The Office: Season 6 So Far
Written by Brando Calrissian on December 7, 2009
Before I dive headfirst into the sixth season of The Office, let me preface all the reviews with the statement that I am a huge fan of the show. I look forward to The Office every single week and it has long been one of my favorite shows on television. That being said I am probably going to be pretty hard on The Office. There are ALWAYS laughs in every single episode, but as I’m reviewing it I’m going to be taking it from a more critical standpoint…such as continuity, character development/consistency, and overall plot.
Episode 1: “Gossip” - This episode was decent. The main thing that I absolutely hated though was the very ending with Stanley smashing Michael’s car. It’s a funny visual, sure…but are we supposed to believe that actually happened? The Office isn’t a show like Scrubs and others that have dream sequences, so everything that happens on air has always been cannon. Also, I know not everyone in an office is going to be likable, but over the last three seasons they’ve really gone out of their way to make Stanley not only a grumpy man but also a pretty horrible person.
Episode 2: “The Meeting” – For this episode I think I like the sideplot better than the main plot. It’s always interesting when there are episodes that pair up certain members of the office for extensive interaction they may not usually have otherwise (think Andy and Oscar, Pam and Andy, Michael and Darryl, and then in this episode Toby and Dwight). Giving Toby and Dwight a common enemy was logical and also funny…it was a setup that really hasn’t been used and I liked the result for the most part. Now for the main plot…I understand the setup of this episode but ultimately I felt like the gross miscommunication outweighed Jim’s reasoning for keeping Michael out of the loop. If these two (Michael and Jim) can’t trust each other enough to be straightforward and communicate within the office then how are they ever going to manage together? Which leads us to…
Episode 3: “The Promotion” – The logical outcome to Michael and Jim being comanagers. As someone who can’t stand bullheadedness and an unwillingness to compromise and cooperate I was frustrated with the lack of cohesion between Michael and Jim. Now, I understand that’s the whole point…and it is the logical and humorous setup I suppose…but as a viewer who likes Jim and Michael it would be nice to just see an episode where the “conflict” didn’t revolve around office communication or lack thereof. Honestly I think part of why I loved seasons 1 and 2 (and to some degree 3) of The Office so much is that they were shows based on character, atmosphere, and situational comedy…not necessary conflict driven storytelling. There doesn’t always need to be a conflict in order to have interesting and evolving plot lines. Just my opinion. And in this episode the conflict and tension didn’t even seem to have much of a resolution to me. It was anti-climactic in its final moments.
Episode 4: “Niagra Parts 1 and 2″ – For the most part this two part episode was hit and miss for me. I know a lot of people don’t like the Andy/Erin romance, but I actually do. To me it makes sense. Andy has always been looking for love and affection and has found it in the workplace before. Not only that, but he’s still (I assume) a little fragile from the whole Angela thing so his efforts do seem a little more desparate and hurried. On the flip side, why shouldn’t he be interested in Erin? So far she’s shown to be cute, friendly, and quite easy going. The hot new girl will always get some interest just based on being just that: hot and new.
As for the rest of the episode I found Michael’s attempts to give a toast excruciating and predictable, but his flirtations with Pam’s mom a much better angle. Speaking of Pam’s mom, what happened to her? They not only got a completely different actress to play her but also completely changed her character. I was saddened by that. In season 2 Pam’s mom visited the office and was a sweet woman who was Pam’s best friend. This new portrayal is kind of a snooty and cold woman who seems detached from Pam. Strange.
The wedding itself was off putting to me. What was supposed to be romantic with Pam and Jim running off to get married on their own seemed to me yet another instance of them becoming increasingly elitist. Can you imagine in real life if a bride and groom just went off and ran away from their own wedding, leaving a multitude of guests to just sit there and wait? People would be furious. I know we’re in TV land here and so everything is a bit contrived and sensationalized, but what I liked about The Office in its first three seasons is it was much more grounded in a reality we could all relate to. Now there’s very little that’s relatable to a real office atmosphere. Ah well…
Oh and don’t even get me started on the YouTube wedding dance. LAME! The YouTube video was cool because…*gasp*…IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED! The repeat of it just seemed like a weak pop culture reference to me. I’m pretty sure Mindy Kaling wrote the episode, and if that’s the case it is no surprise to me. Her episodes can be great, but they are always littered with some pop culture references that land and some that don’t.
