What I’m Watching: The Office

The Office: Season 6, Episode 14 “The Banker” (C+)

While this show was on hiatus for the past month, I had the great fortune of finding season five on DVD on sale at Target for a mere $17 and decided that it was worth the purchase. I don’t own season four, so I watched a whole lot of season three and season five episodes during the holidays. I really enjoyed both seasons and seeing the supporting characters get fleshed out. Yet what got me truly excited was the prospect of new episodes. It’s fun to see the same stuff over and over again, but there’s something wonderful about not knowing what’s going to happen next. And then, as the first new episode of the new year, we get a clip show. I will say that clips of “The Office” are still a hell of a lot funnier than most things on TV, but still. This isn’t cool. It was fun to see David Costabile, known alternately as the creepy corrupt cop on “Damages” and Mel’s useless, bullied husband on “Flight of the Conchords,” as the investment banker, but watching Toby’s pained face as he thought long and hard about all of the mishaps that had occurred in the office was nothing special. It’s a hilarious thought to think that Michael is now the highest-ranking manager at Dunder Mifflin, but that also means he can screw things up and there can be consequences for it. All I really want, though, is a new episode of this show with new jokes, and the worst part is that next week is a lame repeat. Two more weeks, ugh.