It just occured to me that the fruit flies were probably there because the vending machine isn't refrigerated, so the fruit spoiled quickly. Oh well, at least it kept the staff from eating chips for a few weeks.

Angela bring pregnant with a little Schrute would be AWESOME. Unfortunately, I don't think her breasts are big enough.

Oh yeah, I can totally see Andy flipping his shit this season. He's a ticking time bomb as it is, as he flew off the handle very easily in his early appearances. He's been keeping it all bottled up inside since.

I think the guy from class is gonna turn into Pam's stalker, and it will put Jim in all sorts of funny awkward situations.

I totally thought that Pam was going to leave Jim, or at least start to get feelings for, the guy in her class (and of course, that could still happen, but doesn't seem as likely with the proposal). This whole episode was just fantastic from beginning to end, with Holly really developing, being embarrassed time after time and Michael trying to woo her with both his style and Jim's.

Ryan turning over a court-appointed new leaf while desperately trying to cling to his past success was great, as was Michael once again copying him. Jim's proposal to Pam was somewhat unexpected, while I loved everything involving Angela and Andy, with him being aloof to her cheating on him with Dwight constantly, and then them actually having some kind of common ground at one point.

The weight loss stuff was excellent - it was handled well with everyone, and allowed Kelly to shine, while Stanley grew a bit as someone trying to improve himself. Season 5 started off with a bang, and this episode really reminded me of the show's pre-S4 peak, with everything clicking. The ep ending with Toby in a neck halo was certainly unexpected, but perfectly in keeping with his character being unable to catch a break - I hope he comes back, but not too quickly, as I love the Michael-Holly stuff now.

Just curious if anyone else thought that after Angela buzzed Dwight and then got distracted by Andy and never went down to the warehouse, that the next time, Dwight would ignore her out of spite.

Wasn't Angela pregnant in real life? I don't know if she was during tapings or still is but that could be a hint as to what will happen.

Great episode. "Broccoli Rob" is my new favorite nickname.

Angela was pregnant IRL last season, which is why her belly was hidden by something in nearly every scene she was in after the strike. She gave birth shortly after the finale, I guess.

This episode ruled. I have very high hopes for this season now.

How many weeks were "shown" in the weight loss gimmick? Wasn't it only like 6? I think the NYC thing was a 12 week program, which would mean a few more weeks apart.





YES. I totally think the art school guy was just that - a red herring - and that the most unconventional thing they could do with PB&J is to be totally conventional and just let them be happy together. How many of us, I know I was, for the first 2 seasons were expecting the Who's the Boss spot where Pam & Jim would wait till the very last season -maybe even the very last episode- to get together. And that made it all the greater mind fuck when Jim spills his guts at the end of Season 2 (TWO?!) -- then them being apart in season three created the sense of tension (for lack of a better word) in the viewer... a lack of faith, on the viewer's end, in them getting together. Something would always keep them apart and it didn't and then bang they were together and now everybody is looking for something that tears them apart, so the most unconventional thing to do is just to keep them together as the happy normal center in an unhappy and very not normal environment.

And yes -- a Bob Vance vs. Dwight showdown would have been amazing. That's who I thought she was calling too.

I love how the show continually presents different sides to the characters. Andy is an annoying doofus, but they've successfully made us care about him. I actually felt bad for the guy last night. And the great part is that, unlike lots of tv shows, they don't have to change the character to change how we feel about them. Andy is still just as annoying and just as much of a doofus, but we give a damn about his feelings now. Good writing.

I agree whole-heartedly. I felt they very similarly "humanized" Dwight last season very sucessfully.

The only even minor complaint I can come up with was that they switched it to fullscreen versus
the normal widescreen view. Hopefully it's not a season-long thing caused by too many JAM shippers
complaining about the "stupid black bars."

Am glad someone else said something about this because it was pissing me off.

FYI, if your cable company gives you NBC-HD, that will give you wide screen.

WTF? No Office on Thursday according to my TV. Boooooooooooooooooo!

Rob

Wow, you're right. That sucks. They're taking a week off, then back on 10/9.

Sarah Ave Maria Von Iditorod will make just as big a fool of herself as Michael Scott does. It may be just as entertaining.

I really don't get decisions like this. Why start the new season knowing it's gonna have it's momentum interupted immediatly? That stupid Earl show has back-to-back episodes. Why not squeeze the Office in?

