The Office running thread

I was expecting Michael to give up the list, and then have Dunder Mifflen buy out the paper company for like 1.6 million. Then the overjoyed family would thank Michael because they hated selling paper.

 

thanks arnold, boston.

 

I half-expected the list to be a fake, and Michael would have it blow up in his face.

 

me, too. and when in the fuck are you going to move to the PNW?

 

i really didn't find this episode too funny. i thought this was an average effot at best. Not sure what it was exactly, but it just didn't leave me cracking up like normal.

 

No, JD, it's not like I'm looking for a new character trait each episode. It's just that I felt like I've seen this episode before ... it was very stale. I was actually watching the clock to see when 9:30 would hit and it would be over so I could watch a movie. I've never had that feeling before with this show.

 

Nah. Not going to talk you out of it. Thought it was ok. Didn't quite think it sucked, but didn't think it was great. Stanley's impassioned plea for hope speech was the highlight for me. I like the idea of office arguments about a specific issue (because I have them all the time with my co-workers) but I didn't like how the two plots seemed completely independent of one another. It was like the B.J. Novak had two ideas and couldn't figure out how to connect them in any way, so he didn't even bother. And even Kelly's line about "If you don't think Hillary Swank is hot then you don't think I'm hot" seemed a little too forced for me.

It's interesting, but I was watching Seinfeld re-runs the other day and it's amazing how many duds there were throughout the series run. I think we tend to think of it as brilliance every week, and that's just not the case. I think because we live to deconstruct everything now, it's easy to think "well, The Office is kind of shitty this season" (which is what some of the commentors on Sepinwall's blog are doing), after a pretty meh episode intead of just shrugging your shoulders and calling it pitch the writer's fouled off.

Novak's writing is a little hit or miss for me. I thought "Chair Model" his most recent episode prior to this was a little silly. On the other hand, Paul Lieberstein always pens my favorite eps, so I'm looking forward to the post Super Bowl one.

Also, I think that after Michael said Swank was hot, and they all cheered, Dwight should have totally said something that indicated he was voting the other way, making it, yet again, a tie.

 

I'll ask this here because I never see the eps until 2-3 days later and because I don't pay attention to who writes which.

Do the writers who are on the show (Novak, Kaling, Lieberstein) have a pattern when they write? That is to say, do they write more for their personal character? Less? Do Kaling's eps have little Kelly, or a larger portion? I didn't know if it was clear there was some sort of an agreement to not focus on yourself in your own eps, or what. Or do they just go with whatever?

 

In Novak's episodes, you'll typically see him write more stuff for his character Ryan.

I think he's the worst of the three.

Not quite sure about the other two (although Lieberstein did write "Goodbye Toby") or how the writers arrange things. Kaling has written many of the best scenes in the series and I typically enjoy her work the best. I like the subtle touches you see in Lieberstein's episodes.

 

Gotcha. Understood. Thanks.

 

Enjoyed the episode a lot- to each his or her own, I guess.

 

Kaling has said she often writes herself out of episodes for no reason other than she found out you get paid the same amount per episode if you're in one scene or all of them.