The Office: Moroccan Christmas
By fred | December 12, 2008
(S05E10) For its last episode of 2008, The Office offered us a Christmas special episode, and I’m not exactly sure how I feel about it. It’s a very mixed bag of emotions I have for it right now, with on the one hand lots of things I did like and I thought were great, and really funny, and on the other hand an overall impression that it was missing the usual level of hilarity I’ve gotten used to expect from this show.
Looking at what went down this episode at Dunder-Mifflin, I guess it was all exactly what you would expect. We all know those people can be a little crazy, each in their own way, and they really only acted as you’d think they would, no one really went crazy over the line or out of character, it all was the sort of things they would do, but the thing is, that doesn’t make it right, or funny.
For instance, Michael almost “kidnapping” Meredith and trying to check her in to a rehab facility was nowhere near as crazy as when he took a pizza delivery hostage, I don’t think so. Because what Michael did this week was show us that, as crazy and mean as he can be sometimes, like towards Toby, he’s also someone who cares. Well, I’m not sure he cared more than he wanted to feel and look good, maybe, but either Michael was really trying and willing to help Meredith this week, in his own twisted way.
That he would trick her, pretending to go out for a drink, with the intention to in fact drive her to a rehab center against her will, that is just him. That he wouldn’t know people cannot be checked in against their will also fits him perfectly, let’s be honest. But in the end, I just didn’t think it was funny. He drove her there, he chased her because apparently she, too, didn’t know he wouldn’t be able to check her in against her will (something you’d really think she would know, I mean, doesn’t everybody?), that whole thing just wasn’t that funny to me.
Truth be told, while I thought that this episode had plenty of funny in it, from Jim’s good old prank to Dwight in the opening scene, to Reid of course using the themed party to smoke from his hookah, and it wasn’t tobacco let me tell you, to Dwight’s awesome ways of making money out of the poor parents who didn’t rush to the store early enough, to Michael’s comment to Kelly (”This is what every day would be like if you hadn’t left India.“) to the Schrute’s “five-finger” way of doing intervention (”Awareness, Education, Control, Acceptance, and Punching.“), to Toby getting a doll at a very expensive price for his daughter, to Phyllis torturing Angela much like she used to do herself, to Michael eventually concluding that he had to push Meredith to hit rock-bottom, this episode definitely had a lot of great stuff going on.
But overall, I kept feeling like it wasn’t one of the best offering from this show, that it wasn’t as laughs-inducing as some of the previous episodes have been, that many times things slowed down…Many one-liner or little things worked great, but the global things were lacking. Sometimes you watch this show, and you’re laughing for a full half-hour, because you’re still laughing at the first joke that a second comes along, then a third, and a fourth, and so on and so on. This week, you had time to enjoy your first laugh, relax, get in mood for another one before it would, eventually, come along. Okay maybe this is being way too harsh, but you catch the idea.
Still, I loved many things from this episode, and as I said everything that took place is exactly how you’d imagine those people would behave. Phyllis was having a real pleasure torturing Angela the way she did, and when Angela got a smile back on her face as she thought she found a way out, it didn’t last long before she realized how wrong she was, an Phyllis spilled it out to (almost) the entire office. (And the proud look on Dwight’s face from this point on was just great, by the way.)
All of a sudden everyone was more than uncomfortable, and then Andy walked in and played his sitar for Angela for what appeared to be a very, very long time. I have no idea what will happen next, but I’m just happy this whole love triangle is over, because I really don’t think they would dare and have Andy forgive her and continue with the wedding and all, he’s more likely to snap back to full-angry mode…
One last thing: cutest moment of the episode was definitely when Pam was telling how she knew what was going on between Angela and Dwight, and because it’s Christmas Jim let her have it. They’re just adorable. Also, she freaking gorgeous.
What did you think about this episode ? Would you agree, or am I wrong and this was as hilarious as the show can be for you ? Any guesses at to how Andy will react when he’ll find out about Angela and Dwight ?
Posted in Reviews
Shows: The Office
