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.

“Movie Monday” is an apparent office staple where the office watches thirty minutes of a movie each week. It started with some official training videos, morphed into random medical videos, and has now moved into such Hollywood fare as Varsity Blues.

Of course, Angela doesn’t approve, but everyone else seems to enjoy the half hour of non-work.

Jan comes in during the middle and breaks up the party, yelling at Michael for doing something so obviously non-productive. Angela takes this moment to decide Michael will run the office into the unemployment lines (possibly fueled by last week’s rumors that Stamford may be taking over the Straton branch. She corners Dwight in the break room and tells him that he deserves to run the office, not Michael.

Meanwhile, at the Stamford branch, the office plays Call of Duty religiously (ie while at work) and Jim sucks at it. This brings up some contention between the other members of the staff as they play on teams. Although it does bring a little flirtation from Karen.

Dwight secretly calls Jan and they meet at a restaurant. Dwight throws down on Michael, positions himself for a take-over, and seems to know way too much about Jan’s choice of clothes.

Jan calls Michael to inform him of the potential hostilities, and Michael uses this to pretend he has been demoted and that Dwight is now running the office. Dwight begins talking like a crazed dictator stating that only a few will remain in the office and makes a poorly conceived speech to the office prompting Jan to throw out this comment,

“I have this old vacuum that doesn’t work. Maybe if Dwight doesn’t work out we could make that the manager.”

Some new clothes are delivered to Pam that she ordered online and she gives a quick fashion show at lunch, but quickly puts back on her old sweater when Creed refuses to leave after obviously staring at her cleavage.

Eventually, Dwight insults Michaels’s car which causes him to blow the gag and let Dwight know he is still in charge. Dwight grovels and begs for his old job back and Michael agrees only after they “hug it out bitch.” Well and then Michael forces Dwight to wear a sign lettered “liar” and stand on a table.

Last week’s opener really got my hopes up for another stellar season of The Office. I was doubly looking forward to actually watching a full season from start to finish instead of sporadically catching episodes as I have done for the last two seasons. Unfortunately this week’s episode, “The Convention” failed to live up to my expectations. Oh certainly I’ll keep watching, but my dream of a perfect season has already died.

It starts off with a whiz-bang having Michael come in talking of adopting a child after having watched Angelina Jolie on Oprah. He quickly gave up the idea after learning the application process could cost upwards of $1,000 and the waiting list is a good eight months.

“I don’t even know if I’ll want a baby in eight months.”

After a bit of bartering, Pam and Michael agree to have a child together if both remain childless in thirty years.

“If I haven’t had a baby in ten years then you and I…”
“No, Michael.”
“In twenty years?”
“No, Michael.”
“In thirty years?”
“Ok.”

The rest of the episode centers around a paper convention pitting the Scranton office against the Stamford one, at least in Michael’s eyes. He is immediately jealous of the relationship that Jim has developed with Josh, the manager of the Stamford office, or as Michael says, “the poor man’s Michael Scott as he is known around my condo.”

Josh does get off a line that he would let Michael work as a salesman if his office absorbs the Scranton one. An interesting if mostly innocuous remark that may serve as a means to get Jim back into the company with the rest of the cast.

This is also one way to solve the whole two-offices dilemma. By holding a convention they can merge the two offices, making a more cohesive storyline than trying to keep up with multiple settings. Although certainly they can’t keep holding conventions and it still created two settings having a side plot involving Jan.

Jan has her first first-date in nine years with a cartoonist friend of Kelly’s, and Angela is upset at Dwight for leaving her for Philadelphia.

“Looks like someone took the slow train to Philly,” Angela jibes, “which translates to she’s a slut!”

The blind date goes poorly, but as a possible interesting sideline, Toby seems to have taken a shine to Pam, though is too shy to approach her about it.

In Philadelphia, the rest of the office tries to drum up business, while Michael invites everyone to a party back in his room. Nobody actually seems to come to the party except Jim who suddenly stops playing the prankster and is suddenly as kind to Michael as anyone ever has been. Even going as far as to admit he left Scranton because of Pam. It is as touching as it is weird to see somebody opening up to Michael.

The episode wasn’t bad, in fact, it had some very nice moments, and the writers definitely seem to be trying to create some interesting storylines. The line about the two offices merging may prove interesting fodder for later episodes, and the Pam, Jim, Toby triangle may also open up new drama. Some interesting ideas, but they also managed to slow the episode down. In trying to lay down some strands to expand the series, they bogged this particular episode down.

