Time Zone Blues

Originally written on November 03, 2006.

I grew up in Oklahoma, which is in the Central Time Zone. It is an odd time zone, TV-wise in that the prime time programs begin at 7 in the PM, instead of 8. As a child growing up, this was a particularly marvelous thing as it allowed me to see many programs that I would have never seen living in the Eastern Zone where Prime Time starts at 8.

As a youngster, my bedtime for many years was 9 o’clock. However, Mother would allow us to stay up until ten one night a week. Normally this night was reserved for Remington Steele, but I can remember many a long internal debate during special events such as the Olympics or the Grammy Awards when I would have to decide as to what to stay up for.

Many’s the time I thanked my God for letting me live in the only sensible time zone that allowed me to catch my favorite programs, and even one special show a week, instead of those other awful zones keeping people up until 11 for their prime time viewing. What would I do, I thought to myself, if I lived in South Carolina or New York City and was not allowed to see such amazing detective comedies?

Post college I have lived almost solely in the Eastern Time Zone and have come to dearly love it. Really, seven is way too early to start a television regiment, and being a big boy I don’t mind staying up late to finish up the good programming.

This week I am visiting my parents in Oklahoma and am back to the old Central Time Zone. Not staying long enough to move my watch back an hour I am perpetually thinking I’m late, or that it is later in the day than it actually is. This is not always a horrid thing as I have been helping my father with some work. He starts his day at a quarter to seven and eats his lunch at the ungodly hour of 11 AM. But to my glorious Eastern brain, that’s a quarter to 8 and the much more mundane luncheon time of straight up noon.

Ah, but here’s the rub. Tonight I sat with great anticipation for My Name is Earl and the best comedy on TV otherwise known as The Office, while catching a rerun of The Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Tick Tock Tick Tock, I waited and waited through the political jokes and barbs. At 7:45 I began searching through the channel guide looking for NBC and thus the correct channel for my television fix.

Ahhhhhhh! The Office is already halfway through! How can this be?

Damn you Central Time Zone and you’re early prime time arrangements. Of course, my show was nearly over as The Office starts at 7:30 in Oklahoma instead of 8:30 like the rest of the bloody world.

I knew there was some reason I moved and have never came back.

Lost: Season Three, Episode Five – “The Cost of Living”

lost the cost of living The Revelations:

Desmond understands that the Pearl station can be used to communicate with the Others
It was Ben’s spinal x-ray in the previous episode
The whole purpose of capturing Jack was so that he would operate on Ben
Mr. Eko is one bad mother, until he dies.

The Plot: Mr. Eko awakens from his coma to find his dead priest of a brother telling him to confess. He rushes through the jungle to find him, or rather the body in the plane, only to find it empty. He is looked upon by the big black smoke but it runs away when Eko flashes his knife. At least for a moment. Eko eventually catches up to his spirit brother only to say that he will not confess. He feels everything he has done has been for a purpose and he does not feel guilty.

The big black smoke appears again, and beats the living crap out of Eko, eventually killing him. While doing so the smoke appears kind of like a big animal which leads to questions about the smoke possibly having formed into Eko’s brother and perhaps other mysterious animals on the island.

Meanwhile, The Others are playing nice to Jack, but Jack isn’t quite ready to accept them as pals. It starts with a stroll with Ben to Colleen’s funeral and ends with Ben admitting that Jack’s capture was all a ruse to get him on their side so that he would be willing to operate on his spinal tumor.

Later Juliet talks with Jack asking him to please do the operation all the while a video tape plays with her holding up signs reading her displeasure with Ben and that Jack should operate, but only to kill him.

The Flashback: Keeping with the Eko-centricity of the episode, the flashback gave further details of Eko’s past. Mainly Eko involves himself in terrible deeds to help his brother and feeling no remorse for it.

The Rating: ***1/2
The flashbacks, though important to understanding Mr. Eko, were kind of boring. Watching him kill the gangsters in the church was cool, but overall the back story was way too long and only served to say that Eko isn’t sorry for the life he has lived.

