'The Office': You gotta have heart
We're a good three weeks past Valentine's Day, so the initial sight of a hearts-and-flowers episode of The Office threw me off tonight. That momentary oddness aside, though, the show delivered a funny and oddly optimistic show.
These spoilers have a couples massage later.
Judging by the dark mood Michael was in at the start of the episode, putting Pam's flowers out of sight and haranguing Jim not to be too romantic, it was easy to figure that we were headed for a half-hour where Michael's desperate neediness swallowed everything around it. Instead, though, the show took things a slightly different way, and Michael acted -- dare I say it? -- almost like a grown-up for part of it.
Frankly, it's a welcome change. Michael has shown flashes of adulthood even since Holly left, and as the show hangs around longer and longer, it would get harder to take Michael if he didn't show at least a little bit of growth. He's still clueless and childish and insensitive, but the over-the-top buffoonery has been toned down a little, and I think it's serving the show well.
And even though he had a pretty obvious motive for hosting the office-park singles mixer (the lost-glove woman from the blood mobile), the fact that he actually recognized his talking circle wasn't working and then tried, in his own cover-your-eyes way, to make sure his co-workers found people to talk to. They in turn rallied around him -- even without the usually sympathetic Jim and Pam around -- waiting out the glove woman with him long past the time where they would have been obligated to do so. Heck, even Michael's last talking head about there being lots of different princesses out there seemed on the money.
Also? There were some flat-out funny stuff there. I particularly loved Kelly and Meredith's decorations ("Now it's just a stupid baby") and Oscar explaining that Andy was out on one of the honeymoons he gave non-refundable deposits for: "I think he's on a hot-air balloon, and later he has a couples massage."
And Kevin, oh my man Kevin. He's always funny, but to see him being funny and vulnerable with new girl Lynn at the same time tonight -- "Seriously, feel how sweaty my hand is" -- may be one of my favorite moments ever from him. Well done, Brian Baumgartner.
The B story with Jim and Pam having a couples' lunch with Phyllis and Bob Vance also had its share of good moments, although it's a mystery to me how Jim and Pam didn't figure out what the Vance were up to a little sooner. Still, the looks on their faces as Bob fed Phyllis a bite of his steak killed, as did Phyllis two-handing her water glass and taking a couple of huge gulps the moment they returned to the table.
More good bits from "Blood Drive":
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Good pre-credit sequence tonight, both for Pam's talking head about how she doesn't want to be replaced by machines and for the way she and Jim distracted Michael by going Fonzie: "Let's go do it to someone else! Aaayyy!"
- Even better: The closing bit with Stanley and Phyllis trying to scam extra cookies from the blood mobile and being foiled by having cotton balls on their arms instead of Band-Aids. Meanwhile, Creed walks out with a bag of blood. (Sense of the room: His own or someone else's?)
- Michael making introductions: "So, Eric, you're in tool and die repair? Well, Meredith recently had a total hysterectomy, so that's sort of like a repair."
- Angela has had two sets of men fight a duel over her. There's no joke here, but I want to let that sink in for a minute.
- Michael again: "Hey everybody: I just invited Jim to suck it -- and I am cordially inviting all of you to a special convention. A lonely-hearts convention this afternoon, singles only [Dwight: "Yeah! Deal with it, Pam!"]. Though we may not have someone in our lives that we love, but we do have each other."
I'm still kind of pleasantly surprised by Michael's flashes of grown-upness. How are you feeling about this development? Does a (slightly) kinder, gentler Michael Scott bode well for the future of The Office?
Rick, i don't often mention it but you write really good recaps!
jim and pam's distracting of michael by going all "fonzie" was dumb but for some reason it had me LOL. this show just does that to me.
kevin is my fave supporting character, true to form great tonight.
i agree i like it better when michael's character is not so
over-the-top (re buffoonery and otherwise). even toned down, he is still PLENTY to be funny. and oh yeah, i kept waiting for a very old or very unattractive woman to come in to claim the glove (maybe it was not the woman that he met's). but it never happened.
i also think you write good recaps. i understand the difference between a recap and a review, but i do like that you inject a little bit of opinion and commentary into your recap. Other recaps on this sight---not so much this time. So it was fun to read.
i, too, enjoyed michael being a little grown up and understand that sometimes it's just about the prince "picking up the slipper" but this episode faltered a bit for me in the awkward dinner scenes with jim pam bob and phyllis. it fell pretty flat and just brought a lull to an otherwise pretty good episode
Rick, here's my thoughts regarding why the Valentine's Day episode ran three weeks after Valentine's Day:
February is traditionally one of the four sweeps periods for Nielsen. The DTV transition was originally scheduled for February 17th, so Nielsen moved the sweeps measurement period from February to March, with last night being the first night of sweeps. When the DTV transition was pushed back to June, Nielsen kept sweeps in March. So, NBC chose to show repeats the past few weeks in order to maintain enough new episodes to show during March sweeps and May sweeps (when the season traditionally ends).
Eli, no offense, but we all know why the sweeps shows were pushed back. Ric just commented that it was a bit jarring to find the gang celebrating something that happened a month ago.
Mr. eli I must say you know your tv, I know this sound like a stupid question but despite the numerous times I have heard about sweeps I still have no clue what it is. What is it?
Good point re: the digital transition.
And drewigi: Sweeps happens three times a year (November, usually February but March this year and May) and it's when Nielsen measures local ratings so stations can set their ad rates. That's usually when you see big stunts and guest-stars and "47 Ways Your Toaster Can Kill You" stories on the local news.
They're also becoming somehwhat less relevant as more people watch with DVRs or online.
Isembard, none taken.
Drewigi, sweeps is a measurement period of four weeks, when Nielsen basically conducts ratings measurements in all 210 local television markets. All programming is measured (local, syndicated, national), so networks want to put out their best programming, and local stations tend to amp up their news content as well.
The first time Meredith metioned the men fighting a duel over her it was "to see which one gets to hold the camera"...
I must have dreamed this, but I thought the owner of the glove showed up at the office and asked "Is this the party?" And someone said, "No," so she just left before Michael saw her??? I'll have to go back and re-watch. I thought the owner of the glove would have made a nice replacement for Holly. I liked her!
"'47 Ways Your Toaster Can Kill You' stories on the local news."
You don't by chance live in Pittsburgh do you - - that's exactly the type of story we are subjected to 3 times a year