The Office Season 4 Thread

[LL!]

What was up with the Jim/Pam 'breakup'? Obviously it was staged, but it never came up again...?

Pretty sure it was just one of those cynical jokes between themselves.

[Guest The Ryan]

What was up with the Jim/Pam 'breakup'? Obviously it was staged, but it never came up again...?

Pretty sure it was just one of those cynical jokes between themselves.

[TheSqauredCircleMessiah]

What was up with the Jim/Pam 'breakup'? Obviously it was staged, but it never came up again...?

Pretty sure it was just one of those cynical jokes between themselves.

[Ash J. Williams]

Creed using toner to make his hair black to "look young" was great.

[Fitzy]

Creed using toner to make his hair black to "look young" was great.

I thought it was implied that Creed used the black ink from the printer to dye his hair.

[Ash J. Williams]

Creed using toner to make his hair black to "look young" was great.

I thought it was implied that Creed used the black ink from the printer to dye his hair.

[Ananas]

Now that was far better than the premiere. I'm pretty sure at this point that Ryan's tranformation is a little in-joke reference to one of the show's executive producers and the new head of NBC, Ben Silverman, right down to the shaggy facial hair, crazy lifestyle, the talk of radical change and calling himself a "wunderkind". Even the story that brought Ryan to the job was eerily similar to the Memorial Day weekend that saw Silverman get the top NBC job, and Kevin Reilly landing the job at FOX soon after lead to the same inevitable discomfort and close proximity as was seen with Jan on Thursday (for those of you curious, Kevin Reilly cameoed on The Office last year as Dwight's boss at Staples). It was funny for the new position the office finds itself in with Ryan in the job anyway, but to people who follow the network politics it's a nice additional in-joke. The rest of the episode: Michael following "technology" into a river, Creed's paranoia, Kelly's attempts to woo Ryan, Dwight and Michael taking the basket back, all great. And Tobey as the sad sack is beginning to rival Ted the Lawyer on Scrubs. That was just leaps and bounds ahead of a season premiere that was just average.

[GoGo Yubari]

The highlight of that episode by far was Andy and Kevin being awesomely lame. Kevin getting in on referring to Jim as "Tuna" was fantastic.

EDIT: Also, Ryan's sleazeball lie about Karen asking him out via e-mail was a great bit of continuity.

Edited October 8, 2007 by GoGo Yubari

[TheSqauredCircleMessiah]

Best episode of the series last night, hands down. I loved every second of it, I love the depth they are giving all the characters.

[Ananas]

It's a shame this is the last of the one hour Offices for now, because these last two have been fantastic. There seems to be a push towards more hour-long comedies, and I wonder if this was a test run for a permanent switch in the show's runtime. I actually thought last week's was probably the best they've done yet, but this one held up extremely well too. It's always refreshing to see an episode where the pile-on effect doesn't kick in with Michael; where we get to see him in some way redeem himself (or at least in the eyes of the other characters). Not enough Creed though. We need more Creed.

And now, next week, we've got all 4 of the best comedies on television back on one night. Can't wait.

[thuganomic]

This season of the Office has seen a definite shift in tone. If it was just for a half hour, it'd be fine since we're only reminded of their problems once, or it's alluded to. However, in this last episode, we've had Michael getting another job because he's trapped in a relationship with Jan, him getting abused by both his bosses, him being forced to quit (something that hurts a lot for such a proud individual), and finally, him actually thinking of running away. If you say these things out loud, it's like when Jim lists all of his pranks on Dwight, it doesn't sound that funny. Don't even get me started on Dwight breaking down. I mean, the Office has always been a show that's been funny on a slightly uncomfortable level, but with these last few episodes (and the one where Michael threatened to commit suicide), it's just been getting more and more depressing. Hopefully, going back to the half-hour format will get the Office back to its perky self.

Highlights though:

The office's discussion on whomever or whoever, Kelly being shocked that Darryl would pick his son over her, Jim & Pam continuing to go strong, Kevin's new band and how pissed he was that nobody went to support it, and Pam remarking that nobody would win if Andy and Angela started dating.

[TheSqauredCircleMessiah]

Best line came from Pam in the cold open

"He's watching Million Dollar Baby! (pause) He's going to try to kill me."

Edited October 20, 2007 by TheSqauredCircleMessiah

[Chris the Human]

I've really enjoyed these longer, more in depth episodes. If I had one criticism of the series in the past, it's been that the development of most characters outside of the big four (Dwight, Michael, Jim, and Pam) had been kept to a minimum. And even when it came to these guys, it would often take a few weeks for anything meaningful to come up. These past three episodes, they've made Michael a far more three dimensional character (ditto Jan, who was grating on my nerves). Dwight and Jim finding some kind of mutual respect for one another, however short lived, was a nice moment too.

It's a pity we're back to half hour ones now. They're more laugh filled, I think, but a little less emotionally satisfying.

A small thing I loved was Michael actually being liked at his other job, and not even realising it.

[RPS]

"I DECLARE BANKRUPTCY!'"

and

"STEAK!"... "COAT"

are now staples in my life. Great episode this week. I love the Office because its not only funny, but very VERY human. These are real characters and you actually care for them, but you still can laugh at their misfortunes.