The long trek to Pearl was also dull. However, the second half of the show really kicked into high gear. Who the crap is the guy with the patch? Are all the mysterious things we’ve seen thus far really the big black smoke in disguise? Will Jack make friendly with Ben and save him? Or will he hook up with Juliet and kill? Or is the whole murder plot just another Other misdirect? Very cool stuff and super exciting.

House: Season Three, Episode Five – “Fools for Love”

house fools for love

Originally written on November 1, 2006.

The Lead In: A young, mixed race, married couple are finishing up dinner in a diner when the diner is robbed. Playing the hero, the young man attacks the robbers and wins only to find his wife lying on the floor unable to breathe.

The Plot: Thinking the wife, Tracy (Jurnee Smolett) could be having an infection that only shows up when she is active; Foreman puts her on the treadmill. Even though she complains of abdominal pains, and the husband, Bobby (Scott Rinker) screams, Foreman makes her continue running. Soon the husband has similar pains and, as it turns out, has the same illness.

Tracy later has a hallucination that Bobby’s pill-popping racist father is in the hospital telling her to leave Bobby alone, and for Bobby to not touch the girl as he begins to break his arm. From the hallucination, she goes into a coma.

The team eventually decides that they need to do a biopsy of Tracy’s brain stem, but they need Bobby’s permission to do so. There is much discussion of the ethics behind this, because Bobby may grant permission to do so simply because it could help cure him. It is decided that Wilson may do the asking as he has a way with people. Bobby refuses the biopsy, afraid of the risks, and decides that they should do it on him. The problem is that he does not yet have those symptoms and would have to go off meds to do so.

A biopsy isn’t needed as Bobby’s intestines begin to rot and a new diagnosis is given. It turns out that the two lovers are related and Bobby’s dad isn’t so racist after all. In fact, he is Tracy’s father as well and the illness is related to the incest.

Oooh.

The subplot: On one of his clinic stints, House ticks off a patient (David Morse) who calls House on his perpetual rudeness. In retribution, House gives the patient a rectal thermometer and leaves work before it is extracted.

The patient raises crap with Cuddy who tries to make House apologize. House refuses and ticks the patient off even more. Turns out the patient is actually Detective Tritter who nails House for speeding at the end of the episode. Well, speeding and drug possession, for carrying his pills without a prescription. The episode ends with House being arrested.

The Subplot Part II: House notices Wilson chatting up a pretty nurse and automatically suspects they are dating. This irritates House because a) House is alarmed that Wilson will screw up another relationship or b) House fears Wilson will wind up in a happy relationship and not need him anymore.

Much betting goes on between House and Foreman as to the actual nature between Wilson and the nurse until it is disclosed that it is Foreman who is dating the woman.

The rating: ***
This episode seemed a little off to me. The actual patients seemed to take a bigger back seat to the internal bickering and subplots. The incest conclusion seemed more tabloid than usually allowed on the show, and in the end, I didn’t particularly care about the patients at all.

The whole Detective Tritter arrests House plot should prove very interesting though.

The excuse: I watched the episode after having driven some 600 miles to my parent’s house. Watching with them is an interesting experience as they tend to talk loudly through the proceedings. That and the exhaustion made my viewing experience a little lax and most assuredly has an effect on this review.

Lost: Season Three, Episode Four – “Every Man For Himself”

New Revelations:

Desmond sees the future
Sawyer did time in prison
Jack, Kate, and Sawyer are on a second, smaller island

Plot:

Desmond is the new Locke.

At the beginning of the episode, we see him approach Claire and tell her that she needs to move while he fixes her roof. Claire and Charlie look at the roof but see no problems with it. Desmond then borrows a golf club from a character we haven’t seen before and creates a big giant pole with it. The club is at the top and has an electrical wire attached to it, stretching to the sand below.

Towards the end of the episode, Hurley and Desmond are talking, and Desmond asks Hurley to step back just as the storm hits. Claire, Charlie, and the baby are soaked under the roof and a bolt of lightning strikes the golf club, causing damage to itself but no one else.

