The Office: Heavy Competition
By fred | April 17, 2009
(S05E22) This week we found a few things on the show, there was a little let down, some disappointment (or incomprehension) and a whole lot of awesome. Naturally, the later was the most important thing of all, and made the episode such a delightful moment in the end. And that is why I think I won’t really talk about that odd B-plot we had this week, which really didn’t work.
Not only that, but it seemed quite inappropriate to me. What I mean by this, because we all known inappropriate behaviors have been happening for a long time, is that given his current situation, it seemed incredibly odd (to me) that Jim would act the way he did, not to mention it wasn’t really as good as any of the things he usually does.
His pranks on Dwight have been incredibly creative & funny in the past, but this one was merely okay I thought. And again, when your new boss already doesn’t think much of you, and doesn’t seem to value you all that much nor to see you as a very professional employee, but one who likes to mokes memos about work ethic instead of doing some actual work (not to mention that rundown incident), would Jim really be doing this right now? What would he have done if Charles caught him in the middle of it at the most inappropriate of times?
Anyways, as I said, let’s not talk about it. And a quick mention of the opening credits, just to say how incredibly sad I was not to see the new MSPC version back. Not that I dislike the old ones, but I really hoped that for as long as Michael is working on his own company, they’d keep those new credits up.
All that said, I am loving the Michael Scott Paper Company plot even more that I thought I would, it has injected lots of fresh new energy into the show, and allows for such great stuff. It’s not only to see the three of them waste time as they can, though on that note seeing them tossing cheese puffs into each other’s mouths was just awesome, and to see Pam hit as she was just yawning was perfect (up to the one stuck in her air). Brilliant.
But the other great thing about this plot, is that Michael isn’t (just) the boss anymore, he’s also a salesman. And if during all those years at DM we’ve always known he had a talent for it, we barely ever saw him in action. The greatest part of this whole thing is that now not only do we get to see Michael do what he does best, but we also see him fighting Dwight.
Often those two put together bring up the most crazy elements of the show, with a tendency to get a little too cartoonish every once in a while, but here they never crossed the line, not even Dwight stripping down to show he’s not wired.
It’s really fun to see Michael work his people skills, and the fight between him & Dwight was just perfect, absolutely loved to see Michael use movie lines of course in his exchange with Dwight, or so brilliantly tell Dwight he would steal his client while keeping him on the phone, or to see Dwight getting all angry while driving (”Are you saying you invented paper!!?“), it was all perfect, including both their arguments as to why they’re the best choice, and of course Michael’s explanation for what the colors he used mean, which is that they all mean he should shut up about it. So Michael.
About that though, I was surprised Michael didn’t seem the least concerned that his client files had been stolen by Dwight. Shouldn’t that be a huge concern, both that he lost all those info, and that they’re in the hands of the competition??
Again, ignoring the B-plot which I didn’t like, this was another brilliant installment of a show that, with this latest development of the Michael Scott Paper Company, just got even better than it already was. Here’s to hoping that company does succeed!
What did everybody else think?
Posted in Reviews
Shows: The Office
