The Office – “C” is for Kevin?

Who else was excited by the work return of Pam on last night’s episode of The Office? Hmm? Anyone?… Because I sure wasn’t.

Talk about boring. And predictable, because it figures that the only place the writers had in mind for Pam to go after having a baby was home to be with her (CC? Really?). Jim had his one “I miss my daughter” moment right after he came back from leave, and then moved on with his life as if he was neither married nor a father. So Pam’s choices are either going to be to go Jim’s route, or to become a stay-at-home mom. Because the new Office is absolutely anything but subtle. No work/family juggling for these folks. I hate to say it, but I think we might all be better off with Pam leaving for good.

The other “great” story of the night? Erin and Andy, and the mess Michael created during his and Erin’s Secretary’s Day lunch. I hate Erin in the first place, but I’d think Michael would be the perfect audience for her inanity. Her one good line was about not being able to keep up at her Express Taco Bell when it went Full. Sure, I laughed at her when she began to malfunction in the restaurant, but that wasn’t me enjoying so much as saying, “Sure; why not? How much dumber can this get?”

It would actually have been interesting for Erin to come back to the office and slaughter a couple of people before ending her own (and our) misery in a bloody mess that the employees would then commemorate in the parking lot, like with the dead bird in the box. In addition to her own life, she should have taken Meredith’s (using Pam’s breast pump? She’s gone from off-putting to plain disgusting), Ryan’s (need I explain?), and Gabe’s (Zach Woods) — he’s got to be the result of the following question theoretically posed in the writer’s room: “What’s the worst character addition we can make in this train wreck of a season?”

I’ve stacked the deck nice and neat, right? All bad, all the time. But let me tell you a little something about why this might have been the best episode of the entire season. It’s because of a little blue puppet known as Cookie.

Although their voices don’t match very well — and all of the imitations sucked — by appearances alone Kevin and Cookie Monster could be brothers. I wonder what took the writers so long to think of it, as well as what it was that happened recently to make them connect the dots. But whatever the reasons, I thought it was brilliant. It’s the little things that make shows like these shine like bright stars in the night sky. This was a painful episode, but the Cookie Monster plot was inspired.

Does it save a bad season? No. But it was a strong play. As was the shot of Dwight Purell-ing up in anticipation of milking Pam. Yowza!

“Is that the program where all those puppets live in the barrio? I love that show.” – Dwight on Sesame Street

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Apr 23, 2010 @ 09:00 EST5EDT