For what it’s worth…

I just scrolled back through my Office episode recaps from this season. I didn’t read any of them in full, but I got a sense from each one. It appears that I gave 15 positive reviews and 8 negative reviews. Not terrible. That’s better than most shows would boast if I bothered to follow them closely, 24 is probably the only one that might have a better ratio. I’m a tough critic, after all.

By the way, I’m a casual fan of the show Bones. By “casual fan,” I mean that at no point until I see it pop up on my DVR do I ever actually look FORWARD to the show, but it makes me happy when I see that my DVR has picked up a new one, and I don’t miss many episodes. It’s probably a half notch below Friday Night Lights for me on the “casual fan” scale. The Bones season finale was tonight, and was probably the worst episode I’ve ever seen of that show. Absolutely horrendous. Like…”I don’t know if I’ll bother to tell my DVR to pick it up anymore once I set my new cable up in Indiana” type of horrendous. I’m glad The Office didn’t do any shark-jumping like that. I still didn’t like tonight’s show very much though.

The Office season finale: “Company Picnic”

***full spoilers, of course***

Weakest season finale since season 1, without a doubt. It wasn’t terrible or anything, it had its entertaining moments, but it hardly felt like a finale. The return of Holly led to absolutely nothing, and now we’re supposed to believe that Pam is pregnant, and that they discovered it when they were checking to see how badly her ankle was injured? Why the heck would they have done a pregnancy test? They left themselves some room for her to not be pregnant, since they never explicitly said it, but I can’t imagine what else would explain what we were shown.

The Office: “Cafe Disco”

There was absolutely no point to tonight’s episode. Still, by about the 20 minute mark I found myself really enjoying it. Ed Helms was the show-stealer again…Andy is becoming maybe the funniest character on the show, and it’s because Helms’ comic talents are so diverse. His dance-off with Kelly was fantastic. Dwight had the best line with “You can’t steal what is legally your property.” I enjoyed Angela throughout this episode, first trying to drag Kevin out then having to put up with hanging out at the Disco. And Pam, by the way, has never looked better.

They did basically nothing to set up next week’s season finale (disappointingly only a 30 minute episode this year), and it wasn’t one of the amazing episodes of the season…but it was good. Fun to see the whole cast get a chance to shine.

It’s a little odd that we have no loose plot ends to make us anticipate the finale as strongly as we have in previous years. I would’ve thought that Jim and Pam eloping might’ve been a possibility, but they pretty much erased that tonight by teasing then dismissing it. A Michael/Holly reunion is the only thing from the season that I would logically expect to see. This being the finale though, I fully expect they have a surprise or two in store for us. These writers always provide us with a strong close to their seasons.

The Office: “Broke”

I didn’t do much more than chuckle during this episode…it wasn’t insanely funny…but I loved it. Loved it. Watching Michael own David Wallace in the buyout negotiations was one of the most gratifying things I’ve seen in the last two seasons. They built the scene up so well that you were really nervous that Michael was going to blow it, then he proceeds to just kill Wallace at the negotiation table. Dwight falling out of favor with Charles, Michael cutting off Charles and telling him, “No. You’re done”…moment of triumph for Michael, moment of triumph for Pam as she has moved up to a less demeaning job, and they even found a way to bring Ryan back without it being annoyingly contrived. Brilliant stuff all around.

The Office: “Heavy Competition”

The last few weeks, I really wasn’t on board with this Michael Scott Paper Company storyline. This week, though, it sharply turned a corner from being ridiculous to being a plotline with great potential. The difference, once again, lied in the writers’ ability to make Michael a truly likable and sympathetic character, rather than the cartoon character we’re sometimes subjected to. With the primary Jim and Pam drama from seasons 1-3 now squarely in the rearview mirror, the show’s quality really hinges on him to a large extent…and they walk a fine line with him. When he’s too stupid, the show suffers, but when he’s a lovable buffoon, the show can still be great.

The Office: “Dream Team” and “Michael Scott Paper Company”

It was good to get two Office episodes in one night, even if neither of these was all that great. Some thoughts…

*The Andy/Dwight dueling banjo/guitar scene is officially one of my favorite of the season. I can’t stop watching it. Absolutely hilarious. In general, putting Andy and Dwight together always has fantastic results, and I don’t even know how much credit the writers should get for it (I have a feeling that Ed Helms and Rainn Wilson improvise a ton of the greatness between them).