I say again, Desmond is the new Locke.

The second island is the new hatch. Each season there is a single mystery that captures our attention for the duration. Last season it was the hatch and those numbers, this season it will be the second island.

In captivity we see the Others dragging a very injured Colleen past Sawyer and Kate. Sawyer uses this distraction to plan a means of escape. He uses his oddball food distributor to create a puddle of water outside the cage, hoping someone will step in it allowing him to use the electrocution device to knock out an Other and him to escape.

Ben, having watched this plan on the video, comes to Sawyer, and allows him to try the plan, but the electrocution has been turned off. Ben then beats Sawyer and drags him away. Inside several Others strap Sawyer down and stab a needle into his heart.

When Sawyer awakens Ben shakes a rabbit to the point of death. He tells Sawyer that the rabbit had the same heart injections, which stops the heart beating when it gets too excited. Sawyer now has a heart monitor and is told that if his rate goes above 140 he will die. It is also threatened that if Sawyer tells Kate about any of it, she will be given the same treatment.

Meanwhile, Juliet asks Jack (who is forced now to watch cartoons) to help Colleen, as she is dying. Jack tries to heal her, but she is too far gone, and without a defibrillator, he can do nothing but watch her die.

This displeases Colleen’s husband, Pickett, who rushes outside and beats Sawyer to a pulp. He repeatedly asks Kate if she loves Sawyer and only stops the beating when she admits she does.

Inside Jack is handcuffed to the table holding the dead Colleen until Juliet frees him. While there, Jack asks about the X-rays he saw on his way in. It appears this person’s spine has a large cancer on it, and Jack asks who it is he is supposed to save. (In next week’s preview, it appears it will be Ben.)

Outside, Kate learns that she can escape her cage by climbing through the bars at the top. She does so against Sawyer’s wishes and then attempts to free Sawyer. He begs her not to and tells her to run. They argue over Kate’s “love” while Sawyer continues to refuse to tell her what happened to him. In the end, Kate climbs back into the cage.

Later, Ben takes Sawyer to the top of a mountain where he explains to Sawyer that the heart problem was a lie conceived to make Sawyer obedient. He then takes Sawyer to the top of the mountain and shows him another island. That island is the one where all the survivors are, while he is being held on this smaller “Alcatraz.”

The flashback sequence consisted of Sawyer being in prison for one of his cons. While there a woman shows up claiming she has had Sawyer’s child. Sawyer feigns disinterest but later proves he has a heart.

Sawyer also learns another convict has ten million dollars stashed away. Sawyer earns this man’s trust enough to learn where the money is and then uses this information to buy his way out of prison. By telling the feds where it is, they release him early and apparently give him part of it in return. This money he has deposited into a band for his daughter.

Rating: ****

The Sawyer heart injection was one of the most intense moments of the series. This season they’ve been making the Others out to be decent, if terribly mysterious folks, and this moment put them right back to total evil territory.

I was quite relieved when it turned out to be fake as I was already tired of the monitor. It was a good gag to have the warning beep go off when Kate was changing clothes, but then to have the monitor register the same amount when Sawyer was getting beaten was ludicrous. I began to fear they would be using this device continuously throughout the series, and I knew that would be quite irritating.

Desmond becoming some sort of mystic psychic is quite interesting. I hope it doesn’t diminish Locke’s role as the same, but his character could prove to be quite fascinating.

Jack starting to help the Others as the doctor could go either way for me. It kind of ticked me off at first, because I felt that Jack would be so pissed off at them by now that he’d use it as a bargaining chip. But the doctor in him seems to be winning, and perhaps he is beginning to feel no other choice but to cooperate. We’ll see how it goes in the upcoming weeks.

I was reminded during the preview that they have actually only been on the island for two months. Being the third year for viewers it is easy to forget the actual timeline is much shorter, making the situation slightly less desperate.

