The Office season 5 - Page 7

Re: The Office season 5

Is it just me, or was the Jim/Dwight storyline this week seemingly carved out of alternate takes from last week's episode? The birthday banner, the balloons, the back and forth. It seems like they just used a different improvisation from the same scenes.

Re: The Office season 5

Geez,
we get a Valentine's Day episode over two weeks late.

Dwight's "I can retract my penis up inside itself" line was really creepy.

I was really hoping for a weird Valentine's relationship story from Creed during their meeting.

Kevin's situation was funny and sort of cute.
I like Kevin's line to Michael's question when meeting the new girl
Michael: "Where you from Kevin?"
Kevin: "I'm from here."

And Michael being terrified of Phylis's Bob

Also the situation about someone coming after somebody in the office
and Oscar replies to Dwight has anyone ever been after someone?
I guess they forgot about Pam's ex after Jim

Re: The Office season 5

Was he asking Kevin with that? I don't remember him saying Kevin's name and I assumed it was addressed to her, and that Kevin ended up answering it anyway thinking it was to him.

Re: The Office season 5

OMG!!!! Hands down the funniest episode so far this season. Lots of LOL moments,especially the restaurant scene after the bathroom break!!!!! I was really hoping the gal Michael chatted with in the mobile bloodbank would show back up,she was a cutie.

Re: The Office season 5

It was hard to tell if Michael was giving Kevin a question to ask her(since Kevin was dumbfound silent) or if Michael was just asking the question in general

Re: The Office season 5

Pretty good episode tonight. Kevin stole the ending, approaching a woman he wants to ask out after having listened to conflicting advice from Andy, Pam, and Jim.

Kevin: I am just going to tell you everything I'm thinking.
Woman: Okay.
Kevin: I think you have the best smile. I would like to take you out to dinner and a movie.
Woman: Okay.
Kevin: Nice.
[Looks slightly down]
Kevin: Boobs.

I loved Kevin's look when he realized what he'd said, and I liked the woman's little smile after he said it.

Also:

- Jim trapping Dwight twice in his ripoff of Michael's KGB "knock knock" joke.

- Poor Andy. :-(

- Wow, the employees didn't even bother faking respect for Michael in this episode.

- The actor who plays David is a great straight man.

- I liked Stanley's reference to an earlier episode in his suggestion to Michael to jump off the roof.

- Dwight keeping a diary to hide things from his computer.

Re: The Office season 5

I agree, tonight's episode was great. Tightly-plotted, focused, and funny (Mindy Kaling wrote it). Based on the plot synopsis I didn't expect to like it - but I haven't really been a huge fan of (the majority of) the direction and tone of the show lately. Andy Buckley, who plays David Wallace, is an actual executive, and as Dave mentioned he is REALLY good at playing straight, and this makes for an uncomfortably believable corporate smack-downs.

I don't really mind that the show is so "screwball" when it's done so well. Michael is funnier when he's weak and pathetic, IMO. His failure to take responsibility really backfired, and I think it will have consequences.

Re: The Office season 5

I liked when Michael came up to Darryl and said "You idiot!" and Darryl just said "Start over."

Re: The Office season 5

I found it funny when Dwight did a "That's what She said" and everyone in the office laughed.

Re: The Office season 5

Good episode.

I found it funny and very disturbing about Michael's idea for the Toilet Buddy.
A net that sits in the toilet that catches your change and wallet from falling into the toilet.
And Toilet Sponge, a hollowed out sponge thats more absorbent and softer than toilet paper.

So Michael has a problem with money and wallets falling into the toilet?
Makes you wonder what he does while going to the bathroom

Re: The Office season 5

I was more disturbed by the obvious issue of what else a net with gaps so small as to catch change would end up collecting.

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I don't think I've ever seen Jim as pissed as he was last night when he thought he lost all those sales thanks to Michael.

Re: The Office season 5

He didn't even try to hide his contempt for Michael. I think it actually reflects how far Jim's come as a character. He has obligations and responsibilities now, so Michael's bumbling screw-ups aren't as funny as when he was a relatively care-free bachelor.

Re: The Office season 5

Adam brings up an interesting point. When will Michael's incompetence get him fired? His employees aren't even pretending to respect him anymore. In the British Office, David Brent got fired at the end of the second series. Michael hasn't been let go yet because he was a good salesmen, and then he was sleeping with his boss, and now he manages the only branch that turns a profit. He's an idiot of a boss who keeps getting second chances. I wonder if they'll plot his firing on the show at some point. Naturally he'd be back, as Steve Carrell is the big star. But it'd be interesting (and realistic) if someone at Corporate one day realizes how much of an idiot Michael is and fires him. I believe on the British Office that after he was let go, David Brent reinvented himself as the former star of a reality TV series ("The Office" as filmed by the "documentary crew").

Re: The Office season 5

"The Office" has been hitting the same notes for too long. The writers and cast are extremely talented, but they have gotten too accustomed to their same old jokes and tricks, and it's made the beats a little stale. I think that firing Michael, and at least temporarily taking him out of the office environment, would do wonders for the show.

Re: The Office season 5

The only thing less realistic than Michael keeping his job would be if he got fired and then was rehired.

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I think it would be funny if he got fired and then refocused his life on the manufacturing and sales of the toilet net.

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but at least it's consistent. this isn't the first time Michael has done something that should have gotten him fired

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Yeah, it would be a place of no return. Michael would have to start his own company or something. That's what bothered me about Ryan's return. If Michael was fired for insubordination, and then later got re-hired, it would still be more realistic than having an employee get arrested for DEFRAUDING the company, and then get (unceremoniously) re-hired as a temp.

