Monday, October 3, 2011

What I’m Watching: The Office


The Office: Season 8, Episode 2 “The Incentive” (B+)

As should be the case, we get a little less of Robert California and a little more of our old reliable crew in this episode, showing for the second week in a row that this show is capable of succeeding greatly without its fearless leader Michael. Much like his predecessor, Andy has a desperate desire to please his superiors, and his methods of relaying his anticipations and expectations to his subordinates are highly unprofessional. Trying to incentivize everyone at the office with rewards related to doing embarrassing things to him is actually a smart idea, and, as it happened, everyone did work extra hard to do their best to humiliate him. Jim, as usual, was quick to figure out how to manipulate his system, and what proved to be truly sentimental was the fact that everyone decided to have a Nard Dog tattooed on him rather than the image of the baby. Robert’s strategy rang true: “something about the underdog that inspires the unexceptional.” I’m not so sure, however, that the era of customer service is back, but that would be nice if it was true. Erin bringing Robert cold coffee was almost too awkward to bear, but the episodes did have some other funny moments, like Kevin speaking in broken sentences and getting caught on Sea World, Darryl introducing his ex-wife Justine to the office, and, most of all, Angela ruining her jogging sessions with Pam by revealing that she had called social services on her for drinking caffeine.

No comments: