Monday, January 16, 2012

What I’m Watching: The Office


The Office: Season 8, Episode 11 “Trivia” (B+)

Not much work seems to be getting done at the office these days, as every single person leaves work halfway through the day to drive to Philadelphia, exempting Dwight, who took the entire day off to fly to Florida for a face-to-face meeting with Robert. The quiet contest at the beginning of the episode was most amusing for the reasons that both Andy and Kevin deemed necessary to come close to breaking or break their silence: the sight of a raccoon eating a hamburger and the first (and second) bite of a candy bar. Andy’s efforts to sell paper to staff so that they can make quota were a bit over-the-top, but I wouldn’t expect any less from the manager who’s in a bit over his head. I loved the fact that it Oscar’s trivia contest was at a gay bar, and liked even more that it barely played into the content of the episode. I enjoyed the breakup of the teams, with the ‘A’ team, the backup team, and the “just have fun” team. Kelly’s surprising skill was great, as was Ryan disqualifying himself because he couldn’t live without his phone. The Einstein team did do a superb job, and it was funny that the question they got wrong was to identify none other than Albert Einstein himself. Gabe’s definition of himself as the corporate toilet was interesting, and it seems that another effort by Robert to distract someone from the truth failed as Dwight forced Gabe to bring him to Robert’s house. Robert did make a good point when he said that Dwight’s ambition would be wasted on a manager’s job, giving him his father’s medal instead and explaining to him that alligators are dinosaurs, prompting only minor disagreement from the truly bizarre Dwight.

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