The Office – Why didn’t they just call and cancel Michael’s limo?

Or even just not have it sitting and waiting outside for him, double-parked on New York City streets, for an indefinite amount of time. It certainly seemed as if his limo was the only one there, and I doubt that the CEO wouldn’t have had a car to take him home, so there was something weird going on that allowed Michael to sneak back in after running from the shareholder meeting.

But either way, this was a rather weird and off-the-wall episode. So let’s pull it back for a moment and start at the beginning. Is it Earth Day? I didn’t think so, which confused me at first, and then I noticed the little green peacock in the corner of my screen. And then I realized that The Office is the first show I watch on NBC all week. As well as the penultimate one, so I have no idea what that was about. But a cold-open with Dwight as Recyclops, surfing through the years (and receptionists) was truly back to form. I can’t believe they brought in Ronni (Dale Raoul) just for that! But was Ryan at the desk in the right chronological order?

There were some interesting developments in the office itself, although I found it curious that no one questioned Jim’s authority when he was #2, but now that he’s co-#1 he’s weak? Anyway, it’s not surprising that Ryan was undermining Jim’s authority via e-mail, but I do find it somewhat frustrating that Jim (well, I guess really John Krasinski) doesn’t really emote very much. I suppose I never noticed it before because that wasn’t who Jim was supposed to be, but now he needs to have a side of him that actually cares — about Pam, the coming baby, his new position. Where’s that guy hibernating?

Anyway, I enjoyed someone finally getting on Ryan about actually doing some work, as well as Jim following through and getting him to agree to do it (though I’m not convinced that he actually did). But isn’t sticking him in a closet the wrong move? Jim could have locked him in with hard copies of the data, and nothing else, and all Ryan would have to do is sit on the floor with his phone, or his iPod, or a thread of his hair, and not do any work. And locking him in the closet a) gives him his own office, as opposed to everyone else other than Michael and Jim, and b) keeps him out of sight, so really no one would know what he was doing. I think Jim was more trying to disable Ryan from undermining him further, as opposed to anything else. But smart not trying to fire him — it would have looked really bad when Michael returned and reinstated him the next day.

The shareholder meeting in New York was really ridiculous. There’s nothing about the way that meeting was run that makes any sense, either for the type of meeting it was, or for the size and type of company that Dunder Mifflin is. In fact, it was so absurd that it’s not even worth getting into, save for the fact that I get that it was structured as such in order to give Michael a stage upon which to be himself. I can’t believe he thought he was riding off to glory, especially after everything that happened last week with the company’s uncertain future. And did David Wallace not warn everyone about Michael?

What was fun to see was Andy pushing Oscar to stand up and say something. My wife kept repeating that Oscar has some upward momentum coming at work, a promotion or a move to another department where he’d be of more use. Clearly he’s one of the few competent business people at the company, at least in Scranton. So I don’t know if I was therefore even more disappointed that he failed to voice his opinions to the executives when Michael brought him into the hospitality suite. One of the skills required as you move up the ranks is telling truth to power, as dumb a cliche as that is. Oscar may have blown his only chance.

And despite my questioning why they had the opportunity for it, it was funny to see Michael rounding Dwight, Andy, and Oscar up on his dash to the limo, and their collectively “stealing” it to take them home. Although, one call from dispatch….

I also think Oscar is a good monkey-in-the-middle between Andy and Dwight, and I’d love to see the three together more. Did you hear when Dwight asked “How is he gonna have grandkids?” There’s just such an ease to the banter between Andy and Dwight, so with someone else in the mix, you get one-liners like that. I’d definitely love to get more of them.

And a suggestion to the producers, for this season’s DVD set: an extra inside Creed and Ryan’s session on Creed’s troubles with the ladies. I’d love to hear what he was saying.

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Nov 20, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT