Monsters of Television

MEGADESK!

Save our show.

Let’s make a sandwich, shall we?

Something good, something good. Oh, so this felt like a great dedication to actual work environment. It’s been so long since we’ve seen The Office actually tackle common issues of the American workplace rather than get wrapped up in its own idiosyncrasies. I know the theme of the season has been how much the economy has devastated business but what makes The Office enjoyable (and, probably, the reason for its being) is that, like Office Space or any other workplace comedy, it hits on the commonalities of working in an office. Everyone has been in that situation where either they are new or a higher-up is in town and you don’t want to be the first one to leave, no matter how much work you have left. For them do it while dressed up for St Patrick’s Day, which is, let’s face it, a lesser holiday, makes it feel all the more ridiculous. There was a strong showing by the bit part characters in this episode, especially Meredith (one of those characters that rarely gets enough screen time). Michael showed up by eventually standing up to Jo and dismissing his employees. Completely believable and true to Michael’s character. Which makes the entire first act strange.

I’ve seen a lot of bizarre things on The Office. I’ve seen a girl get tagged with a purple marker in a quasi-racist effort to tell two Asian servers apart. I’ve witness the effects of Packer doing something so vile to Michael’s carpet that it had to be removed and thrown out. I watched the merger initiation process. But what I’ve never seen, is Michael be a complete suck-up.

Michael certainly has his moments where he’s dedicated to his boss but in his own quirky way. He’d sing into the phone, making song lyrics based on the person’s name. He believed his connections to people to be stronger than they actually are (David Wallace for example). But I’ve never seen Michael act like — a spineless version of Dwight. But it was even more pathetic than that.

I get that Jo is a powerful person and that she doesn’t have years of Scott resistance that Jan and David had built up, so maybe Michael is easing her into liking him. He was never, however, this pathetic with anyone else. Laughing needlessly at jokes, hovering over her shoulder to whisper descriptions of coworkers (like a corporate wife), constantly selling himself to her. About the only thing that made sense during this middle section of the episode was his plane ticket to Tallahassee. That makes sense to Michael’s character, to go overboard with her flippant invitation. Everything else seemed weird.

But, just as I suspected, Jim and Dwight will save this show. The show might be a little large in scope for them but they at least tried to save this episode. Dwight shouting “megadesk” to the heavens is the first time in a long while that I actually laughed at The Office. No, really. I laughed. These are the interactions that made this show and resetting Jim to his original station, even as a more mature, bechild-ed man, is going to open avenues for the writers in terms of sub-A stories. Quaddesk was also impressive. Does Quaddesk have two D’s? Overall, you can see their relationship get back on track (the call into the conference room at the end put a smile on my face) which can only mean good things. It’s nice to see the baby and his time in management hasn’t destroyed Jim’s jackassery.

Other things about this episode:

• I like that Darryl showed that initiative with the packaging efficiencies. Not only is that true to character but also allowed the nice semi-drama in the effects of his promotion. When his fellow warehouse workers come up to “break him out” and make fun of his tucked-in shirt, you can tell that Darryl, while proud to be moving up (complete with The Jeffersons theme), his place in the company and relationships with his coworkers has been built on the inferiority/handicap of Upstairs. Will we continue to see Darryl in Jim’s old office or does Darryl take his more comfortable place in the warehouse?
• The Andy/Erin thing is a bit off for me. Their relationship is cute and I’m glad they aren’t trying as hard to recreate Jam. Instead we have this comedic, almost parodic, variation on the previous courting process in that the obstacles to their romance is not as dramatic as Jim and Pam’s were but just bumbling rom-com fodder. Also: interesting that Erin’s backstory involves a series of foster families. Did we know that she didn’t have her parents growing up? Was that in a webisode or something?
• Do we have a reason for Ryan’s sartorial choices or, as producer of the show, did BJ Novak decide his character would have a bunch of cool clothes so he could take them home after the wrap party?

Hey! I didn’t hate this one!