The Office – Michael’s replacement

If you’ve been keeping up at all with the news coming out of Scranton, PA, you knew that Will Ferrell was coming to pay a visit to The Office last night. Is he riding in to replace Michael Scott, or merely showing up to help send his friend Steve Carell off? So far that’s unclear, and despite the various rumors circulating about that I’d prefer to think that it remains undetermined. Who cares what Ferrell’s here for so long as he’s here?

I was really excited when the camera spotted him at the bar for the first time, sitting across from Michael. And the opening didn’t disappoint … nothing major transpired — an animal Olympics? — but I got the distinct impression that much of that scene was ad libbed by the two comedians. Perhaps, for instance, the animal Olympics line? And that’s exactly what I was hoping for.

But the big question was how Ferrell’s character, Deangelo Vickers, would be introduced to the office, and how the employees would take to him. Apparently Deangelo is starting work immediately, and for maybe the first time we saw Dunder Mifflin employees paying their boss some respect. Well, not so much respect as sycophancy.

It was pretty gross. Funny was Kevin’s toupee; I suppose it’s as good a time as any to start from scratch, even if everyone else in the office knows that Kevin’s bald. I loved when he asked Deangelo what he thought about bald people.

Jim and Pam were beyond uncomfortable to watch trying to get in good with the new boss by pimping out CeCe. It was painful to listen to them, and I loved how Deangelo finally told them to shut up. No kidding that she’d be the star of a show about kids I couldn’t care less about.

Deangelo and Michael butting heads over something as insignificant as the way Erin answers the phone was a cute way to show how hard it will be for Michael to let go. And I think it was absolutely done with the right employee … Erin’s just dumb enough to have initially assumed that Deangelo wanted her to answer the phone “Dunder Mifflin, this is….” and then to get so flustered that she hung up on a caller without saying anything. That worked.

What didn’t was once Michael disintegrated into his baby self, tossing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches around the office because he knew that Deangelo had a peanut allergy. I sincerely hope that Steve Carell’s not going to exit stage left from the series while in the midst of a hissy fit, because that will be a complete destruction of everything his character’s built these last seven years.

I was very surprised that even Darryl got into the kiss-up act, but the worst, by far, was Andy. That he inadvertently became the office funny guy was great, but not where it went from there. That it devolved into him pouring hot coffee down his pants and drinking soap was as far from funny as things could have gotten.

And I guess I was the most disappointed in Will Ferrell. I’ll definitely give him time to get comfortable here — and I remain a huge fan — but he seemed really mean last night. In a strange way he was a cross between Michael and Idris Elba’s Charles Miner, but he seemed to enjoy being cruel, something unlike either character that I saw in him. Everyone needs their own flavor, but does Ferrell want his to be mean?

Meanwhile, I love knowing that there’s a surefire way to call Michael back after he leaves, should we ever need him … a clarion call of sorts. As he said to Dwight: “I’d come anywhere to see a turtle.” I’m going to keep that one in my back pocket for later.

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Apr 15, 2011 @ 16:00 EST5EDT