Overall I am still growing tired of the constant tension and begin to wish there was a conclusion coming. However, the show still has me hooked and the tension sure is exciting.

Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip: Season 1, Episode 6 – “The Wrap Party”

studio 60

I haven’t watched Saturday Night Live in probably ten years. I pretty much stopped watching television in college, and when I started a TV routine again, SNL wasn’t included in my lineup. This goes for most late-night TV, actually, as I usually hit the bed fairly early, or when I don’t it isn’t due to watching television. As I write this David Letterman plays in the living room and I realize it has been as many years since I’ve watched him.

I say this because I believe that Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip is the best new show on television. Scratch that, it is the best show on television period. And I’m sure I’m not getting half the inside jokes.

I mean I realize that it is a behind-the-scenes look at a SNL-type show complete with a Lorne Green look-a-like, but other than that, if there are insider jokes I certainly don’t get them. But still, it is a darn good show. I love the comedy, the drama, and the extensive cast.

It’s even made me start liking Matthew Perry, and I hate Matthew Perry.

There has been a lot of talk about Aaron Sorkin and how the show is similar to his other shows, but having never watched any of his other shows, I wouldn’t know. What I do know is it has great dialogue, contains a lot more story than an hour show has any right to have, and is the best freaking show on TV.

Plot: A continuation of last week’s episode beginning with the show-within-the-shows conclusion, and a wrap party on set. Danny is still out to set up Matt with some women to make him forget Harriet. His choices are three struggling bimbo actresses who can’t grasp the concept of Matt writing for the show and not wanting to star but are quickly distracted by the real stars.

Tom’s parents arrive and it is apparent that his father does not approve of him living in Hollywood or being part of such a thing as a television show. They also apparently have never heard the classic Abbot and Costello sketch, “Who’s on First.”

Jordan asks Harriett to be her friend (as she seems to not have any) and to get her an autographed ball from her baseball-playing boyfriend. The two do become closer, but alas the boyfriend hits on Jordan.

An elderly gentleman wanders backstage and Cal spends his time trying to determine who he is. As it turns out the man was a World War II veteran and a writer for the original comedy show that worked in Studio 60, but only got one sketch on air before he was blacklisted.

Simon takes Matt to a comedy club to hear a popular black artist, as he feels the show is discriminatory for not having any black writers. The comic tells lame black vs. white jokes and both men are angered by this. They remain in the bar and Simon relays his history of growing up in the ghetto and his desire to pull other young men like himself out of the mire.

Another comic gets on stage and completely bombs, though his material is smart and sophisticated. He is promptly offered a writing job at Studio 60.

Best moment: The ending with Matt, Danny, and Cal talking to the elderly gentleman about the old times. It was sentimental and sweet, but I’m an old sap.

Rating: ***1/2
This episode was a little schmaltzy and not nearly as funny as previous ones. But it has some good dialogue and I really enjoyed watching Jordan try to make friends and Tom working things out with his parents.

Highlights:

Tom giving his dad a vinyl copy of “Who’s on First.” Again schmaltzy, and again I’m a sap.
Matt getting frustrated with the hot chicks. “When you say you write the show, what does that mean?”
Harriett on last week’s near kiss: “I nearly had a Matt relapse, but I’m fine now.”

The Office: Season 3, Episode 5 – “Initiation”

the office - initiation
Plot: Having been hired as a permanent employee, Ryan decides he needs more experience as a sales rep. Dwight is the top salesman in the office and as such Ryan asks him to take him on a sales call.

Dwight decides instead of an actual call he will create a fraternity-like initiation, and takes Ryan to his family farm. There he lectures him about planting seeds, leaves him in the middle of the field, and quizzes him inside a barn. Dwight’s cousin, Mose, runs around wearing the word “fear” on his chest. Eventually, Dwight declares the two must fight, as Ryan needs to cast out “fear.”

After Ryan runs out, Dwight takes him on an actual sales call, where they both fail miserably. Upset, Ryan chunks raw eggs at the building and Dwight joins in.

