The Office – Nice moves tackling Angela, Kevin!

I suppose something to keep in mind about a pendulum is that it always swings back in the opposite direction. Things might be going good, but eventually they’ll turn south again. That pretty much sums up last night’s episode of The Office.

It was another solid cold open — Pam giving a seminar on Hygiene Day resulted in people sneezing on Dwight and/or his food. I couldn’t believe he actually put that thing in his mouth that Andy sneezed directly onto. Talk about super gross.

The rest of the episode went back to a place very familiar to anyone who watched Pam and Jim get married, and then give birth to a baby last season. And I’m thinking that might be the problem — The Office is at its best at work. Uprooting the characters from a familiar surrounding and planting them in the middle of someone’s life on the outside is disastrous.

I do have to wonder how Jim and Pam found themselves choosing a couple they just met through a Mommy and Me class to be godparents to their daughter. Not that it should have been Michael, both for obvious reasons and also because of his horrible Godfather bit. The worst part about the other two episodes I mentioned was how poorly Michael acted in both situations. He was no different here.

I thought Toby not being able to bring himself to enter the church was funny. Surprising, considering the fact that its probably Meredith and/or Creed who shouldn’t be able to step foot in a holy place, but it was nice to see Toby out and about again.

I hope no one was offended by Dwight making sales pitches outside of church, during prayer time, and then at the reception. It’s about the only thing I found amusing in the entire episode, and its clear why Dwight is the best salesman in the office — he never stops.

I don’t understand what was going on with Angela. “Jesus is not your caterer” was funny, but the line also didn’t really make any sense — Jim made a joke, he didn’t say anything about Jesus magically supplying them with food. And she was crazy creepy with the baby; has she always been like that, or is it new since she and Dwight signed their agreement?

And I don’t know what happened to Michael. He saw the light because some people said hello to him after the service? I felt like they were more trying to discourage Ryan from hacking onto the church’s wireless internet. But Michael came down with the fever, and there he was hopping on a bus to Mexico to build some stuff for some poor people … with Andy sitting right next to him trying to impress Erin.

It was no surprise that they made their way off the bus eventually, but why put them there in the first place? I didn’t understand it at all. I think the writers get very excited about setting the office crew up in a non-work environment (not including things like poker night in the warehouse or the boat ride) but then have no idea how they should or would act in those situations. And then we’re the ones who lose out.

Steve Carell, this didn’t serve your farewell tour for the better.

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Nov 05, 2010 @ 09:00 EST5EDT