, it really is the Michael Show, and I can’t take that much of him before I want to reach through the TV and use his throat as a sock.
It’ll all work out fine. After all, he’s her lobster.
And I so need a “Support The Rabid” bracelet for when I’m rooting for my 1-On-1 Pool football team.
I loved Angela’s cat instructions. Haven’t we all known someone with a pet like that?
As for PB&J, I thought they would draw out the cloak and dagger with the film crew for a while, which could have been fun. A riff on the whole Dwight and Angela thing. But I guess it still is, since the film crew will be winking at stuff Jim and Pam do, while the couple try to keep it secret from the rest of the office.
I don’t know if Jan’s problems are that out of character. It’s not that rare to meet someone who seems fine, and then as you get to know them better, all their weird dysfunctional behavior starts to become evident. Add in a divorce to really get the chaos swirling, and foibles once confined to one’s personal life can metastasize to career and every other aspect, and the person completely melts down.
On a lighter note: “Oh, I’m sorry is this a place of business, and not a French beach?”
I don’t think we needed to see “that everything comes together moment.” We got the kiss in the “Casino Night” ep, and Jim asking her out in last year’s finale. Too much reveal, and it loses something. Especially when you consider that this is an office-based documentary. I imagine there’s got to be some boundaries between the camera crew and the subjects.
Forgot my favorite not-yet-mentioned moment:
"PAY TO THE ORDER OF: SCIENCE "
Anybody else dissapointed that they used the extended talking heads format to bring things up to date right at the beginning?
It seemed to easy on their part and didn’t allow the audience to figure some of those things out.