Guest Review: The Office

Since I was away at a conference this weekend and haven’t had the proper time to catch up on this week’s television, especially due to the Oscars tonight, a special thanks to Nancy for being kind enough to write a guest review.

The Office: Season 6, Episodes 17 & 18 "The Delivery" (A-)

This episode did a great job of uniting everyone in the office over the excitement of the birth of Jim and Pam’s baby, in a way reminiscent of the wedding episode (nods to Andy’s dance injury and Dwight’s one night stand included) while also maintaining the humor so characteristic of The Office. While the mix of sentimentality and comedy was not quite on par with what in my opinion was the best episode of the season (Jim and Pam’s wedding), it was still an enjoyable hour of television. I loved that the Dunder Mifflin employees were involved in this baby’s birth in ways so typical of them—though somewhat ridiculous, they were believable. Michael’s over-eager involvement was endearing, the idea of Meredith’s nipple-less shirts was disgusting, and Kevin’s enthusiasm and genuine excitement to bond with Pam over food was touching—all were hilarious. The entire office came together in a way evocative of earlier seasons- from the classic ridiculous conference room meetings to Dwight’s ridiculous expectations and assumptions about life. The idea of a Dwangela baby was both ridiculous and of course Dwight would draft a contract to seal the deal. My personal favorite parts of the episode however, were watching Jim and Pam adjust to parenthood, and particularly watching the evolution of Jim’s facial expressions from anticipation of a new baby to frustration with Pam’s inane refusals to go to the hospital, and pure joy with Cecilia’s birth to utter horror after realizing Pam breast fed the wrong baby. This evolution of Jim’s adjustment to parenthood seemed natural and realistic. While the first half hour was filled with excitement and entertainment the second featured Michael’s eagerness to play matchmaker and seemed overdone. The absolute peak of the second half was Andy and Erin finally getting their acts together and of course it couldn’t come without comic complications. Overall this was a solid and entertaining episode that utilized the supporting cast well and showed the bonds between members of the Dunder Mifflin family and their ability to come together as a whole.