The Office: “Two Weeks”

I thought tonight’s episode was mostly unfunny. I liked the opening with everyone wanting to hear Michael’s quitting story, and especially Oscar’s talking head right after that, but the rest of the episode never elicited more than the occasional slight chuckle out of me. Kind of boring tonight.

Boring, at least, until Pam randomly lost her mind and decided to join Michael’s ridiculous business venture. I’m not surprised that Michael is all the way gone from the company (though you’d certainly have to assume that he’ll be back), but Pam getting up and leaving shocked me. Didn’t seem to fall in line with her character at all, she’s not supposed to be dumb…I realize that she’s long been unhappy with being a receptionist, but there are other ways to look elsewhere. Of course, the look on her face at the end of the episode indicated that she was realizing that too.

I don’t have much good to say for tonight’s episode, no huge laughs and a twist at the end that (while interesting) wasn’t especially to my liking. The show has been really good lately, but they’ve gotten prone to throwing clunkers like this episode in here and there.

The Office: “New Boss”

“I quit”?? Wow.

First, though, I have to say that I loved the new boss. Loved his character, loved his chemistry with Michael…their scenes were better than anything we saw with Michael and Ryan last season. I hope that he’s an active part of the show the same way David Wallace has been this year. Tons of great cringe-worthy moments on Michael’s part when dealing with the new boss.

Jim wearing the tux all day was a great running joke, building on that hilarious opening sequence where he was pushing “classy” and Dwight finally blew up. His interactions with the new boss were awkward and great too.

Michael quitting, though, was really unexpected. Of course he’s not leaving the show or anything, but they’ve built this storyline pretty well with him growing increasingly dissatisfied with Wallace and the company ever since Holly was transferred away from him. While the show has been a lot more funny and entertaining lately, it has really lacked a distinctive main storyline. I think that most Office fans would agree that season two was the best in series history; a big reason for why was that the Jim-Pam storyline was so well-written and gave something for fans to keep tuning back in for week after week. They kept that up through season three, which was still good, but not quite at the season two level. Once they got together, though, the writers have been a bit directionless in developing really good running plots to fuel the show. They kept trying to build up little office romance subplots, but it got a little bit tiresome. While Jim and Pam haven’t been as entertaining in general as usual this year, I think it’s easily been Michael’s best season to date (and Steve Carell’s best acting on this show as well). Michael’s immaturity is frustrating, but when he shows his more human side he’s a very sympathetic character.

I was caught way off-guard by the “I quit” at the end; I don’t really know where they’re headed next with that. I definitely look forward to the next episode though, so the writers certainly did their job. Really good episode tonight.

The Office: “Golden Ticket”

Wasn’t sure I was going to have the chance to recap this one tonight, but I was around after all. This was a great episode I thought, one of the better ones of the season. The primary plot with Michael and Dwight was fantastic, and the subplot with Kevin getting advice and getting the girl was entertaining also.

Some of the funniest stuff…
*”You can’t allow a girl to feel good about herself. It will backfire on you.” -Andy
*Michael: “You idiot.” Darryl: ”Start over.”
*Pam tells Kevin that he should touch the girl’s arm affectionately, because it’s romantic. Kevin grabs Jim’s arm…”Like that?” Jim: “No. Stop it.”
*Pam running around the desk, hugging Dwight and saying, “Thanks so much for helping the company, Dwight.” I loved Jim and Pam rolling over on Michael.
*On the same note, Jim: ”Let’s face it, this meeting sounds like it’s for Wonka fans only. (Michael’s) never seen the movie.”
*Dwight: He forced me to take credit for the idea under threat of death. Michael: Yes! Thank you!

Beyond the comedy, it was truly a somewhat tense moment when David Wallace came to Scranton. Sure, there’s almost no way Dwight or Michael would be written off the show, but a temporary firing wouldn’t be out of the question. A range of things could’ve happened. They wrote that scene, and Michael’s ensuing reaction, well. Big credit to Steve Carell and Rainn Wilson for doing an incredible job in their scenes together.

I thought this episode had everything, and will probably hold up as one of the top five of this season when all is said and done.

