The Office: Business Ethics
By fred | October 10, 2008
(S05E02) Two weeks ago something amazing happened, something we all felt was incredibly huge, something that got us all very excited, I’m of course talking about Jim getting on one knee and proposing to Pam. This was only one little thing on the great season premiere of The Office, finally back for its fifth season, and we had to go two weeks before finding out what happened next.
But the wait was totally worth it, because once again this episode was one of the best episode of The Office. No really, everything was so perfect I’m sure it has to be ranked amongst the best episodes ever of the series, thus proven that this show is back and stronger than ever. This can’t be said about all the returning series on the air right now, but a few of them seem to be back with their A game, and The Office is definitely one of them.
So, two weeks, two weeks since they got engaged, at least for us it’s been two weeks. But Pam is still not at the office, and this week she was completely absent, and I did miss her. She was on the phone (a regular phone, not a video chat or anything like that) but that didn’t mean Jenna Fischer didn’t perfectly nailed her performance, with a perfect “wow” at Dwight’s comment (about Pam not being a virgin) or how she reacted when Michael entered the room.
But the reaction from the staff, or lack of one, was both funny, and a little sad I thought. It was funny because of what they were saying, and a huge contrast with the way I’m sure many of you reacted two weeks ago when Jim went on one knee, but thinking back I can’t help but feel like it was somewhat sad, too. Of course, it fits both the storyline and the characters perfectly that they wouldn’t care that much, because they all, we all knew it was coming. Still, not one person to say congratulations and seem happy for them, or just be polite, not one – except for Michael, who couldn’t restrain himself from tackling Jim, of course.
So Pam was MIA this week, and instead it’s another female employee of Dunder-Mifflin that took the lead and shined during this episode. I’m not sure I ever thought that I would ever loved a new character as much as I love the current ones, especially that quickly, but Holly is the best new thing that could’ve ever happened to the show. She’s a perfect fit, she is some sort of female-version of Michael, and Amy Ryan is doing a truly terrific performance on the show.
There’s a lot of times on this show where the characters don’t actually say anything, it’s all in the facial reactions, you see them react to what somebody else is saying or doing, you see on their faces their discomfort, displeasure, disagreement, or au contraire their satisfaction or enjoyment of a situation, and without a word they must convey a lot of emotions. It’s something that all actors of this show has now mastered, and so did Ryan as illustrated on many occasions this week.
Dunder-Mifflin is always quick to react, so months ago after the Ryan fiasco and now that he’s already been re-hired to work for them, they decided it was about time to get some seminar about ethics. You would imagine that given what’s going on with Michael it’s the kind of thing they’d be used to by now, that everyone would have already gone through such meetings and sign the papers, but it seems not.
Either that, or Michael was in charge of the meeting, sending Toby to sit back in a corner and be quiet while he did the show, so you can imagine how it went. Because while this was Holly’s first meeting ever here, and so she was anxious and determined to get it right, the only concern Michael had was that she might end up “losing the audience”, of course.
Often it’s been said that Holly and Michael were the same, but it’s not exactly true. She does understand him, and she’s kind of a dork much like he can be, but there’s a very important point on which they disagree. It’s not that Holly can see how she’s actually perceived by others while Michael couldn’t care less, it’s not that Holly actually cares about the rules and doing what’s right or expected of her, while Michael only want to be the star of the show, no it is how Michael sees the Scranton branch.
Because for Michael, this is a family. And it is really important, more than anything else. Michael didn’t care about the seminar, it’s true, and when it got everyone to confess their sins he really wouldn’t have reported anyone, but the reason he didn’t want to report Meredith isn’t because he knew it was best for the company, or that they’d be interested in the discount they were getting, it’s because she’s part of the family.
Posted in Reviews
Shows: The Office
