Not to besmirch the memory of Michael Scott or the talents of Steve Carell, but I think Robert California (and James Spader) has been exactly what The Office has needed for a few seasons now. I’ve always thought that half hour comedies have a very short life span. No matter how good they are, they eventually begin to feel stale, characters begin to transform into over exaggerated versions of themselves, and plots begin to repeat themselves. I think The Office was definitely suffering from all of these things in recent years. Spader is really knocking California out of the park, with just the right mixture of intimidation and complete insanity and bringing some freshness to the show.
Now, Andy as the manager I’m not quite as sold on. The great thing about Michael is that at the end of the day, he was competent, no matter how hard he tried to appear otherwise. I always loved the moments when he would prove that he was an amazing sales man. Everything we have seen from Andy over the years is complete incompetence, including losing several large clients. Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t looking for Michael’s replacement to be a clone of him, but I’m not sold as Andy in the position quite yet. At least California admitted that he picked Andy because of his underdog status. It will be interesting to see if the other characters can continue to rally around their hapless leader.
The bottom line is that I would love to be seeing more California. I’m not quite sure why the powers that be decided to push Spader away from the main group of characters by making Robert California the CEO of Sabre. I think I would have preferred to see him in the manager’s role, dealing more directly with the denizens of the office. The character is great and I’m afraid that he’s going to get lost in the shuffle during a lot of episodes. Is most of his screen time going to be wasted ordering Andy around? I can’t be the only one who would love to see him spar with Kelly, or flirt with Meredith, or see if he ends up hating Toby as much as Michael did. I fear we’re not ever going to see any of that, however.
I suppose I should comment on tonight’s episode itself. For the most part, I thought it was pretty good. I appreciated Jim’s manipulation of the hapless Andy. I enjoyed Andy really going for it, going through with the tattoo when no one thought he would. I especially liked Dwight in this episode, and his new strategy of waiting for Andy to implode. Will it last? Will he be able to stand idly by waiting for another chance? I think I’m willing to stick around and find out.
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Sep 29, 2011 @ 22:00 EST5EDT
I really liked Andy in this episode, and I thought it was a good story. Dwight cracked me up as well, and of course more Spader is always a good thing. That said, I thought they relied a bit too much on Kevin. He’s made me laugh a lot over the years, but this episode’s jokes involving him kind of fell flat, sorry to say.
I agree. More Spader. His interaction with other characters is hilarious. Andy is just tiresome and makes me reach for the remote.
Andy is just a slightly different version of Michael. Incompetent, awkward, and uncomfortable. The last episode just followed the same formula. The incompetent manager bumbles around yet somehow his stupidity pushes things so far that it all works out in the end. Yawn
The producers are playing is safe and sticking with the formula. Too bad. I’ve been very disappointed to find Spader just making cameo appearances. He is the fresh blood they needed. I was excited about the show.