The Office: “Blood Drive”

“Attention everyone: I invited Jim to suck it.”  That was one funny line tonight, but there weren’t that many. The stuff with Jim/Pam/Phyllis/Bob was worthless. I did like the subplots with Dwight and Kevin trying to pick up women, although I never laughed all that hard. The cold open with everyone doing the Fonzie “hey” and scaring the salesman off was pretty good.

There just wasn’t any plot advancement in this show. Michael was waiting with the glove of that girl from the blood drive, which I was hoping would lead to a Holly return as he was waiting for another girl to come through the door. No luck, though. Aside from a potential new girlfriend for Kevin (which is pretty unimportant in the bigger scheme of Office plots), the story arc stood still tonight, especially frustrating since we had to wait a few weeks to get this as the next new episode.

I’ll note that when I think this way about episodes, I still do generally enjoy sitting and watching the show for a half hour even on the weaker weeks. Some shows like Lost have managed to lose me completely, but when it comes to The Office, I’m still excited to watch when every Thursday night rolls around. Regardless, this is turning into the weakest season yet overall, so I hope the episodes get better.

The Office: “Lecture Circuit”

Well, one of my readers did complain to me about my lack of Office recap last week. My apologies…I want to plead for mercy based on the fact that “Lecture Circuit” didn’t end last week, it was “To Be Continued” and completed tonight. I admit that I was simply lazy a week ago and made the two part excuse up later, but I think it works and I can comment on both parts of the episode in this post.

Appearing in both part one and two, I absolutely loved Dwight’s sign that read, “It is your birthday.” Fantastic. I actually thought all of the inept Jim/Dwight party planning stuff was pretty entertaining, that sign is one of the only memorably hilarious things that came from it, but I enjoy watching those two interact both as enemies and buddies. I loved it when Jim got mad at Dwight for working so long on a sign that announced the party’s delay, then to show how superfluous it was, stood up and simply announced the delay, only to have Stanley say, “I know, I just read it on the sign.”

The Office: “Stress Relief”

Getting the ultimate time slot, right after the Super Bowl (and a Super Bowl that kept everyone tuned in to the final seconds, also), The Office had a golden opportunity to win over even more viewers with what will undoubtedly be the most-watched episode in series history. Thankfully, they very much put their best foot forward.

This was probably the best episode of the season, and one of the classics in series history. All of the Stanley interactions, and there were many in this one, were great. David Wallace getting furious with Dwight was hilarious. The roast of Michael, particularly Andy’s song, was really funny. The Jim/Pam moment at the end of the episode was really good. Oh, and I appreciated them finally changing the opening credit sequence.

Some of my favorite lines…

“Dwight, you almost called Stanley.” “Yeah, I fed him butter and sugar for 50 years and forced him not to exercise.”

“His thing was really tiny,” followed by, “…if it was an iPod, it would be a shuffle.”

“Meredith, you’ve slept with so many men that you’re starting to look like one.”

There were a lot more lines that had me laughing than just those. Great stuff tonight.

The Office: “The Duel”

After what felt like a really long layoff, I was happy that The Office came back full force, with one of the best episodes of the season. Tons of stuff made me laugh tonight…Kevin was hilarious and got some of his best lines of the season, the sudden high five between Andy and Dwight amidst their yelling match cracked me up, Meredith’s “I call loser” was one of the better lines you’ll ever hear out of her. The way Michael told Andy about the affair was great. When Andy asked if he was serious, Steve Carell’s delivery on “yep” as his car sped away was priceless.

The Office: “Moroccan Christmas”

If there’s one thing the writers at The Office know how to do, it’s to wow you with a great ending even if the jokes in the episode fall flat.

The Office: “The Surplus”

I can’t really say much about this week’s episode. Very little happened and nothing made me laugh. I mean, it kept my interest, because I care about the story and characters, but the biggest laugh it got out of me was Andy stepping in a random cowpie in the kitchen, and even that just got barely a chuckle out of me. I do give the writers credit for stepping up Oscar’s role a bit lately, I really enjoy him whenever he’s on screen.

