FOX kills The Office

I’m sure if I were a fan of the FOX series featured so prominently on last night’s episode of The Office I’d feel differently right now, but as it stands I’m not. So the show’s major role in the story on last night’s episode of The Office seriously turned me off. And was NBC really okay with the gang going crazy for a rival network’s show? Are things that pathetic at NBC (a rhetorical question) that there aren’t any in-house shows with the same type of fervent following?

The cold open was lukewarm for me. With bsgfan2003’s theory in mind, for a minute I thought we’d discover that Timothy Olyphant’s Danny was the Scranton Strangler. Instead we got to watch Michael collect some of the gravel that the car chase had ridden over. Crazy exciting!

Is Michael versus Gabe going to be a factor in Steve Carell’s swan song plot line? The thought hadn’t occurred to me until I sat down to write my review, but the theme’s been lying in the weeds of late — first Michael getting upset that Darryl went to Gabe with an idea, and now Michael’s childish behavior at Gabe’s apartment. Might the Sabre interloper muscle Michael out fifteen episodes from now? Or maybe Michael will finally throw his hands up and walk. I don’t like Gabe, but if Michael’s leaving ends up not requiring Holly (Amy Ryan) to return, I’d be on board.

Erin’s need for Michael’s approval, and the reveal last night that she sees him as a father figure, is super creepy. Erin went from some sweet, innocent girl to someone who clearly has really serious emotional problems. I don’t think Michael’s the guy anyone wants helping her through them.

I’m enjoying the relationship that Andy and Darryl are developing. Once again Andy came to Darryl for advice — I’m not fully over the thought that Darryl’s increased visibility might be the start of something big for his character. But even if it’s not, he and Andy make for great friends. On the other hand, Andy was an idiot for listening to Ryan and trying the seahorse virility powder. Doesn’t everyone realize how dumb that guy is?

The real stars of the night (returning to prominence for the first time in an inordinately long time) were the trio of Pam, Jim, and Dwight. Dwight quieting Cece was cute, and I loved his line about the Schrute family — the youngest child always raises the others. The rest of us have been doing it wrong for all these years!

I loved seeing Pam whoring Jim out in exchange for Dwight’s help getting Cece back on a good sleeping schedule. That’s what I might have imagined, had I had the ability to do so, for a post-baby Jim and Pam — their baby working with their existing roles in the office structure, not branching them out in new, and unfunny, directions. Jim was still rusty, but Pam trying to convince Dwight that she’d always considered them close friends was priceless.

And, as a parent, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Dwight’s soothing remedy: tying a block of congealed fat to a string, attaching the string to the baby’s foot, and sticking the fat in the baby’s mouth … I know, right?

What else made me laugh … Gabe’s sound-scopes (they reminded me of Ross’s keyboards on Friends), and Kevin wanting to eat his pigs-in-a-blanket in a blanket. So I guess FOX didn’t kill it dead … but it didn’t help.

“Of all feelings to base a show around … glee? Thirst; now that’s a show I’d watch.” – Dwight to Angela

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Nov 12, 2010 @ 13:00 EST5EDT