In Stamford Jim and Karen fight over a squeaky chair.

Back at the main office, Jan is getting sick of Michael’s work ethic and asks Pam to give a report on what he does all day. Pam is only able to write down two items: Imitates Cosby, and Waited in Line for Pretzel.

The pretzel comes from the free pretzels that the office gives away once a year and is a big hit amongst staff members.

As the show closes Jim calls Pam accidentally expecting her to already be gone, intending to get the automated menu as he forgot Kevin’s extension. The two exchange a friendly, awkward conversation before being interrupted by the returning Dwight and Ryan.

Funniest moment: The initiation questions: “What is Michael’s greatest fear?” “What is the Dharma Initiative.” Watching Mose prepare for a fight was brilliant.

Rating: ****
Once again The Office proves to be the funniest show on television, with a heart. It was nice to see Ryan get some screen time and Dwight’s initiation was priceless. He’s so incredibly awkward and dumb and unintentionally hilarious. Yet I’ve known so many just like him. Pam got great laughs keeping tabs on Michael.

The show tends to be ending in a sweet moment, and the phone conversation was an especially nice touch. I think we’ve all been in relationships like that, where there is so much to say, and yet no one says anything. I both hope Pam and Jim wind up together and hope they stay apart for years to come.

Best gags:

Pam accidentally renting the zombie flick 28 Days Later when what she wanted was the mushy Sandra Bullock comedy, 28 Days.
Ryan to Dwight when Dwight mentions that the temp agency could have sent him anywhere: “I think about that every day.”
The opening gag where Dwight quizzes Ryan with brain teasers and Ryan answers them all correctly, often before the entire teaser is spoken.
Jim singing “Lovefool” to the annoyance of Karen and the delight of Andy.

My Name is Earl: Season 2, Episode 5 – “Van Hickey”

my name is earl van hickey

Numbers Scratched Off: #50 – Kicked Tom out of the band
#51 – Slept with Ralph’s mom

Funniest moment: Randy and Earl dancing in a strobe light to “Mr. Roboto”

Plot: Earl makes amends with Tom, an elderly gentleman they kicked out of the band (consisting of Randy, Earl, Ralph, and Tom) just before their one and only performance. Seems Tom was making all the ladies a little weirded out.

Tom will only forgive Earl if he lets him back in the band. So they get the band back together only to have it disbanded again when it slips out that Earl slept with Ralph’s mom. The night after the concert Earl’s date fell unconscious and Randy’s mom was there and willing and…well one thing led to another.

The only way Ralph feels Earl can amend this problem is to let Randy kill him. He’s serious too and places a large handgun against Earl’s temple ready to do the deed. Earl manages to talk him out of it by vowing to marry Ralph’s mom.

They marry and everything goes well until Ralph realizes the marriage has not been consummated. Earl digs everything about the marriage – the home-cooked meals, the conversation, and the house cleaning – except for the idea of sleeping with Ralph’s mom.

Once again killing is threatened, but Earl is saved by Tom who begins a relationship with Ralph’s mom after the band played their second gig.

Rating: ***
Ralph is a new character to me. I suspect he’s been around in other episodes, but he felt kind of tossed in for the gag, and as such kind of knocked the appeal of the show down a notch. If I see him more, I may warm up to him.

The band gag was kind of lame as was the concept of sleeping with/marrying the old lady. Jason Lee pulls it off as usual with his abundant charm, and I can’t have anything but love for Ethan Suplee. There were a couple of great gags and that more than made up for the less-than-stellar plot

Best Gags:

Joy playing “Red Rover” with some elderly folks at a home (which she is doing to help her pending court case). A lady with a walker is called and it takes her ten minutes to get across to the other side.

Randy to some groovy chicks: “We’re rock stars. You can tell from my rock star pants. See all the zippers. Guess what’s in this zipper – licorice.”
Groovy chick: Maybe I’ll see what’s in the other zippers.”
Randy: “More licorice”
Earl on sleeping with Ralph’s mom: “She wasn’t young, but she was conscious.”

