'The Office's' little bundle of joy
Wedding episodes and baby episodes are some of the more difficult ones for a sitcom to pull off without going into sappy-schmaltzy territory. So it's downright paradoxical that, in what's generally been a down season of "The Office," the wedding and baby episodes have been by far the strongest episodes the show has done.And "The Delivery" was strong from start to finish. The first half -- with Pam becoming increasingly more obstinate in her desire to hold off going to the hospital -- delivered some of the biggest laughs the show has had in a while, and while the second half backed off on the joke onslaught, it featured some lovely, heartfelt moments between new parents Pam and Jim. So welcome to the world, Cecilia Halpert. It's nice to have you here.
Pam is resisting going to the hospital, even though she's having contractions, because if she checks in after midnight their insurance will give them an extra day before they go home. Jim is increasingly not on board with this arrangement, especially when the contractions start coming closer together and, uh, HER WATER BREAKS. I'll grant that Kevin's Hollywood-themed Ultra Feast sounded good ("We have ratatouille from 'Ratatouille.' And we have tandoori chicken from 'Born into Brothels' ... and by the way, there really is a "Twilight" cookbook), but come on.
Watching Jim and Pam get increasingly more frantic as the moment arrived -- and later, seeing Pam not really having time for any of Jim's loving mockery -- provided a great changeup for the two of them. Pam's outburst about being too scared to go to the hospital and Jim's escalating freakout about getting her there (especially the bit with the baby books) were both standouts.
What I think I liked most, though, was the fact that writers Daniel Chun (part 1) and Charlie Grandy (part 2) didn't let Michael take over the episode. He was as overbearing and needy as you might expect -- parroting Jim's pep talk before they left for the hospital, whining about learning the baby's gender, hug-blocking Jim after Jim delivers the good news -- but he didn't descend into the out-and-out buffoonery of Michael at his worst. Honestly, I had visions of him hip-checking doctors out of the way in his zeal to be part of the birth, and I'm exceedingly glad the show let the focus be on Jim, Pam and Cecelia.
Plus? The look Steve Carell gave to the camera ("I've gotta go wash my eyes") after sticking his head into the delivery room was pretty priceless. We've seen that joke before, but Carell played it just right.
Away from the hospital, finally -- finally -- Andy and Erin got on the same page enough to go out on a date. It took Michael setting up Erin with Kevin first and Andy's bonehead move with the fax -- dude, if you send a fax to yourself, the line's going to be busy -- but we can now see them be different kinds of awkward together instead of continually crossing their signals.
The only real false note "The Office" played tonight was with the thread of Dwight tearing apart Jim and Pam's house to rid it of mold. Dwight doesn't work all that well for me when he's that broad, and I can do without seeing Rainn Wilson's pixellated nether regions for a good long time, thanks.
The other part of Dwight's story, however -- his baby contract with Angela -- had some great bits (in particular the recitation of baby names: "Ebenezer." "Jebediah." "Honus." "Jedediah." "Worf." "No 'Star Trek' names!") and showed what weirdo soulmates those two might be. At least until Dwight runs into Pam's bridesmaid again; oof. Those are pretty small complaints, though, for an episode as satisfying as this one.
Other notes on "The Delivery":
- How do we feel about the nursing-the-wrong-baby bit? It felt like a very sitcommy sort of thing to do, but John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer's terrified, silent reaction to their coverup sold it for me.
- Understatement of the year, decade, whatever goes to Michael: "I'm sort of a master of distraction." That he followed it up with a demonstration of his grade-school distraction technique only made it better.
- Two standout moments for Meredith tonight. First, of course she has a shirt with holes in the chest in her car. And second, her reaction to Michael's offer to fix her up: "I am never gettin' married [cut to talking head] ... like Clooney!"
- Just as good as Michael's reaction to witnessing the miracle of a child being born was the look of fear on Kelly's face when she discovered all that giving birth can entail: "And you can poop yourself."
- Michael: "Should I bring a dictionary?" Oscar: "The hospital will provide dictionaries. Take a thesaurus."
How'd you like "The Delivery"? Where does it rank in the baby-episode pantheon for you?
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This was definitely one of the strongest offerings since "Niagara". Was anyone else reminded of the Hobbits eating habits as Kevin described all the meals he and Pam would meet up for?
I'm happy that Andy's ******* is on the mend enough for him to finally asked out Erin. Come one, he must of seen how impressed she was when he did the evolution of dance.
Favourite line of the episode for me belongs to Dwight:
“No, no, no. Ambulances are emergencies only. If you call the ambulance, I call the cops.â€
If anyone is interested, you can find more of my thoughts about this episode at my blog where I go into detail about why this episode will define the show's story momentum from here on out. Click my username or follow the URL below for the link:
http://wordbribery.com/the-office-delivery/
This is a great piece. Very thought provoking. I like the sort of ending that leaves it opn to personal input. Makes it work for just about everyone I think. Nicely done! I’ll subscribe.
Great epi. i feel pretty much the same as you Rick, about Michael staying toned down (well, relatively), and Dwight's bit being a little far out (pun intended as well).
Dwangela's contract was awesome. They really are perfect for each other.
Breastfeeding the wrong baby? oh. my. god.
Please don't use the term "Dwangela" again.
No mention of the cop using Dwight's name when pulling him over?
Loved that the cop gave the red light back to Dwight.
Loved that they focused on breastfeeding (male lactaction consultant! Jim's reaction!) and not on the delivery at the hospital. Delivery-room scenes are so done.
Felt a little weird that the officemates would have been hanging around the hospital and not the grandparents-to-be. But I guess it's called "The Office," not "The Family."
Good job on having newborn-looking babies. I don't know if they were real or robots or what, but they were quite convincing. Too often people give birth on TV to chubby 3-month-olds.
Terrific episode, hands down. So many good moments and scenes to choose from. But, to me, the final stamp of approval: I watched the episode with my Mom (a notorious non-fan of The Office, being that she only watches WETA and HGTV), and she laughed the entire time. Yes!
I did actually like Dwight going back to his full weirdness when we saw him spend the night half naked in Jim & Pam's bed or when he started demolishing the kitchen because he saw mold. A great episode overall.
I dont like baby episodes. it ruins the fun of that relationship. jim & pam were always funny, but now they are gunna lose it cause of the darn baby. the show ran off the tracks and im done
I thought it was too much Michael and I do think there was too much focus on him again.
If I were Jim and he walked in the birthing room as Pam was giving birth, I would have read him the riot act.
And there is no way that Jim and Pam would ever let Dwight go to their house and ever try to tell him where the key was.
When Dwight gets all destructive like last night, it is a big negative for me.
But the way they handled Jim and Pam and the birth of the baby was so dead on. I loved that part of it and the fact that they didn't wait forever to announce hte baby's name.
Unfair of Pam to go behind Jim's back to find out the sex of the baby though.
Funny how she waited until after her water broke and her contractions were just a minute or two apart, and yet they still were at the hospital for over 19 hours before she delivered. No way a hospital or docot would not have done a C-section by then, because the baby would have died without the omniatic fluid.
I give the episode an 8 out of 10. Strong episode overall.
Highlight: Whats the opposite of eating spicy food? Let's let Kevin tell us: "stick spicy food up her butt!". I had to pause my DVR and laugh said butt off!