The Office (US TV series)

By Myles What’s interesting about “Double Date” is that, to this point, Pam is the one who has been overreacting in this whole situation. Two people were made happier by Michael and Helene dating: Michael, and Helene. And while Pam might not have been pleased, both her mother and one of her friends (a...

By Myles What makes this episode work, in the end, is that it’s more about Michael Scott’s quest for happiness than it is about Pam’s reaction to the news of Michael and her mother dating, but what keeps it from really working is that we’re really only given Pam’s side of the story. Ultimately, I felt f...

By Myles It’s not that the show doesn’t work when it slows down like this, but it needs for something to be particularly interesting or clever for me to buy it. This episode had the potential for Michael to go completely overboard, which isn’t my favourite character trait, but instead he just kind of...

By Myles For now, thoughts on (deep breath) The Office, Community, Parks and Recreation, Glee, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Saturday Night Live, Modern Family, Cougar Town, The Middle and Greek (phew!). The Office – “Niagara” Parks and Recreation Community Modern Family

By Myles If last week’s episode of The Office, “Gossip,” was all about clearing the air from the season finale (having Pam’s pregnancy revealed to The Office), then “The Meeting” was similarly simple. The episode primarily exists to create a situation that will be used for comedy in future episod...

By Myles When The Office premiered last year, it was with an hour-long episode which broke a number of rules in terms of pacing and everything else. That was an episode that was about establishing a relationship between Michael and Holly, and about emphasizing the impact of Michael and Pam’s time a...

By Myles John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer: These two remain the heart of The Office, but neither were able to garner nominations, even with their respective fields opening up. Fischer is a particularly tough snub, as there was a lot of room in the category and some stalwarts kept her from grabbing h...

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By Myles In the end, though, I was really charmed by the episode, even if it was limited by its lack of scale: the episode never devolved into demeaning Michael, or Dwight being incompetent, or Jim and Pam losing their will to love. Rather, the episode was pretty much like one big stretching exercise...

By Myles As soon as Michael comes back to the Office flanked by his Michael Scott Paper Company cohorts and jumping from a giant paper circle with a question mark on it, it is clear that this “New” Michael Scott is in many ways the old Michael Scott, desperate for attention and in this instance desper...

By Myles With Michael Scott leading the charge for the single people, organizing amongst other things a singles mixer and a support group for bad relationships, and with Phyllis inviting Jim and Pam along on a one-joke lunch double date, there was something about the entire episode that felt rea...

By Myles I would be very interested to see what would happen if, instead of showing these as two parts of one episode, you instead took Michael and Pam’s storyline and turned it into one episode, and then took everything at The Office and ran it as a separate one. I think that one of them would have been t...

By Myles The show isn’t breaking new ground here: Michael gave a very similar type of lecture in to Ryan’s business class in “Business School,” complete with candy throwing. And the lecture was just as awkward, if not more so, in this instance: his various stereotypes he used to help remember peopl...

By Myles But overall, it was a funny episode that let the cast be the cast, and Michael’s episode ending “Oh, Hilary Swank - she’s hot” was perfectly delivered and was a great way to cap it off. Not genius, but a good enough transition into what I’m dreading most: a celebrity laden, hour long Super Bowl...

By Myles As for the episode’s B-plot, it felt like an excuse for them to get Michael out of the office, which I understand considering how powerful a force he often is on the show and could have distracted from the main storyline. However, it didn’t do anything for me: Michael spouts gibberish, Micha...

By Myles Season Five, Episode One If I had a time machine as opposed to a time capsule, I would go back in time and keep Amy Ryan from being nominated for that Oscar. Related Posts at Cultural Learnings Review: “Weight Loss”Cultural Learnings’ Coverage of The Office

By Myles Pam, really, was the showcase of this episode. This would be a smart Emmy reel for Fischer, considering how often she is in the episode and, more importantly, how much fun she gets to have vamping it up. Her sexy makeover was just perfect, over-the-top enough to seem abnormally present; comb...

By Myles What works about “Frame Toby” (Michael’s initial reaction to his return, Dwight’s contribution to the eponymous effort, the conclusion of that particular story arc) works fine, but it felt like there was a bigger story here. The last time Michael was this adversarial with a co-worked wa...