Lost: Season Three, Episode Three – “Further Instructions”

lost further instructions Well I am back in the Lost fold – looking forward to new episodes, mesmerized by the mysteries – and once again am not writing a play-by-play, but more of a gut response to the episode. For the detailed plot, go to Wikipedia’s episode guide, and don’t worry, if it isn’t updated now, it soon will be.

Locke is back – bloody and mute, but back nonetheless. It is amazing how central he is to the show. He is really the heart of everything that goes on, and the first two episodes without him felt empty because of it.

Luckily the third episode of the same number of seasons was very Locke-centric. Even the flashbacks were about him – and what flashbacks they were. It seems our faithful Locke was not always the nice guy and spent some time (pre-box job in a wheelchair, but post-give internal organs to dad) with a group of marijuana growers.

I liked Locke finding solace in a commune-type atmosphere, and even the pot didn’t bother me for he’s shown knowledge of psychedelics on the island, but the undercover cop stuff seemed a little trite. Especially the conclusion of the flashback with Locke pointing his rifle at the cop, but ultimately letting him go. I was really hoping that the guy would get hurt, not as a cop, but as a friend of Locke. It would have tied up better with the whole ‘everybody who follows me gets hurt’ deal with the rest of the episode.

Was it me or was the big guy growing the marijuana Mr. Friendly? I swear it was, but I’m lousy with faces.

The polar bear is back – that’s cool. I’ve been wondering about those bears since the first season. It is still a bit peculiar that no one has seen one since it seems to live not so far from the hatch – or where the hatch used to be.

There is a freaking hole where the hatch used to be! Was that cool!

Hurley is back and I think he’s now a polar bear. I mean the bear was chasing them, then Locke threw his knife at the rustling and suddenly there’s Hurley, but no bear was around. I mean, he kind of looks like a bear so maybe he is one.

I’m now hoping for a Locke/Eko showdown with the others.

The whole Locke in the hut o’mystery dream sequence was a little too conspiracy theory to me. I’m not much for overt symbolism and the airport full of all the characters was just too much. I’m sure lots of fans will slow-motion the scene and come up with wild theories as to why each character was where – Hurley is behind the counter, what does that mean? – and I’ll probably read them, but I haven’t much interest in the mess right now.

Mother freaking Desmond is now some psychic! I loved the mysterious mention of Locke’s speech followed by denial followed by it coming true.

Very cool.

Lost: Season Three, Episode Two – “The Glass Ballerina”

lost the glass ballerina

In lieu of giving a scene-by-scene run down of this week’s episode, I am going to point you to Wikipedia’s episode guide, which gives the plot details in full. Instead, I’ll give some brief feedback on what I thought about the episode.

What a difference a week makes. For last week’s season premiere, I was waiting with bated breath. All summer I couldn’t wait until the new season premiered. This week I hardly gave it a thought, and nearly forgot about it entirely.

I have to say that I am finally starting to tire of the entire program. This has nothing to do with this week’s episode, for it was a good one, but rather I am being worn down by the perpetual non-reveal. Every time they give us a hint at what it might all be about, they add in another half dozen mysteries. I can’t really blame the show for this, for if they gave us the hard facts the show would be over. It’s just beginning to feel like the perpetual state of blue ball that was life before love and I’m finding myself ready for some celibacy.

This may pass, as it has been a rough week personally and my general malcontent may have soured the show for me for the moment. I’ll continue to watch and we may find that next week I’m right back into the fold.

The two big reveals tonight were some background information on “Henry Gale” who is now known by his real name, Benjamin Linus. He tells Jack that he has lived on the island his entire life, posing a lot more questions about who the Others really are, and what their purpose on the island actually is. The other reveals also involved Ben as he informs Jack that if he cooperates he will be set free and sent home. To make Jack believe he shows him a television set and plays a piece of last year’s World Series with the Red Sox winning the pennant.