I don't mind when the show gets ridiculous (Dwight's concussion, Michael's 'scared straight' speech and general ridiculousness, Angela and her webcam cat behavior)... but when credulity is broken just to get an actor "back in the room", it feels manipulative.

Re: The Office season 5

Never underestimate Michael's man-crush for Ryan.

Re: The Office season 5

Hey, don't mess with Angela's cats, dude!

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I don't doubt that Michael would want him back; I just doubt that HR, which handles all temp transactions, would have ever approved it. Unless he lied about his identity, which would have been a much more interesting comedic plot point than simply having him there.

Here's an interesting article that sums up most of my feelings about the show lately:

Layoffs would bring new life to 'The Office' - Los Angeles Times

Re: The Office season 5

I've always felt that this show would be perfect for an ER/SNL-type situation, with a cast that weaves in and out after a few years. It could run indefinitely and dump characters that wore out their welcome (Meredith's drunk, we get it) and add in new ones to replace them.

Re: The Office season 5

Don't forget that HR in this case is essentially Toby. Michael specifically requested Ryan from the temp agency, and when has Toby even been shown to effectively override Michael?

Re: The Office season 5

Toby would have had more than sufficient leverage from corporate HR. There's no way corporate would have approved, and Toby never passes up an opportunity to stick it to Michael... he just can't ever do it on his own. And besides, it's not so much the question of how Michael got Ryan back, but that "he's back" was the whole punchline. They didn't milk any of these awkward possibilities.

They also went through the trouble to bring back Toby, but then didn't do anything with him, either. But that IS sort of bleakly funny. Poor Toby. He just can't get a break. (His awkward moment with Pam last season was brilliant.)

The next episode looks like trouble for Michael!

Re: The Office season 5

Wow, what an episode. What an ending. It basically addressed every concern people have had with the show lately, and it shook up the formula brilliantly. Obviously Michael isn't gone for good, but some serious changes are underfoot here.

Re: The Office season 5

Agreed, I didn't see that ending coming at all. And honestly, he's a horrible boss (but apparently a good salesman) and probably should've been fired... but at the same time, I almost felt bad for him there, that he's been with the company for 15 years, has had absolutely no respect from his own employees or corporate (his own doing, which is why I can't feel too bad for him), and then they hire someone basically as a go-between to prevent him from reaching the CEO or whatever... and then he states his concerns about that, and his boss attempts to pander to him, instead of addressing the real issue.

Like I said, if it wasn't his own fault, I'd probably have felt bad about that.

Re: The Office season 5

I really enjoyed this episode. My roommates and I watched it, and normally during the commercial breaks we're quoting our favorite lines from the show or whatever, but this time we were pretty much sitting around with our jaws dropped. Not in a bad way...

I do feel bad for Michael, and I usually don't, but here's why. David Wallace had told him earlier this season that the Scranton branch was the only one turning a profit, and that clearly he was doing something right, even if he [Wallace] didn't understand exactly what that was. Now, it can be debated whether or not their sales are that good because of or in spite of Michael. But to have the guy tell Michael weeks ago that he was doing a fantastic job, the top guy, etc., etc., to avoiding him like the plague, it does make me feel bad for the guy. Michael is horrendously incompetent as a manager, and I agree, probably should have been fired ages ago, but being that he wasn't -- that Dunder Mifflin in not firing him after repeated displays of "unusual" management -- there's some kind of responsibility they have to him.

But that's the thing about Michael... for as clueless as he is about a lot of things, at the end of the day I think he has a mostly good heart and a pretty decent understanding of right and wrong, and to have a new guy cancel the 15 year anniversary of an employee management just weeks ago was praising, just isn't right. This was one of those times where I expected Michael, in the end, to roll over and take it, and at least for now, he didn't. I find him strangely endearing when he stands up to himself, and suggests that he has at least an inkling that something isn't right.

Wonder where they're going with this...

Re: The Office season 5

I don't know if I can say I "enjoyed" the episode. It certainly was a major one, but towards the end it just got way to uncomfortable. I know it's said all the time of Michael's antics, but there's just really no way this time that he could be kept on in his current role after the gross insubordination and near breakdown over a party. I know his branch is the only one making money (seems to me to be an obvious writers conceit to explain why corporate continues to let him stay on - same goes for Dwight as the top salesman in the branch). I would imagine that the first order of business of the new boss would be to recommend Michael's termination to Wallace based on what went down last night.


Why? Nobody in their job in entitled to a corporate sponsored "personal milestone" party. I certainly can't think of any personal milestone parties I have ever been to at any job I had (not counting an out of pocket cake and card party to celebrate something) And even if a while back they said they would do it (and, unless I missed something, the whole thing was being initiated by Michael anyway), with the economy the way it is now, that would be one of the first things to go. Practically everyone is having to make more severe sacrifices in this climate (No one in my company got a merit increase this year for example). I actually thought in was somewhat magnanimous of Wallace to offer to find some money for his party.

Re: The Office season 5

This issue wasn't the money itself, but David Wallace's whole management style. As Joe said, he always seems to "pander to him, instead of addressing the real issue". Usually Michael's happy with these band-aid ego massagers, or at least pretends to be, but this time he'd had enough.

The most fascinating thing to me was watching him break down at the office when the new V.P. tries to assert his presence. His obnoxious humor really is a self-defense mechanism that helps cover a lot of repressed emotion on Michael's part. It helped me to understand why Michael gets more riddiculous the more uncomfortable things become; when he's uncomfortable, he turns to his schtick, and his schtick always makes things worse.