Sunday, July 22, 2007

What I'm Watching: The Office

The Office: Season 3, Episode 23 "Beach Games" (A-)

The office trip to the beach makes for a hilarious episode highlighting a number of the actors who rarely get the chance to step into the limelight. Leslie David Baker is great in a starkly deadpan performance as Stanley, most memorable for his complete disregard for anything anyone else thinks. This is his biggest part in an episode yet, after his excitement about Free Pretzel Day, and his screaming at Ryan on Bring-Your-Daughter-To-Work Day. The recent return of Andy worried me a bit since his character might quickly get stale. Ed Helms manages, however, to make him entertaining and fun and certainly worthy of a spot on the show. Angela's interactions with Dwight are priceless. Most of all, besides the laugh-out-loud beach games, it is the obsession with himself that Michael has that makes the show great. Both Jim and Karen are applying for the same job he is, with far more likelihood of getting it, and he is simply concerned with making sure someone can follow in his wholly unfillable shoes.

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