The Office season 5 (1 Viewer)

[Joe_H]

I agree that I don't want to see issues stuck in for the effect of drama, but I didn't think the phone call at the end was a good example of that, I thought it was cute.

Besides that though, the class that she's taking is only 3 months long, and the premiere took care of 8 weeks of that, so I'd imagine she'll be back after a few more episodes.

 

[Dave Ringkor]

I liked Dwight testing the stroller.

I liked Angela and Andy trying to photograph Astrid in a cornucopia. Nods to Angela's fetish for pictures of babies in odd positions, like the one of jazz babies that Oscar hates.

"Ass turd."

JAN to Michael: "Don't date Holly."
MICHAEL to Holly: "Wanna go out?"

I liked the butter on Dwight's watermelon. "Nice touch."

 

[ScottH]

But I don't watch The Office for "cute". Maybe other people do though...not me.

I agree with whoever said the baby stuff was too much. Wasn't a fan of this episode at all. The best stuff was with Kevin and playing the baby shower games after the baby was born. He delivered those lines perfectly.

 

[Patrick Sun]

This episode was weird for me because earlier in the evening, I attended a baby shower for a co-worker, so some of it was little bit funnier to me, but it was driven mainly by happenstance. Not really feeling the Jim/Pam subplot.

 

[Steve Y]

Although I still watch the show religiously, I'm just not responding to it as much nowadays. It has become screwball, mixing a few subtle things with lots of screaming and running around and over-the-top ridiculousness. And honestly, I'll say it again - I know it stretches credulity that Michael is still employed as manager after all these years, but there is no WAY Dunder-Mifflin (or its employees) would accept Ryan back at the company where he committed fraud, even from a temp agency. I know it's a fun reversal from a plot/writing point of view, but he's there just because it's a funny situation, not because it makes any kind of sense.

That said, I thought that the season premiere was brilliant. One of the best episodes in a long time - understated, clever. I know many of you liked the second episode, but for me, shows like the premiere are why I continue to watch this show.

The Michael/Jan plot has been my least favorite arc in the past couple of seasons, so "Baby Shower" was serviceable for me, but not classic. Romantic subplots are taking over the show...

 

[Raymond_H]

I thought the cold open was one of more funnier ones. The middle section of the show when Jan showed up with baby really felt average. Except for Dwight and the Stroller. Thought the Jim/Pam stuff was cute but just felt inconsistent or badly themed with this episode. Started high, then drifted to meh.

-Ray

 

[Ray Gutnick]

Did anyone notice that Jan drove off and left the gift stroller by the outside door?

 

[TravisR]

Yeah. She's probably going to wish she took it with her when she opens her trunk and sees what Dwight did to her $1200 stroller.

 

[IanDP]

I have two points I'd like to throw out here.

Amy Ryan continues to be so impressive on this show. After "Gone Baby Gone" I didn't expect her to come back with a character like Holly. At first I didn't know what to make of the character - would she be straight-laced? or a little dorky like Michael? I'm really enjoying seeing the relationship Holly is having with Michael. For the most part it's believable, now knowing Holly's personality (even though we wondered how anybody could love Michael).

In that "Ethics" episode we got another look into the corporate culture of D-M, with the HR rep endorsing Meridith's behavior. We always wondered what kind of company puts people like Michael and Jan in positions of management - well now we know. D-M is not your typical company. They seem to reward oddball behavior. It seems the writers are laying the foundation for what will, some day, be a colossal and spectacular collapse for the Dunder-Mifflin company, when the show ever ends.

 

[Brent M]

I'm enjoying this season's episodes much more than most of last year's strike-shortened eps. Dwight giving birth and trying to destroy the stroller had me on the floor and overall I thought it was a very good episode(aside from the Jim/Pam stuff).

 

[Louis C]

Dwight can rescue just about any episode from mediocrity. The bit on Ryan coming back...had the same reaction - no way! But without it, we wouldn't have gotten Kevin's "Hey fire(d) guy" following by Ryan's memo pad. Classic.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Well, for $1200 it had better be indestructable -- which it apparently was.

 

[texboil]

Hey, I'm just now starting to catch up on season five -- wanted to watch season 4 on DVD again before starting -- and I had a general question:

I'm watching DVRed Office episodes on a boring standard-def 4:3 set, but I'm wondering why the shows aren't letterboxed like they have always been. Is this my local affiliate doing this? I'm surprised not to see other comments on this. The show looks compressed, people are out of frame . . . it stinks.

I also watch My Name Is Earl and that's apparently not being aired in widescreen this season either.

Any clarification would be very much appreciated.

JR

 

[AnthonyC]

I watch in SD too but as far as I can remember, all the episodes were shown in widescreen (ditto for Earl). But I do recall SNL was shown in pan-and-scan for an episode or two before returning to 16:9 in SD so perhaps NBC decided to go 4:3 at the beginning of the season for some reason and I just don't remember the sitcoms being marred. Either way, tonight's and last week's were definitely WS so if those show up in 4:3 it may be a problem with your affiliate.

 

[MichaelD]

Best line of the night and maybe the series "No one steals from Creed Bratton; the last guy to do it, Creed Bratton."

 

[texboil]

Well, I spoke to the chief engineer at the local NBC station (I work at the local CBS station), and he said that NBC is using a signal called a AFD (Active Format Descriptor) which apparently formats the picture based on the TV you're watching. Which sucks, because I don't want my picture formatted in a way I don't like. One more reason to break down and buy that HD set.

 

[TravisR]

"It squeaks when you bang it.That'swhatshesaid."

 

[Derek Miner]

That explains a phenomenon I've noticed on NBC lately (on a 4:3 set via cable) when NBC promos come on at the end of a commercial break, they are full-frame for a split second before bumping to letterbox. It sounds like it's just a cue for the receiving station to letterbox the 16:9 image or do a center-cut and make it full-frame. If a station missed a cue, this would explain why some people saw 'The Office' in 4:3 and others saw it in 16:9.

As far as this week's episode, loved it. Michael's list of Bruce Springsteen songs cracked me up.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Interesting. Must be a local phenomenon, since "The Office" still comes over SD analog cable in WS just fine on the local WNYT affiliate. That said, I watch almost all of my primetime OTA using my Zenith DTA converter box, which allows you to cycle through "Letterbox", 4x3 center crop, and 4x3 stretched (basically the same effect as anamorphic widescreen on an improperly flagged 4x3 set). The downcoverted HD signal in crystal-clear 480i DVD quality is actually better than what I get from my cable provider.

 

[Mike Slade]

About the widescreen issue in SD, Charter where I live started passing the Digital verison of the local channels on their SD channels and cropping off the sides over a year or so ago. While cropping the digital widescreen works for most stations, since NBC is showing things in Letterbox for their SD programming, it doesn't work very well. On all the channles it was very noticeable when an HD car commercial would come on and the left and right sides of all the 'fine print' was cut off.

Also NBC's station bug used to be over on the far side during HD and I've noticed it's now moved into the 4:3 safe area. Seems like this might be to protect it for when the digital signal is passed on SD channels.