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The Office season 5 (1 Viewer)

Adam Lenhardt

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Those were my two favorite aspects of the episode, and they were enough to push the episode into series classic territory.
The moment in the hospital was played with complete earnesty, which it had to be. Having the audience find out when the characters found out allowed us to see their rawest reaction and neatly sidestepped an overblown melodrama about Pam not telling Jim or Pam and Jim not telling the office.
The Michael/Holly storyline was a mirror of their arc at the beginning of the season. Then it was Holly watching Michael stay with the absolutely wrong guy despite them being perfect for each other. Now Michael has to watch Holly stay with the wrong guy despite them being perfect for each other. Of course, it's possible that the Nashua beau connects with an aspect of Holly we didn't get to see much of.

What I didn't like:
  • Michael and Holly announcing the closing of the Buffalo branch in their comedy skit. Yes, it was shocking -- but it was also season one level cringeworthy. I can almost buy Michael being that stupid (although he hasn't been shown as being that clueless in quite a while) but there's no way an HR rep like Holly would have thought that that was a great idea.
  • Charles just being a colossal dick to Jim. It made sense when Jim was coming up short at the office during Charles's reign, but it felt really shallow and cruel here. Charles went from being the professional in an unprofessional office to just being a colossal dick.
  • The resurrection of the Angela/Dwight relationship. As hilarious as mini-Dwight's comments were, just let it die already. Please.
 

Joe_H

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Personally, I found the stuff preceding the announcement in their skit to be even more cringeworthy. :D
 

WillG

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I've said it before and I'll say it again, Holly is hardly a very good HR person. I just didn't like the scene there because that would surely result in virtually instant termination (although, I've said that before as well)
 

Ben Osborne

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I like Charles Miner's hostility towards Jim. There are people in life that you just don't like to see, and every time you see them it's uncomfortable for you. For Jim to have someone like that creates tension that resonates with me.
 

Steve Y

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I like cringeworthy, but I agree, the skit was over-the-top. This is an example of the writers trying to hard to create an uncomfortable situation, and just going so far that it's just unrealistic, even for a caricature like Michael.

You're so right about the Angela / Dwight moment. Let it die! I wonder how much the NBC executives have a say in this "will they or won't they" nonsense.

I love the Charles Miner stuff, just because so many offices have people like that (I've worked with managers like Charles) and the idea that Jim can get on someone's "bad side" is pretty funny, and led to some of my favorite uncomfortable moments this season.
 

Derek Miner

Screenwriter
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Feb 22, 1999
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Let's see... bringing Michael Scott back to the company and agreeing to take on new salespeople during an economic downturn... then telling a guy who talks incessantly that you're closing a branch...

Maybe David Wallace has been cleverly bringing Michael back into the fold to make him his "escape goat?"

Or maybe we've got some Hudsucker Proxy action going on here.
htf_images_smilies_smile.gif


I can't believe there are people who are tired of Jim and Pam. To me, the fact that their lives are functional and normal is incredibly heartening.
 

Dave Ringkor

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I don't know about you guys, but for me this episode was "crystal cool." Loved the company picnic with all the other branches. I would like to have seen Karen though. Loved Dwigt's best friend and Dwigt's defense of Angela and her reaction. Yeah, I was tired of them too, but this was good. I have no problem with Charles' problem with Jim. It adds to Jim's character, how he reacts to someone who just doesn't "get" him. And sure, Charles isn't being professional, but neither is Holly, and we can infer that Dunder Mifflin just isn't a company that attracts the most professional people.

Clearly a standout aspect of the episode is Michael's realization that he is not over Holly and his total decency by not hitting on her when he had so many opportunities. Just the look on Steve Carrell's face was enough. We often joke here about how over the top Michael is, but Steve Carrell is not over the top. He totally nails it here. Michael's talking head about how Holly is perfect for him, but it may take years for them to end up together, just rips your heart out. It's sad and sweet and naive and emotionally honest all at the same time.

And of course Jim and Pam at the hospital. They telegraphed it a little when the nurse was wheeling Pam in for an X-ray and mentioned there being no chance that she was pregnant. Hello! But the direction, and the acting by Jenna and John, was particularly poignant. I loved the lack of audio while the camera was outside of the room, mirroring the camera picking up Jim's proposal to Pam across the street with cars whizzing by. I loved everything about this scene, from Pam's initial look of shock, to Pam and Jim touching noses, to Jim's quick nod to the camera in the hallway, to the tear in his eye after he tells Dwight to bring in the subs. Does it get any better than that?

Oh, and how adorable was Pam serving in volleyball?
 

Joe_H

Screenwriter
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I don't think they did volleyball every year. They said the year before that they had played softball and Jim had the supposedly deadly spider in his mitt.
 

Citizen87645

Reviewer
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In previous years they played softball, based on Jim's story about the spider in his mitt.
 

nolesrule

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Having been to a handful of emergency room visits with my wife, including those where any tests are being done (especially x-rays), the pregnancy question is standard operating procedure.
 

Joe_H

Screenwriter
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Even still, it gave it away to have it shown there. Everyone I know who watched it knew the pregnancy thing was coming as soon as it was brought up.
 

TravisR

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Yeah, I'm pretty sure that any woman of child bearing age gets a pregnancy before getting an X-ray. Like Joe though, I was immediately tipped to the pregnancy because no TV show is going to waste time on dialogue like that just to be technically accurate.
 

Bryan^H

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Jul 3, 2005
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"Company Picnic" was an average episode with a very strong ending.

I echo what someone mentioned earlier about Michael. Just when you want to count him out as a total buffoon, he has a great introspective moment, and I care about him all over again.

The Jim and Pam ending blindsided me. I almost cried.
The Office has characters I really care about. That is very good writing, and acting.
This is the best show I've seen in years. I love it.
 

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