Episode 5: “Mafia” – This episode was just so so. To me it felt like filler. I laughed a lot, but if you want to start critiquing it from a logical standpoint it’d be like shooting fish in a barrel. It’s one of those episodes you just have to take your brain out and hang it up on the shelf then sit back, relax, and laugh at it for what it is. I thought Andy’s bit as an automechanic was funny…it made sense that he would want to be theatrical about the whole affair and would thus get a costume to support his backstory. I also found it funny that he needed to try and play along when a woman asked for his help. He has never seemed like a manly man so his lack of car knowledge made sense as well. Funny stuff.
Episode 6: “The Lover” – This is probably my favorite episode of the season so far. I thought the revelation scene when Pam finally puts the pieces together was very funny. The tension between Pam and Michael was handled really well and I thought everyone was true to their character. The only complaint is that Jim continues to be passive aggressive and basically spineless. Whatever happened to Jim Halpert, the every man? He’s so confrontational with his humor and picking on people around the office that it shocks me that they’ve turned him into someone who is absolutely terrified of real confrontation. Maybe that makes sense from a psychological sense, though? Any psychology people out there? The other thing that was great (though unfortunately unseen by the masses) about this episode was the deleted scenes. For about 2-3 weeks they had great deleted scenes revolving around Erin and her apparent passive jealousy of Pam. The scenes really give Erin a lot more depth to her and she has some great interactions with Stanley, Meredith, Creed, and Kelly…though I think my favorite is her interaction with Toby. You can find the deleted scenes on Hulu.com or NBC.com and I suggest you check them out. During episode commentaries I’ve heard the showrunners say before that they see their deleted scenes as cannon even though they were cut on air…so I think some of these scenes are important in understanding characters.
Episode 7: “Koi Pond” - I swear we’ve seen this before. Nothing about this episode seemed fresh save for the first five minutes. I think I would have enjoyed a full Halloween episode more than this Koi Pond mystery. We’ve seen this arc so many times before. Michael does something really stupid, he is embarrassed, everyone wants to give him a hard time about it, he is super sensitive about it but ultimately overcomes and is able to poke fun at himself again (think Stress Relief especially. Boom! Roasted!). To me it didn’t seem new or fresh at all, not to mention the video evidence of Jim not coming to Michael’s aid wasn’t the least bit convincing. To me it looked like he did what every normal person would do out of instinct…try not to fall themselves! I could understand if maybe he pushed Michael away from him or actually had time to react and try to help Michael…but to see it out of the corner of his eye and then dodge a flailing Michael seemed perfectly reasonable to me. It’s a natural human reaction to do what Jim did, in my opinion. What do you think? Am I wrong?
Episode 8: “Double Date” - Another one of my favorite episodes from this season. Dwight’s quest to get everyone to owe him a favor was amped up and made hilarious when Andy then starts to have a kindness contest with him. It fit Andy’s character and Dwight’s frustrated dedication fit his character, too. The major flaw, though, was the very rapid dissolution of Michael’s relationship with Pam’s mom. The Office is often hindered by cramming drama and major plot changing moments into one 22 minute episode when really some of these things should be handled more patiently. It would have been nice to see hints of doubt and trepidation on Michael’s face in this episode…followed by a little more discontentment in the next episode…followed by the breakup. Or some such formula. The writers so often present Michael to us in a way that we’re ultimately supposed to like him and believe that he has a good heart. Episodes like this just make him look like an unsympathetic jerk, however. It was nice to see Pam come around and feel good about Michael and her mom, especially once she got to see how kind he was to her mom. This positive aspect was totally undermined, though, by Michael so quickly abandoning that kindness.
