TVoholic.com: Full episode reviews of your favorite TV shows & news about television

The Office: Money

By fred | October 20, 2007

(S04E04) So I have been “complaining” about those new one-hour-long episode for The Office pretty much ever since it started, describing how it affected the show, and by affected I mean hurt.

Because they were written as two separate episodes, but with an effort to keep some kind of continuity between the two, usually ending up with a second episode, or second half, less funny that often went into unbelievable plot lines (kidnapping a pizza delivery boy or willingly crashing into a lake…) in order to fill out the full hour. It was stretched, you could tell, and it wasn’t a good thing.

This week we had the very last of those hour-long episodes, and for the occasion they did something very special : the best episode of the season so far!

This episode was pretty hilarious, although oddly enough I didn’t find myself laughing as much as I usually do watching the show. But this I believe is due to the way this episode has been written.

I’ve said before that The Office is best when it portrays actual office life, instead of adventuring itself to other places. And while, this time during the first half, it included a plot not relating to office life per-se, this isn’t a first for The Office, and just like their boat trip in the past, it was both touching and funny, and highly enjoyable for fans of the show.

Unlike any of the previous episodes of the season, this one actually really felt as one single episode, who happen to be one hour long, not two episodes put together. Sure, the first half was focusing more of Jim & Pam going on their first trip away together, nowhere else but in Dwight’s family farm, while later on it went more on Michael’s financial difficulties.

But nevertheless, it was all mixed together throughout the entire hour, and felt as a whole. And there were a lot of great, laughing out loud moments, but the overall tone of the episode was still a but different. A little less funny, a little more emotional.

And I mean that in a good way. I usually do not like such things, and it is actually one reason I love Seinfeld so much : unlike, say, Friends, they never went that way. Each and every single plot, character, occasion, event or whatever they had, met or used only served one purpose, and did so so brilliantly : make us laugh out loud.

I was so sick and tired at times or the whole Ross & Rachel relationship, or didn’t care that much for the tender moment of a new baby birth (to quote Robin, “It’s cute that their shoes are real little, but beyond that, what’s the draw?“).

But with The Office it’s different. The show always had a very unique pace, always played on both raw humor and (subtle) relationship plots. It never went only in the emotional place, never let the relationships took over the humor, and over the years I’ve obviously fallen for the show and all of its characters. I now care for them, and I am thrilled to see Jim & Pam finally together, and happy. And seeing Dwight suffered som much was surely funny at times, but you had to actually feel for the guy, because in the end, just like Jim, you actually care for him as well.

Posted in Reviews
Shows: The Office