The Office running thread

All the people complaining that moralistic Angela wouldn't have a baby out of wedlock ... didn't her dalliance with Dwight when she was engaged to Andy show that she's not as pious as she'd like people to think? Don't get me wrong, I think the baby-by-contract is far-fetched, but I don't think it's out of the blue for the writers to have her doing (or at least considering) something that on the surface would seem out of character.

 

But Angela is all about appearances. So she can get away with her dalliances with Dwight because it is kept secret, and still publicly lambaste anybody who acts like less than a puritan. She's basically a huge hypocrite, and has been since the early days of the show.

But having a baby out of wedlock, by contract no less, would be a completely public event. Angela seeks out Dwight for sex because she enjoys pleasure just as much as anybody else. She just likes to act like she doesn't. A pregnancy is a public event that would expose her, and she would never, ever, ever go for it.

 

Which means they are getting married, followed by Erin and Andy... yay for three office weddings.

 

Yay, I took Angela's interest to be her thinking she could sleep with Dwight and get him to fall in love with her again. That is completely in character.

 

I wouldn't say that they're back to clicking on all cylinders yet or anything, but I think the old spirit of the show was definitely there tonight. Even involved Darryl and Todd Packer. Feels like they're trying to do a bit of a reset to address some of the issues that myself and others have noted.

The Erin and her brother thing, however, was straight-up cribbed from a "Friends" episode when Rachel's boyfriend had that sort of weird touchy-feely relationship with her brother.

 

I can't wait to change my avatar to St. Patrick's Day Kevin.

 

I wish Todd Packer had interacted with some of the other office people. That's what makes the character funny, because Michael thinks he's hilarious while everyone else obviously finds him absolutely repugnant. The humor is lost when there's no straight man.

 

Thought last night's episode was great. It really did feel like a throwback to the first few seasons (maybe it was Packer's appearance). Loved Quad desk.

But I thought the same thing Waylon did with Erin and the brother. Immediately brought that Friends episode to mind. (Although, it also caused me to think of the "Simpsons did it..." South Park episode.)

 

I thought "Quad Desk"/"Megadesk" was the worst element of the episode. Got into that zaniness category I'm not a fan of. First of all, Dwight is unlikely to be "gaming" at his desk, because he's the work narc who is making sure everyone else is doing their job and not surfing the Web or gaming, right? Second, they just played it too long. Third, the final scene where Jim had constructed "Quad Desk" was REALLY off the wall. The guy spends the entire episode feeling guilty about being at work while his wife is home struggling with the newborn - an absolutely dead-on slice of life there, by the way, as the father of a baby myself - but he has time to construct a fortress of desks? And everyone is just going about their work as usual? In reality, a prank like that would be a story told for generations at that particular office.

But, that being said, the final scene after the commercial I can usually give a little bit more of a pass to. It seems like it's always been a repository for a slapsticky, wacky scene, all the way back to Dwight and Mose playing table tennis. Like more of an out take than canonical.

The more I think about it, the more I'm stunned they just absolutely straight-up, brazenly ripped off a punch line from "Friends." You'd have to think the two shows' audiences overlap a lot, correct? I understand that sitcoms recycle their story arcs - Sam and Diane begat Ross and Rachel began Jim and Pam - but this was pretty specific. Maybe it was some sort of homage to NBC Thursday nights past ...

 

I turned it off after 15 minutes to watch The First 48. Megadesk and Michael being a complete goof to the boss (plane tickets?) was just falling very flat with me.

Sorry I missed the great Todd Packer, though. I'll finish it up this weekend on the DVR.

 

I always think it's weird looking at the comments after reviews of the episode how much people love the stuff that I have to suspend my disbelief too far to buy.

For example, posts after this ep along the lines of, "I was rolling on the floor with laughter at 'Quad Desk'!"

Really?

 

I have this before but Michael Scott's character just ruins the show for me.
He is the least believable boss of all-time ..