Episode 9: “Murder” – This was a decent episode, though not great. Jim and Michael continue to suck at being co-managers, though it was nice to see Michael finally stand up and be direct about his intentions with the murder mystery game. Perhaps they could work together better as a team if they were on the same page from the get go! But that would be too nice and tidy, I guess. Andy was hilarious in the episode, though I was disheartened by the miscommunication between him and Erin. For some reason I really like Erin’s character (as well as Andy) so call me a sap, but I’m pulling for them.
Episode 10: “Shareholder Meeting” – It was nice to see Jim FINALLY put together some backbone and stand firm as a boss. I usually do root for Jim (and consequently against doucheking Ryan) so I was loving every bit of Jim putting Ryan in the closet. As for the shareholder meeting there were things I liked, things I didn’t like, and things that were just ridiculous. I liked the growing interaction and relationship between Andy and Oscar. Very good, subtle development. I thought Dwight’s whole plot with the question lines was tired and lame. I thought Michael’s idiocy was standard, but was really disappointed when Oscar didn’t pull through. I thought we were going to have a great moment where Oscar, who has been shown time after time to actually know what he’s talking about, was going to rise to the occasion and help save Dunder Mifflin. Instead we got his cowardly retreat followed by the juvenile retreat by the four of them (Michael, Oscar, Dwight and Andy) in order to ensure they got their limo ride back to Scranton. Lame. Questions I had: David Wallace knows Michael Scott very well by now, so why would he let there be a live microphone anywhere near Michael’s mouth? Where was Charles Minor? Shouldn’t he have been at this meeting? I understand Idris Elba (the actor who plays Charles minor) is a rising star and has better things to be doing, but for continuity’s sake they should have at least made mention of Minor and why he wasn’t at the meeting.
Episode 11: “Scott’s Tots” – Ugh. While it is fitting that Michael would promise some 3rd graders that he would pay for their college tuitions and seems like a funny concept on paper…having it actually play out before your eyes on a TV show is just asking for trouble. The whole thing was an excruciating train wreck. The saving grace, which I thought should have been highlighted more somehow, was how Michael’s promise inspired these children to work harder and stay in school…attaining a graduation rate of 90% versus the much lower rate for the rest of the school. Erin’s involvement was cutely naive as per the norm, but the employee of the month plotline suffered from some MAJOR plot holes. Why in the world would Jim trust any anonymous performance review sheet that Dwight gave him? He came off as an idiot. I really do like the idea, though, of Dwight or anyone else in the office playing pranks on Jim so as to undermine his authority. Of all the people in the office Jim would probably have the least authority over his peers just based on what they have seen from him for about a decade of office work. For years he slacked off, played pranks, and basically did nothing. It would make sense that people wouldn’t take him seriously as a boss. As it stand, though, I’m worried about the sheer deviousness of Dwight lately and now throwing Ryan into the mix. I’m not sure they have to be so devious and dark as to try and rid the world of Jim Halpert. I would find it much more fitting, as well as much more funny (and plausible), to see Ryan and Dwight just give Jim a relentless amount of his own medicine. Simple but annoying pranks that would irk Jim and would actually have plausibility as to why he wouldn’t retaliate or fire either worker since they could have everyone in the office speak on their behalf that Jim tortured them (well, Dwight at least) for years. It would almost be like pranking blackmail. It would force Jim to attone for his previous ways and take a stance on his own behavior from the past. Otherwise he could be branded a hypocrite. No one should take Jim’s straight laced bossing seriously at this point…I just wish they would come out and call him out on it. For instance in a recent episode Phyllis was chastized by Jim for taking a two hour lunch break with Bob Vance. Why didn’t she strike back with Jim’s history of leaving the office for hours at a time? What about when Jim left in the middle of the day to propose to Pam? What about the episode where Michael is gone for the whole day and Jim leaves right after him…taking the entire day out of the office to go see Pam? Come on writers…you have a lot to work with here!