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By Myles What works so well for me about Michael’s stay in Manitoba’s capital is that he was actually successful: he didn’t completely strike out with the ladies, he didn’t completely mess up the big sale, and he didn’t create some sort of international controversy. Instead, he did everything rig...

By Myles My complaint about The Office recently was that it felt inorganic: that between the concerns over Pam and Jim's future, and the sad departure of Amy Ryan, and the battle between Dwight and Andy feeling like something we've dealt with too often in the past, last week's episode just felt "of...

By Myles The episode's attempt to be lighter was, admittedly, charming: Dwight applying to Cornell and throwing it in Andy's face out of spite for his upcoming nuptials with Angela. These storylines are always fun, because it's totally in character for Dwight despite his objections: if Jim did t...

By Myles I know that Holly can't stay forever, as Amy Ryan is an oscar-nominated actress and all, but she gives Michael a sort of humanity that helps balance the obnoxiousness. It's really strange that Holly thinks that Michael is too good to be true, and that it's only the Springsteen tickets that t...

By Myles But that's the charm of a good episode of "The Office," one where everyone can pick out a quotation, a scene, or a character and hold it up to some standard. That the episode spends more time with the major characters this early in the season might be giving the rest of the cast a limited opportu...

By Myles Holly and Michael's relationship is one of them, and one that offers some of the episode's sharpest moments. The episode never creates an explosion for the couple, never ends in one of those moments where Holly loses all faith in Michael: instead, what we get is small moments. Most notable,...

By Myles 30 Rock was the best comedy on television last season. It has the most critical buzz, the most high profile guest stars, the most clout amongst Television Elite, and after their surprise win last year have won almost everything under the sun (Except for the SAG, which The Office took home). W...

By Myles Synopsis: Peter discovers that he isn't an American citizen, and after embracing his Mexican roots discovers the struggles of the illegal immigrant in modern America. And there's fart jokes. Episode Submission: "Sally Returns" Episode Submission: "Local Ad"

By Myles First, let's discuss Amy Ryan, who seemed at first an odd choice for a comic role before really, really stepping up to the plate. Her interactions with Kevin and Michael, respectively, were note perfect - like Michael's best love interests in the past (Carol, for example), she toed the lin...

By Myles It was perfect because later Michael actually did say "Pam Pam Pam Pam," a great intra-episode callback that helped tie it all together. Combine with Michael's great episode-ending speech wherein he tears apart H&R Block, but stops short at the Air Force, and you have an episode that...

By Myles A lot of this is dependent on the version of Michael Scott that we see, and here he is at his most naive, desperate and yet also honest - this is a Michael Scott who of course doesn't know how to handle an employee being insubordinate, but when tasked with addressing the problem searches for ad...

By Myles So, yes, I am extremely late blogging about the most recent episode of The Office. This isn't because I didn't like it, but rather that after a long, long day of packing and moving things I didn't particularly feel like watching anything that I knew I would be viewing critically (It's inevit...

By Myles But, leaving the episode, is anyone really thinking about Michael? After Pam's landlord was given reason to hate Pam forever, the real story kicked in: Pam pondered moving, Pam tested the waters for moving in with Jim and that she wouldn't do it if she was engaged, and then Jim did it: he sai...

By Myles I wasn’t exactly desperate for a new show - I had gone most of the strike-forced hiatuses for my favourite shows without getting hooked on much new material, so surely I could last a weekend. However, perhaps it was the return of The Office and 30 Rock that sparked it; they were a high from whic...

By Myles And really, in this episode, Jim and Pam were reactionary and little more: they were there for their facial expressions, their awkwardness, and as our eyes into the madness. In reality, I was much more interested in Angela and Andy (And Dwight, later), as it is an intriguing relationship w...

By Myles more…) At 9pm EST this evening, viewers across America will tune into NBC (Or E!, or TV Guide Channel) and enjoy the coverage of the 2008 Golden Globe Awards News Conference. Yesterday I covered the TV Drama side of things, and this afternoon I’ve got the Comedy and Film awards. I’ll be postin...

By Myles He is the epitome of an Emmy darling, winning his third Emmy, but even James Spader knew he was stealing James Gandolfini's Emmy. My disgust is due to the sameness of it all: at least with Gervais he was a wildcard pick, Spader was as safe as it gets (And was taking Michael C. Hall's spot on the nom...