The Office – Mad props to Gettysburg

The best cold opens on The Office have always centered around Dwight or Jim (Michael, too). They don’t always score, but the odds are always greater when they’re involved. That’s the long way of saying that last night’s open, with Pam faking going into labor to get out of stuff — the Sabre code of conduct meeting, Angela dumping a pile of work on her desk, Phyllis talking, and a True Blood discussion — didn’t quite do it for me … that is, until the water bottle dropped from between Pam’s legs, and her “real” water breaking was revealed to be fake as well. Pam closing things with “false alarm” was hysterical. Score one for Pam!

I thought we were past Andy’s insecurity at being accepted as branch manager. The Gettysburg field trip was a bust, and I didn’t quite understand what any of the plot with that half of the office was meant to do for us. Hopefully Jim’s rebuke of Andy at the end will wake Andy up, but who knows. But until we can move on from “new” Andy, things are going to remain a bit stuck in the mud.

Robert California showing up at the office — seriously, again? — also didn’t do much as a story. He came to the wrong place for game changer ideas … Origami, Papyr (paper for women), and coupons in test booklets? And you’d think he’s spent enough time with these people to already know that he wasn’t going to get much from them. Plus, Robert understanding Kevin’s idea for what it was would have been a funnier avenue to pursue than what ultimately happened. Cookie placement would, of course, weigh on Kevin, and it would have been humorous to see the office working on rearranging the vending machine offerings to more appropriately utilize both the A1 and D4 slots.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy Robert and Kevin’s conversation following the meeting, when Robert was looking for Kevin’s opinion on all manner of things. “Yes, I am an accountant.” Awesome! And Kevin’s Big Mac Idea was funny, too. Sad, if you’re the guy’s boss and you’re relying on him to be a competent accountant, but funny.

I was really into Dwight’s claims that Gettysburg was only the second-most northern battle in the Civil War, losing that distinction to the Battle of Schrute Farms. His arguments with Oscar were enjoyable, but I was looking forward to a reveal that would turn out to be, well, brilliantly funny and creative. Schrute Farms having been an artistic community wasn’t it. And that’s forgetting for a moment that, if it was known as Schrute Farms back then, Dwight’s German ancestors must have been living there at the time; can you imagine them having acquiesced to their farm being turned into a pacifist refuge?

Not a good episode. There were, however, a few moments of levity:

• The pink hats that read “DM does GB.” Loved Jim’s line about that definitely meaning something dirty.
• Dwight’s argument that DPA (deaths per acre) should be weighed heavier than overall number of deaths.
• The Dunder Mifflin flag. Not so creative, but I love that Andy spent $200 having it commissioned.

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Nov 18, 2011 @ 13:40 EST5EDT