Remember that writer's strike that went on for months but almost anyone you talked to still couldn't figure out what they were striking over? Well that's over now and has been for a few weeks. A lot of shows had seasons cut in half by the strike and have now come back to resume, one of those show's is NBC's "The Office".
The writers for "The Office" were striking, at least in part, over not being paid royalties for the advertisements on web versions of the episodes they wrote. Now, I can understand that. I'm sure NBC gets a bunch of money for those advertisements and the writers are entitled to their share. But if you're going to go on strike and cut in half what was shaping up to be your best season yet, you better come back and make it very clear to we, the viewers, why your absence was so unbearable. I'm afraid, at this point, my DVD's of past seasons of "The Office" are doing a better job of that than the writers' new material.
There have been three post-strike episodes up to this point, "Dinner Party", "Chair Model" and "Night Out". I'll start with the first episode back, "Dinner Party".
I don't want to go into too much detail so if you haven't seen the episode yet you can see it on nbc.com. But, the plot of "Dinner Party" is basically this, Michael and Jan have the office couples over for a dinner party at their condo. Jim and Pam, and Andy and Angela come over and later Dwight shows up with a former babysitter as his date.
I like the premise, and I liked a lot of the details revealed about the characters in the episode, Jan cleans out Michael's bank account on all sorts of things; paintings of herself, her scented candle company that doesn't make any money, furniture, and a bunch of other things you see in their condo, and Andy and Angela are in fact in a relationship, twisted as it may be.
But, what I didn't like about this episode was the overwhelming awkwardness literally pouring through my tv screen. I know, "The Office" is all about awkward comedy and that's the best part of the show, yes, but too much of anything is too much, you know? The writers must be in some weird state of mind after that strike to have come up with something so blaringly uncomfortable that even I, a big fan of the show, could be left so cold by it. Michael having all sorts of vasectomies and un-vasectomies, Jan getting altogether too creepy dancing to her assistant's music and everything, they're really just creepin' it up over there at NBC.
Too much awkward and not enough fun, witty dialogue that has been the reason for watching the show since it started.
The next episode, "Chair Model" was a little better, but not very much at all. The premise was way creepier than funny. Michael sees a model in a chair catalog and becomes obsessed with her and eventually Dwight finds out online that she's actually dead (too much) and he and Michael go to her grave where the episode ends with the two of them literally singing and dancing over her grave. I can't remember what the song was because it just wasn't very funny.
Another thing about this episode, but all of them really. Jim and Pam's little secret crush romance they had for the whole series up until this season was one of those storylines that you really get caught up in. Those were the good uncomfortable moments when Jim would say something a little too forward and Pam would look in either direction without moving her head and change the subject in the most awkward and obvious way possible. But now the two of them are together and Jim has gone from being the guy your pulling for to get the girl to being the guy who's been sort of a dick since he started dating Pam. So, Jim's a dick now. Kind of.
The one good thing about the latest episode, "Night Out", was how Jim was flying high when he suggested they all work late to save a Saturday in the office and then how he got knocked down a few pegs after everyone realized he'd forgotten to ask security to leave the gate unlocked. Well, I shouldn't say that was the only good thing about this episode.
The best thing about the episode, and the only good thing that's seem to come out of these new ones: Ryan's a cokehead. How great is that? First of all, if there's anyone out there who really liked Ryan's character after he went from a pitiful yet condescending intern to a successful asshole has to be an even bigger asshole than that character. But, now he's a cokehead and we can just laugh at him instead of pursing your lips whenever he's on screen and muttering, "I just don't fuckin' like that guy."I mean, I never expected that to happen when Michael and Dwight ran up on him in the city. But, it's perfect. The one character I really liked not seeing is now the character I can't wait to see more of. It's great.
I think the big problem with these new episodes is that they've taken the characters out of the office. "The Office" is a sitcom, situational comedy, once you take the characters out of the situation, the office, you lose the comedy. Or at least a good deal of it.
Put them back in the office and just turn down the awkwardness a little bit, you have it up way too loud so I can't hear the jokes.
Well, the next episode comes out tomorrow night on NBC at 9. We'll see if things pick up this week.
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