Big reveals for sure, but again it only reveals enough so that we ask even more questions about what’s going on. I have always felt that Lost can only conclude in ridiculousness. I cannot fathom how they will manage to end the series in a manner that will satisfy everyone and not be cheesy. I tend to hope they end it sooner rather than later as it will only become more impossible as the series continues.

I very much enjoyed the Sun backstory with her cheating on Jin with Jae Lee. Sun has been one of the few characters without a miserable back story and we begin to see her past is none too sunny.

It’s also interesting to see Sawyer be sweet to Kate without any of his obnoxiousness dirtying it up. It is as if seeing Kate in a situation she can’t get out of, polishes his feelings for her.

The one scene that bothered me was when Sawyer gets the gun off of the one guy, but puts it back down when Juliet threatens Kate. It is the second time Kate’s helplessness has turned the upper hand on the castaways, and in this case, it felt almost false. If Sawyer had really had the rifle it seems more like him to have started shooting and sorting it out afterwards. But maybe that’s just me and my callousness.

Again it was a good episode and I enjoyed it immensely. I hope that my feelings are fleeting and that once my personal life is sorted out a little more, I’ll continue to love the show. I do wish they’d give us something solid that we could lean upon instead of this continual barrage of whispers in the dark.

The Office: Season Three, Episode Four – “Grief Counseling”

the office grief counseling

Originally posted on October 13, 2006.

My all-time favorite show is Cheers. One of the things I loved about the show was its pre-title gag. It often had nothing to do with the plot of the episode but was a hilarious way to start things off. One of my favorites had someone tapping their pencil which was followed by a few more tappings which morphed into the whole bar singing “We Will Rock You.” Silly – yes. Hilarious – absolutely.

This week’s Office episode started with a similar bit of nonsense having Michael do the old walking down the stairs, while really just squatting behind some boxes bit. The real gag was Jan asking him to get her some coffee in the “warehouse” and watching Michael crawl to the break room to get it. Dumb – yes. Perfect comedy – absolutely. Especially when Michael says he’s like “Bette Midler in For the Boys.”

We’re back to two offices in unrelated events, but they managed to keep both stories cohesive and funny. Stamford keeps getting the smaller, more gag-y stories, while Scranton gets actual plot lines, but this makes sense since we know Scranton better.

Stamford evolved around the flirtations of Karen and Jim. It starts with Jim being asked to essentially babysit Karen to ensure she finishes a task. Karen obviously miffed, rails on Jim about some potato chips when the vending machine is out of her preferred kind. Jim turns it into a flirty mission by spending the rest of the day making calls to find the chips.

In Scranton, Michael’s old boss, Ed Truck, has passed away through a drunken decapitation and he spends his day disrupting work to deal with his own grief.

In one particularly fine moment, Michael laments that they take a day off to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. and “he didn’t even work here.” Instead of a day off, Michael and Dwight begin discussing a full-sized statuary tribute that turns into a raging robot which Dwight designs a six-foot extension cord for, so that it can’t attack.

Later Michael brings the staff into the conference room so that they can discuss their grief. Michael starts by saying that it “feels like my heart has been dropped into a bucket of boiling tears and someone else is hitting my soul in the crotch with a frozen sledgehammer and a third guy is punching me in the griefbone, but no one hears me because I’m terribly, terribly alone.”

Dwight recollects that he was actually a twin as a fetus, but he absorbed the other person and feels stronger for it.

They then pass around a ball to talk about any moment in their past when they were grieved but this quickly turns into a mockery as the staff recounts moments from such films as Million Dollar Baby, the Lion King, and, Weekend at Bernie’s.

In order to restore order, Toby tells Michael that death is part of life and recalls a bird that crashed into the door that morning. Michael runs to rescue the bird, going as far as to give it water in the break room before finally admitting it is dead.

Everybody then has a funeral for the bird in the parking lot before burning it in its final resting Kleenex box. Pam manages to say some very touching words obviously meant to comfort Michael. Similar to how Jim spoke kindly to him at the convention Pam now shows her own kind soul as the episode ends.