The show closes with its best gag: Michael turns on a black light only to expose many large stains on the bed. Dwight surmises that it is either “blood, urine, or semen.”

“God, I hope it’s urine,” Michael concludes.

Originally written on September 22, 2006.

You’ll notice tonight that I’m covering some TV shows step by step. For a while, I’ve been thinking about doing TV coverage episode by episode.  In time it could be a really cool database.

I have been watching the first season of The Sopranos and have hand-written plot lines for each of them, yet I haven’t gotten around to blogging them out. Tonight I decided to scribble notes for The Office and My Name is Earl. As you can see I have managed to get them here. It was a little difficult to determine how much I wanted to say. A simple plotline synopsis seems a little boring, but an actual review of each episode likewise seems boring and monotonous.

Fans of a show know what works. There is not a good reason to continually point out which actor does a good job, or what is annoying about a program. That leaves the plot and the best jokes. So that is what I’ll attempt to do. Give a rundown of exactly what happened adding my little thoughts here and there. We’ll see if it works, or if I manage to continue with it.

I started watching The Office last season. The trouble was I never could remember when it came on, so I only caught it sporadically. Over the summer I managed to figure out the time slot and catch most of the season’s episodes. Before the season had ended I did see the season finale ending with Jim finally telling Pam of his love and kissing her as the credits rolled. All summer I’ve waited for tonight to see exactly what Pam is going to do.

And here we are.

Jim transferred to Stamford and we got a few quick looks into how things work in another office. Jim has been promoted, but we quickly see that none of the employees like him. They certainly don’t take to his practical jokes (he puts Ed Helms’s calculator in some Jello, and Helms promptly has a total freak out), or his mugging for the cameras.

I’m not sure how Stamford is going to work out. Ed Helms is a brilliant edition and could create some wonderful comic moments, and the rest of the cast seems okay. They at least seem somewhat more normal than the Scranton bunch, and watching Jim try to find acceptance there could be very funny indeed. However, the overall cast is already almost too large, and adding an entirely new office may prove to be way too much for the series to hold. It seems highly difficult to handle plot lines for both offices which may mean Jim gets regulated to quick gags, which would ruin the show.

Who knows though, maybe he’ll work something out with Pam and move back to Scranton.

Which brings us to that relationship. Part of what made The Office work was the relationship between Pam and Jim. They have a great deal of chemistry, and the awkwardness between their obvious feelings for each other and their inability to do anything about it brought a nice bit of drama to the otherwise outrageousness.

Pam broke off the marriage and the relationship with Roy, though they had to keep all the food, now frozen. Roy doles it out at lunchtime. He seems to have had a rough go with it but promises he’ll get her back.

So now Pam and Jim could feasibly get back together. But as everybody knows, the will they, or won’t they aspect of a relationship is always the best part (in television at least). Just as Sam and Diane or David and Maddie. I hope they don’t ever get together. I hope Pam feels too hurt over the breakup and we’re treated to many seasons of not knowing if they’ll hook-up.

The bulk of the show dealt with Michael offending and then outing Oscar. Michael somehow felt that calling everyone “faggie” was appropriate. Oscar complained of this and confided in Toby that he is gay. Toby chastised Michael for being insensitive.

Michael immediately blabs to everyone in the office about Oscar’s homosexuality and gets mixed reactions.

Kevin thinks it is hilarious, Angela that it is disgusting (she says she tried to watch Will and Grace but was repulsed by it), Dwight doesn’t believe it (he’s not wearing women’s clothes) and Michael remains as obnoxious as ever.

Michael and Dwight form a mission to find out who else is gay, but have no idea how to do it. Dwight searches gay porn for possible clues and calls up Jim about purchasing that gaydar he talked about previously.

As tensions rise Michael calls an office meeting where he manages to enrage Oscar even more by raising more homophobic gossip. Ever endearing Michael attempts to smooth it out by embracing Oscar and even gives him a quick kiss on the lips (ever the follower, Dwight then jumps up for a kiss on the cheek.)

Hilariously, the episode ends with Dwight receiving his very own gay-dar from Jim (it is a portable metal detector in reality.) He quickly finds Oscar and runs it over his body, pleased when it beeps at Oscar’s crotchal region (in reality the belt buckle), but shocked to discover when it beeps at his own.

The show is back and in fine form. There were many laugh-out-loud moments and a few of the awkward, I can’t believe Michael just did that moment as well. The two offices could create more moments of hilarity or could cause the plots to be diluted. The Jim/Pam relationship is in flux once again and I’m crossing my fingers it will remain as such.