Monday, February 4, 2013

The Funny Stuff: The Office(1/24&1/31)



Got three episodes for you today, so let’s get started.

Customer Loyalty

This was a pretty uncomfortable episode.  There wasn’t a ton of laughs, and everyone was being jerky to one another for no reason.

Let’s start with…

Erin and Pete are on a youth task force to drum up interest on Facebook for Dunder Mifflin, under direction of Nellie.  They are having a great time, but as Nellie watches them, it occurs to her that there may be more to this business relationship than there should be, considering Erin is still technically dating Andy.  And since Andy was so nice to Nellie in giving her the reference letter, Nellie goes about sabotaging  their flirting, even going as far as to call them out in front of everyone, and disbanding the taskforce.  But when creepy Toby asks her what her deal his, she tells him, and he reminds her that Andy basically abandoned Erin, hello.  Nellie decides that she needs to put the taskforce back together, against Erin and Pete’s wishes, and everyone leaves smiling.  Aww.

Dwight and Daryl also have a lovely little plot in which they are terrible to each other.  Daryl lets it slip that he is working weekends at Athlead, and Dwight does not take it well.  He starts by calling Athlead  Stumpany, for stupid company, and ends with trying to get everyone to sign a loyalty pledge so Daryl won’t be poached.  When no one falls for the tricky signature page, Dwight storms off in anger.  Later, Daryl gets a call for a delivery, and heads down to find…Dwight in a truck, adamant he is going to show Daryl how exciting it is to work at Dunder Mifflin.  He has party lights and music, and a ball to play ‘sports.’  Daryl is not impressed, wanting to get done with this as soon as possible.  Dwight instead makes a stop at a fast food restaurant, and throws an ordered milkshake back at the server.  Daryl looks at him like he’s crazy, and takes the keys out of the ignition.

The next we see them, Dwight is cleaning up his mess, and then getting a milkshake thrown at him from another doof in the drive thru.  I have to admit, I did laugh at that.  I also laughed with Daryl as he watched it over and over again in the tag, as the perpetrators did in fact post it to youtube.


Lastly, ugh.  Jim and Pam. So Jim is in Philly, losing investors left and right, and is in a generally bad mood.  Pam, on the other hand, is all excited for Jim to come back for CeCe’s dance recital.  She calls him to ask where he’s at on his trip back, and Jim spills the bad news:  he’s not going to be able to make it back, due to the investor snafu.  He asks Pam to tape the performance for him, and Pam is super-confident in her ability to handle this task, even though she fails at hanging up her phone.  Dun dun DUN!

So anyway, Pam is at the recital, she gets a phone call in the middle of CeCe’s performance, completely interrupting her recording of it.  Of course, when she goes to look at the recording, nothing’s there.  Jim calls later asking about the recital, and Pam has to break the news she didn’t get it.  Jim is upset from that, clearly, but the investor issue from before is bubbling around and he completely looses it on Pam, yelling at her, and being a complete douchecanoe, until Pam looks about ready to break down.  She tersely hangs up on him, and then actually does break down. And then…

The boom operator walks into frame!  Holy crap!  He comforts her a bit, and then cuts off the camera to end the show.

This episode, beyond the final crew reveal was blech.  Everyone was a jerk to everyone, and it did not make for compelling television.  If there were any actual jokes in the episode, it may have made up for it, but not so much.  Not looking forward to the inevitable love triangle, that is for sure.
 No funny lines, cause this episode was not funny.

Junior Salesman

Hmm.  I’m going to reiterate something I think I’ve said before:  it’s a good thing The Office is on it’s last season, cause this has just been painful.

We open with the camera on the ground, with Pam and boom guy Brian talking about how he got in trouble, but he tells her not to worry about it, it was his first slip-up in nine years.
In actual plot news…
Dwight TH’s that David Wallace is letting him hire someone to fill Jim’s space.  Clark is pushing hardcore to get the job, but Dwight is gunning for one of his friends, so he’ll have someone in his corner.  Dwight’s choices are:

Rolf-Dwight’s best friend who tries to turn the interview against Dwight, asking him all the questions
Trevor-The guy who was going to kneecap Oscar earlier in the season, and completely fails at the interview
Clark-He rocks the interview, but he ‘looks like a Shrute, thinks like a Halpert, and acts like a Beasly.’

Meanwhile, Jim has been tasked with getting David Wallace to invest in his new company, but no dice.  After he realizes that the new person will be taking over his desk, and possibly teaming up with Dwight against Pam, realizes he has a huge stake in who gets the job, and tries to weasel his way into the interview process, but Dwight is having none of it.

In fact, after Clark rocks the interview, Dwight is so enraged he calls a ton of his friends to interview instead.  He got:
His cousin Mose, who completely and utterly lied on his resume
Mose’s Brother, who heard about the job in the cow shower
His old babysitter/lover who offers to change him as Dwight writhes on the floor trying to make a decision
A X-men school friend, who still thinks he has super powers(night hearing, anyone?)
One of the warehouse guys who is very overqualified, but very Asian with a heavy accent
A friend named Wolf who refuses to sell paper

In the end, all of Dwight’s friends and family are completely unsuitable, but he doesn’t have the heart to tell them.  But Dwight does remember that Jim wanted in, and has him be the bad guy.  We end up with Clark as a sales guy, because of course.
And then, Jim TH’s about how desks mates are important, because that’s who you spend all your time with, and look at him and Pam…he fell in love with her, didn’t he?  As the camera pans to Brian.  Dun dun DUN!
This was SUCH a pointless episode.  Dwight’s friends were not funny, the outcome was never in question, and everything the episode did could have been compacted into a cold open.  Lame and lame.

No funny lines again.

Vandalism

Let’s see…this episode has three main plots, as follows:

Daryl and Jim are living in an apartment together, and Jim is a complete slob, while Daryl is getting pissed about the squalor.  They have antics, and coffee mug stealing, but in the end, Jim realizes that the people you live with you need to keep happy, cause blah blah blah Jim is being a total dick and I want to punch him in the face.

Angela, Oscar, and Kevin are at Angela’s house for the baby’s first birthday, and the senator uses it as a campaign fundraiser and photo op.  It’s pretty lame, but Kevin does call the senator on his shit, and ta done.

Lastly, Pam, in Scranton, has discovered vandalism on her mural, which is supposed to be butts, but really looks like another part of the male anatomy.  After whining about being alone in this(with a boom mike tap on the head to remind her Brian is there too), she goes on a witch hunt to find out who did it, and Dwight and Nellie help her out.

They first try questioning the warehouse staff, but that gets them nowhere, so they send Clark in as a spy.  He was utterly ineffectual, so Dwight and Pam play good cop/bad cop on one of the guys, who rats out the offender.

Pam and Toby get a confession out of the guy, and Toby writes him up.  Pam is not satisfied with this conclusion, and she enlists Dwight to paint things in water-based paint on his car.  Too bad the guy’s a loose cannon, and when he finds the ‘artwork’ charges Pam in a rage.  Luckily for her, Brian is there, and he whacks the guy with his mike.

Gah.  That is all I have to say about that.

In the tag, Pam and Brian are talking in the heretofore unseen film crew locker room.  She’s upset he got fired, he just tells her he’ll be around if she needs him.

I am going to be SOOO pissed if they actually do go through with this love triangle thing.  It is ridiculous, and I am over it already.  This episode was the third in a row.

AAAAND no funny lines for a third episode in a row.  Lamezor.

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