You flew too close to the sun my friends. You were up, up, up last week, and then splat. Oh well … nothing can take away from the fact that last week’s episode of The Office has now entered the pantheon of great ones from the show. Not even a mediocre attempt this week.
What I did like was that a lot of stories got their due last night, either continuing or concluding various threads of stories. The smoking printer was a good one from last week, and despite Andy not being a part of it this time, I’m curious to see where it goes. Will it bring Sabre down in a fiery heap?
Toby and Michael have a great pathetic/hate relationship, but they’re not ready for the big time of cold opening the show. Leave that hallowed ground to the great duo of Dwight and Jim, or if you must, a trio including Pam (who did a great job last week). But the radon test kit didn’t do it for me.
Although I’m not into Michael’s relationship with Donna (Amy Pietz), I did think his and Andy’s surveillance of her husband at the baseball game was really funny. Andy can be very in-your-face when not dealing with his own stuff, and his conversation with Donna’s husband really had me going, even while I wasn’t enjoying the reason for their scrutiny. Michael’s had too much pain in his life to do that to some other guy.
Dwight and Angela’s contract negotiations were very them, but very off-putting at the same time. I’m sure some people enjoyed the extreme circumstances they felt necessary to include, like if their child was born like Benjamin Button. For me it was a whole lot of noise.
What was funny was Dwight’s attempts at sperm sabotage. I didn’t even want to begin to explore the possibilities when Angela asked him “what had happened down there,” because it’s just too horrifying. Rainn Wilson has done some crazy stuff before, but I seriously hope that no one was injured during the filming this particular episode. That was nasty.
The closing scene with the reporter was funny too. Of course Michael would assume that the local news was there to investigate his sleeping with a married woman. I really do wonder if there are to be some ramifications for Sabre from this printer incident. Maybe they have a history of scandal and cover-up that the Dunder Mifflin brass wouldn’t have bothered to discover in their rushed due diligence before the sale. Or maybe this is setting up another visit from Kathy Bates … I really hope it’s just the former.
But I have to imagine that if the story’s been percolating for two weeks now, it’s probably going to play a major role in next week’s finale. So too, I would think, will any residual fallout from Michael’s text-ended relationship with Donna. But what’s going to be the big bombshell?
After a pregnancy, an engagement, corporate juggling, and The Kiss, your guess is as good as mine.
“I was up all night with CC.” – Pam, explaining why she was so tired
“You probably shouldn’t keep a baby up that late.” – Erin
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on May 14, 2010 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
While the radon test kit thing was dumb, I loved the discussion about how to kill Toby, Hitler, and Bin Laden with only two bullets – and the applause when Dwight demonstrated the brilliant solution of lining them up and killing them with only one bullet. That was hilarious.
Sperm sabotage!
Andy confronting the coach was so hard to watch I had to switch to Fringe for a minute. I found the rest of the episode funny. Dwight’s explanation on how to kill 3 people at once. Creed’s two scenes (He don’t give a F ’bout nuthin!). Dwight injuring his crotch in multiple ways.
Also the printer issue is probably going to mark the return of Jo and either the departure of Gabe or Daryll getting sent back to the warehouse. I really hope they get rid of Gabe since Craig Robinson has been my favorite thing in the recent episodes.
*POST AUTHOR*
Gabe’s awful. He’s a terribly weak character, and I think his addition served only to maintain a presence for Sabre on the show.
Anybody who watched “Schindler’s List” couldn’t have really laughed about that. I mean seriously. Knowing the answer to that is no feat if you are old enough to have watched that movie. The whole thing just sucked. Additionally because I’m german. Hey who said “naturally” just now?
Anyway, I want Holly back.
Do you mean you think the one bullet thing parodies Schindlers List? Come to think about it, I do remember that scene. Well, if one considers the things Dwight has said about WW2 it makes perfect sense. (I’m thinking of the copier episode when he’s trying to help Pam with the German instructions.) Dwight can be quite horrid sometimes. In that light, you’re right, not funny.
It also makes sense for you to be sensitive to the subject. I recall once that my German friend and I were complaining about someone and I used the word Gestapo in reference to that mean person who had some authority over us, and she did not like it.
Eeek. Yeah you shouldn’t. It translates to “secret state police” and if was exactly that. Well maybe not secret because everybody knew about them but they are those guys with the silver skulls on their black leather jackets who look like they were allowed to do anything to anybody.
And they did.
But hey it’s not like we are unable to laugh about ourselved and especially the war. I mean if you’ve ever watched “Fawlty Towers” (“Don’t mention the war”) or Craig Ferguson (who’s doing awesome Nazi jokes) it’s all in good fun. And you have to laugh about these things.
On the other hand, as I’ve stated before, it’s kinda hard not to be sensitive about it as a german. Our history lessons in school consist of about 50% “Why we are guilty” Nazi Germany stuff and after a while you are getting extremely fed up with it.
It also wants you to smack Glen Beck across the face everytime you see the guy displaying his Nazi tourette’s, but humor is a good counter-measure to that urge ;-)
Fascinating what one is taught to say/do and what one is admonished to avoid saying/doing based on where you grow up and who is doing the teaching.
Take Dwight: Shunned by his family between the ages of four and six for forgetting to save the excess oil from a can of tuna. That’s some serious pathology right there.
*POST AUTHOR*
I’m glad I could provide a platform for settling our cultural differences. :)
I thought Ryan propositioning Erin and immediately giving up on it was funny, along with much of the stuff mentioned. There were a lot of things I liked about this episode.
*POST AUTHOR*
Ryan’s too gross and annoying for me … but it was amusing.
Hey!
Not cool, dude.
*POST AUTHOR*
The truth had to come out … I listen to the PodClacks…. ;)