It was easy to see through what Dwight was doing in marrying Angela, and that she wouldn’t really be okay with it. While that whole love triangle keeps my interest to a certain extent, I think the biggest problem for me is that about 0% of me actually roots for those two to get together. It’s inevitable that they’re going to, there’s just no way she’ll ultimately marry Andy, but I won’t care either way as a viewer. Jim and Pam I cared about. Michael and Holly, in their brief run, I cared about. Dwight and Angela? Whatever. I’m about as emotionally invested in them as I am in Kelly and Ryan. By the way, it bothers me to realize that I just typed out the names of four couples and their romantic plotlines in a show that’s supposed to be a dry comedy about the mundane nature of a boring office job. Can’t the writers lean on some other plot device besides that many office romances?

Anyway, I don’t mean to strike such a negative tone…it wasn’t horrible or anything, it was just a throw-away. I look forward to the Christmas episode next week, they did great with Christmas episodes in seasons two and three…after unfortunately losing a season four Christmas episode to the WGA strike, I’m glad we’re going to get one again this year.

24: Redemption

It sure has been forever since we were last given some new 24. It was a breath of fresh air to see Jack Bauer back on the screen, and I thought this prequel to season 7 was pretty strong. I like the new President Taylor (loved her exchange with outgoing President Daniels), thought all of the political stuff in Washington was really solid, as was Jack’s storyline in Africa (they managed to get me very attached to Carl Benton in a hurry, for maximum emotional impact with the conclusion of his story).

The previews for the upcoming season look really good. I very much look forward to the hearings Jack is headed for, and although I’m concerned by the reappearance by Tony Almeida (bringing seemingly dead characters back smacks of desperation), I’ll give the writers of this show the benefit of the doubt in having good reason to bring him back. I always loved Tony’s character, so in theory I’m happy to have him back, I’m just concerned with how contrived his return might be.

I certainly look forward to the first three hours of the season on January 11th and 12th.

The Office: “Frame Toby”

It was good to see Toby back in the office tonight, if for no other reason than to see the resurrection of one of the show’s best running jokes, Michael’s entirely irrational hatred for him. His reaction to first seeing Toby back was hilarious. The scene where he was truly trying as hard as he could to be buddies with him was fantastic (the way his voice uncontrollably dropped into a whisper as he said “it’s great to have you back as part of our family” was priceless). The interplay between these two is just gold every single time.

The Office: “Business Trip”

Aside from the Ryan-Kelly stuff that was mostly just annoying (aside from Kelly’s “aww” after Ryan saying he couldn’t do better, that was funny), this was a really good episode tonight. Andy’s new friendship with Oscar was enjoyable, his phone call to Angela then his paralyzed fear about it the next day (“That was real??) killed me. Trying to pick up guys for Oscar was great too. Stanley’s laugh to Jim at the beginning of the episode about Pam coming back soon was classic. Darryl’s jubilation at being dumped by Kelly was excellent. First base with Angela is getting to kiss her on the forehead. Quite a bit of funny stuff.

CMA Awards tonight.

Forget the Oscars, the CMA Awards is my favorite awards show each year. In all of the individual categories, I think you’re pretty much going to see a status quo set in, with the same people who last year won Entertainer (Kenny Chesney), Male Vocalist (Brad Paisley), Female Vocalist (Carrie Underwood), Duo (Sugarland) and Group (Rascal Flatts) probably winning again tonight. I’d be surprised if at least four of five didn’t hold onto their title for another year. The all-important Horizon/New Artist award will go Rodney Atkins’ way, I think, even though I really don’t see the big deal with him at all.

As a big Brad Paisley fan, I’m hoping this is the year he hits the next level and wins Entertainer of the Year…but it’s hard to argue with Kenny Chesney’s tour numbers. Either way, I look forward to watching Paisley and Carrie Underwood co-host the awards.

The Office: “Customer Survey”

Ahh, so that is how they’re going to introduce some Jim-Pam drama. Having one of them get interested in someone else would’ve been entirely unrealistic (EDIT: this originally said “realistic.” I meant the opposite of that. What a stupid, stupid mistake. That made my entire sentence look dumb, and the transition to the next sentence incoherent and unnatural. Some typos are worse than others.) Even having them have an irreconcilable fight would’ve felt like a stretch. This art thing that Pam’s been dreaming about for years, though…that does work. The facial acting in that scene by John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer was really well done and brought the gravity of the scene home. They both knew there was validity to what her friend Alex was saying. Could they take this as far as causing a postponement to the wedding? Very possible, I think.