The Office
Last night's episode of the office titled 'Sabre' was not one of my favorites. The Kathy Bates part could have been performed by anybody and Christian Slater's role was nothing more then a very brief cameo. While it could have been interesting given the new ownership of Dunder Mifflin, I found it underwhelming. The dynamic of the characters in the office interacting with a corporate entity has been done before with the corporate office in New York City.
The biggest potential bright spot was Michael visiting his former boss, David Wallace. When I saw that he was on this episode, I briefly got excited but was eventually let down. Michael's interaction with him felt like a 10 month old pregnant women- I always felt there was a laugh-out-loud moment lurking just beneath the surface but it never manifested They seemed to do a good job with David's new personality after being sacked by the Sabre corporation, but it just didn't deliver, much like the entire episode. This doesn't put me down on the office for the year. I unlike others, feel that it has been excellent this year, with the wedding episode a particular stroke of brilliance.
A lot of people seem to be down on this show of late, but I'm not one of them. For one, Pam and Jim's wedding episode earned enough good will to carry me for a couple seasons on fumes alone. Usually when a comedy has a half hour format, it struggles when stretched to an hour. Not the wedding episode. While the latter half hour contained more laughs then the first half, it didn't seem like a forced fit. And making the pinnacle of the show a youtube reference to the rash of surprise choreographed wedding dances was fantastic. Oftentimes The Office isn't content to just make you laugh.....it's writers intuitively realize when the viewer laughs at a more obscure reference then something prompted by a laugh track. The laugh is heartier. You feel like you're in on a private joke, albeit one shared by millions of others.
I read several blogs and comments where people bashed The Office this year and the clip show specifically. Many called it a cheap way to air a 'new' episode and they had already seen all those scenes before...blah, blah, blah. I thought the clips were excellent and a pleasant reminder of just how solid The Office has been for so long. They also seemed to have aired it at an appropriate time. As best as I can tell, syndication of The Office has only just begun so airing a clip show before the clips have been seen two or three times was a wise move. Beyond that, the clips were woven around a small story line. Most other clips shows take place when a character has some sort of dream sequence and starts saying, 'remember when....' It's gimmicky and an excuse to regurgitate long scenes from prior episodes. In these situations, the scene are so long that a viewer quickly recognizes the dialogue seconds in and spends their time predicting or mimicking the lines as they are said. The Office contained abbreviated clips so the viewer didn't have time to catch their breath, only laugh. The clips unfolded frenetically leading to layered laughter with no time for thoughts like, 'I remember that show....'
The 'Scott's Tots' episode was a fantastic illustration of how the show can manufacture an entire episode from the seeds of a character's idiosyncrasy. Unfortunately with few exceptions (Pam and Jim's visit to Dwight's beet farm), the show doesn't tend to orchestrate an entire episode around just one character. I certainly hope this is the next phase of The Office. Who wouldn't enjoy seeing an entire episode on the away-from-work activities of Creed or Oscar (rapidly becoming one of the better written characters)?
The Office should have built up enough credibility over the years for people to stomach a well done clip show. There are several times each season you can think back on an enjoy. I, for one still laugh every time I even think of Michael marking the Asian girl's arm at one of the company's Christmas parties. People can choose to be smarmy and bad-mouth a clip show on general principle, but it (like the show this year) was exceptional and worth watching.
****The Office also embraces it's online viewership. For a 'Producer's cut' with about seven extra minutes, check out Hulu..
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