Rob

Yeah, they should have done the premiere this week, rather than skipping a week.

Vice Presidential debate is this week.

Well, the premiere was kind of a stand-alone detailing what happened over the summer, so there's not too much momentum to be lost over the course of a skip week. There's also no way to "squeeze The Ofiice in" because Earl's on at 7, and the first few episodes of The Office are hour longs again this year. I'm sure more people would be bitching about missing the episode if they moved it to 7pm one week and then back to 8pm the next, it'd also screw with the ratings.

Then it should have just began next week. It makes no logic (tm Konnan) to air the debut and then immediatly skip a week.

Rob

30 minute new Office episode airs tomorrow.

Rob

After the Office tonight is a SNL Weekend Update special. Should be pretty good.


Tonight Michael and Holly better hook up, dammit.

I don't think I've ever laughed so hard at anything from The Office as I did when Jim was talking to Andy about Battlestar Galactica and Dwight could not chime in and correct him.

The end of the conversation from Andy was hilarious as well. "That...doesn't sound right."

Really good episode, I thought. Needs more Pam, though.

OH and the hug from Michael to Jim was awesome too.

Not bad tonight, with some great LOL moments I thought. The Michael & Holly pairing keeps getting better as you could see the parts where Holly was unsure how to take Michael b/c of his lax attitude regarding the job. But the demand for everyone to attend the rest of her meeting and that little glance exchange were really great.

I also liked that NO ONE except Michael cared about Jim & Pam's engagement.

The Jim & Dwight subplot wasn't one of their best but Jim's blatant mocking of Battlestar Galactica saved it.

"The bread is poisoned!"

I lost it.

"Your family is not your family, as you have been cuckolded by a stronger male."

Oh yes, Andy, that actually happened.

They sort of made me dislike Holly here, which I guess was the goal as they lead towards phasing her out. It's weird that she actually tries to get a member of Michael's "family" fired, which is far worse than anything that HR killjoy Toby did, and Michael still stands up for her.

Did Pam block out Phylis' reaction to her relationship with Jim being made public? She should have known that Jim was right to keep it under wraps. These people are not to be trusted with anything. They are unethical.

Not really. Michael hated Toby, for no reason whatsoever. He likes Holly, and was obviously willing to yell at the office to give her their attention if it meant he didn't lose a chance at making a relationship with her.

I don't think there was anything weird about it. If anything, it seemed to be a step forward for his character as he swallowed his pride a little bit to "do the right thing" and help her avoid being let go by corporate.

EDIT: And the more I think about it, the more I like Ryan's new approach of being a little more talkative. Some of B.J. Novak's talking heads in Seasons 2 & 3 were funny in that he could've left the job but chose not to. But at the same time, they got a little boring because he DIDN'T leave and was complaining to complain. This is something new.

And also, I think the show needs Pam to return to the office sooner than later. Her not being physically in this episode pretty much put Jim in his other subplot partnership with Dwight, and that wasn't nearly as strong of a prank as ones in the past.

"If you don't enter the conference room, I will kill you"...

That made me laugh more than anything.


Dave

The Office - Another fantastic episode, and a great character builder and arc episode as opposed to an all out hilarious episode like the premier was. Although this did feature the Jim/Andy "Battlestar Galactica" conversation, and that was the funniest minute or so of TV in a long while.

I'm guess I'm a strange bird...I didn't laugh at all watching it live, but on second viewing later on, I cracked up a bunch.

Is that weird?
ML

I think Holly (and Toby, for that matter) seeing Dunder Mifflin as a work place rather than a family pretty much gets to the whole root of Michael's hatred for HR reps.

Meredith as the Hammermill hooker ruled, and I loved the expression Michael shot Holly when she said it wasn't family, but a workplace. Pam only being in the cold open was a little strange, but fit the episode, and I liked that the engagement was just brought up there - it looks like they're going to take their time with it, and that's a good thing. Dwight's slowly-building rage towards Jim's defamation of Battlestar Galactica was awesome - especially at the end when he was twisting paper around to avoid getting involved.

I actually like the the fact that there wasn't actually a JAM moment other than the engagement announcement and Michaels Flying Tackle.

The whole angle with Jim and Pam was almost getting Friends-esque to me and it was a nice relief not to have it on this episode.

That being said, Jim "timing" Dwights time wasting was great....I'm a sucker for Dwight's Sly Looks (after the 19 min interlude) btw.

