The Office: Baby Shower
By fred | October 17, 2008
(S05E03) This episode was pretty special… Okay, so you know how The Office is, before anything else, a sitcom. It’s a show you tune in every Thursday because you want to have a great time and laugh out loud for half an hour – because the show really is that funny. But at the same time it’s a show very unique because we all fell in love with all the characters and are now very much attached to them.
Not just that we care about them, watching a show for five years and not giving a crap about any of the characters would probably by a sign that there’s a problem somewhere, but we really let ourselves get emotionally involved, because the show has a heart (some call it Jam) and is not just always going for the laughs, many of the great moments of the show aren’t in our memories for the laughs they generated, but the emotions they were filled with and the way we felt watching.
That’s the beauty of the show, and that’s also why I think this was a very good episode, by the time it ended I thought it was pretty great, yet I didn’t find it that funny. Truth be told, before the last scenes, as I was watching the episode I was thinking how disappointed in the episode I was.
Because I do not like Jan, it’s been a while now that I really don’t like her, or where that stupid storyline is going with Michael and the baby that isn’t his. As Jim explained, “this baby will be related to Michael through… delusion.” I know Michael is who he is, but that’s always been a bit much to me, and to see Jan having no consideration whatsoever for Michael, not calling to have him there for the birth, not letting him hold the baby, then putting Michael in charge – in the middle of a work day mind you – so she can go take a nap…
She’s just using him, as a baby sitter or anything she’d need, whenever she needs. And she’s still crazy, singing for hours and forbidding him to date Holly. Now really, I hate her and I wish she would go away, for good. And the entire opening, Dwight giving birth to a watermelon, didn’t make me laughs so much I have to say. Well, it was mixed… some things were funny, other a bit too much I felt. But it was nothing compared to the stroller subplot, which was useless, boring, and absolutely not funny. And it seems in the end the thing was fine, Dwight failed to break it, which leads me to believe this was nothing but a blatant product placement, an actual commercial within the show, leaving me puking.
In other news I didn’t, really didn’t like that Pam was still away, and that apparently the newly engaged couple isn’t being a couple all that often, and they were quite off sync indeed. It felt like even though this should be a new and exciting beginning for them, all that was there was emerging difficulties and the likes. For a long moment there I really wasn’t liking this episode all that much, because I didn’t like what was happening, and because it wasn’t very funny.
But don’t ever think the brilliant writers will go down the (obvious) road you imagine they will, because they won’t. We all know how Michael has changed, is changing, thanks to Holly. That’s why he went and warned her that he would be cold to her for the rest of the day, because Jan was in the “terminal stages” of her pregnancy and Holly is one of the most attractive people in the office – alongside Ryan, of course. And then as expected, even though she wasn’t pregnant anymore, Michael was, well, quite “cold”, insulting even, to Holly.
But the lovely Holly has come to know Michael already and she knew better. And then, when Jan told Michael not to date Holly, cause she’s jealous and a control freak and she saw how compatible they were, and that there was something going on there, I really thought for a moment Michael would cave in and go “break up” with Holly or something.
Only Michael isn’t the same guy now that Holly is around, and this is where the episode became good, great even, despite still not being very funny. Michael just walked up to Holly, and gave her a long hug. Awww… This was such a cute and perfect moment, it’s like right now, they have become the new Jim & Pam, they are the perfect couple destined to be together, and the smile it put on Holly’s face, priceless.
Special message to the producers of the show : please, do whatever it takes, but make Amy Ryan a regular on the show, she’s way too good you cannot let her go!!
Posted in Reviews
Shows: The Office