I don't think that's odd at all. I usually enjoy the Office watching it live, but I find myself liking it more with another viewing. I don't know if I'm just catching stuff I didn't the first time or what, but there are some shows I always seem to like more on a second watch, and The Office is one of them.

"You are a thief of joy." That made me bust out laughing. That and Dumbledore Calrissian. Very good episode, although more Pam would have been nice, but the episode worked fine without her. Not enough Kevin or Creed though. In a show about ethics, I kept waiting for a Creed talking head.

I know it's not much, but check the deleted scene.....


http://www.officetally.com/business-ethics-deleted-scenes


Dave

My, my, my...Phyllis had quite the honeymoon, didn't she?
Lord that was great, and so random...

An ostrich in a soccer uniform, lol.

Having given the episode a second watch, I thought it was ok. The Battlestar Galactica stuff was great. The ethics meeting was solid. The rest was a little short on jokes.

I thought this was the funniest bit of dialog in the show, honestly:

Andy: Little close to my engagement there, Tuna. What's your game here?
Jim Halpert: To get married.

Stupid fuckin DVR cut out between Michael moving in to hug Holly and the commercial? What happened?

He asked Holly out and she said yes. Michael said he got a connection more with her than the baby or something like that.

I enjoyed this episode quite a bit. The opening was a hoot, and Dwight brought the goods tonight. It felt more like a season 2 episode in a way because it was mainly just so light-hearted yet it had a purpose to it. I loved it. I also felt the closer was very strong with Jim/Pam. Their admission of having an off-day yet still sensing what each other is saying was really cool. Overall a great episode.

Oh, and did I really hear Michael go on about golden showers? How fucking weird, huh?

Golden shower line was AWESOME!

Michael said he felt nothing when he held the baby but felt something when he held Holly. *nudge nudge wink wink*

Rob

I didn't really understand this piece. Was it to say "We're not perfect, but we will be ok" ?

I thought the tag was really cute. It's saying that they may have had a bad day in being able to connect because of the distance between them, but they connect as people because they pretty much say the exact same things to each other and express the same sentiments, and that's what really matters. I will now make my way to TWoP and join there now, thank you.

I love that it took being pissed at Jan (finally!) to make Michael go for Holly. That was a pretty awkward hug, but she seemed touched. That will probably describe their relationship: awkward, yet touching.

I wonder if Dwight broke that stroller. He put it through the fuckin' ringer, and brought the goods in general this episode. Stanley comparing himself to a pregnant woman was awesome. Angela's baby pic was freaky. She looked like pure evil. I also love that Jan parked in a non-parking spot. I refer to that as Entitlement Parking. If you are an entitled person with no regard for others, you park in the spot filled with diagonal lines right in front of the entrance. The other day, two of my coworkers bitched a guy out for backing his van full of empties into that space (which also houses a ramp) and made him leave. God, I hate those people.

Has anyone watched the Ryan Koh answers ‘Business Ethics’ questions on NBC.com?

He addresses continuity errors in the episode he wrote, such as Meredith sleeping with a Hammermill rep to get discounts on paper, despite there being a bit in The Convention where Michael seals a deal for Dunder Mifflin to sell Hammermill for the first time. And has absolutely no answer for anything basically saying "Uh, I didn't really know of any other paper companies besides Hammermill, so don't worry about the continuity errors" - horse shit, I say.

I loved the episode, loved everything with Dwight acting silly and love everything Holly touches. Best cold open in a while and best Stanley talking head. Really liked the Andy/Angela bit. Good stuff all around. Art school is a brilliant tool because we *still* aren't getting to see Jim & Pam just be happy and they are stretching it out even further.

A good episode, but not a great one. I loved the moment at the end with Michael and Holly, but even moreso the moment at the end with Pam and Jim. That was such a clever little bit of writing. The writers know that most fans expect the cliche "sitcom couple gets together then must break up to ensure the show stays fresh" routine, so they give that to us. But, at the end of the show they prove why The Office is such a smart show by turning that cliche on its ear and showing that it was just a bad day and that they are still just as connected as ever. The rest of the episode was funny in some places, not funny in others, so, good episode, but not a great one.

Was anyone else expecting something bad to happen to Pam at the end as she's walking out of the laundromat?

I thought for sure she was going to get mugged, especially after they both talked about her being safe.

Yeah, I had that vibe as well...hit by a car, or mugged...something.