First of all, kudos to The Office for going easy on the Halloween tonight. A really great cold open (Darrell! Where did you go?) that reminded us that Michael is always 2 years behind on every pop culture joke as well as his uncanny ability to turn even the most basic, good hearted thing like a haunted house for local kids into a horrendous event, in this case a lesson about not committing suicide. The costumes for the crew were great (Kevin as Paul Blart is great, although I’m not sure who Pam is supposed to be), and yet again, we were treated to an ironic costume for Jim. Loved it all.
If only the whole episode had continued that way. “Koi Pond” came close to firing on all cylinders, but never quite made it. When a client asks that Michael accompany Jim on a sales call, Michael manages to fall into a koi pond in the lobby of the building, a fact that causes the whole office to mock him for yet another blunder. This one Michael takes to heart, but at Jim’s suggestion decides to make fun of it himself to gain the sympathy of his employers. This backfires as Michael takes it too far and goes into one of his spirals of self-pity. When Meredith somehow gets a tape of the incident, it becomes clear that Jim could have kept him from falling, but did nothing to prevent it. In the end, the reconcile or something and we move on. Oh yeah, and Andy is lonely. We found that out during a sales call where he and Pam decided to pretend to be a couple to make a sale.
This was truly a sub par episode of The Office, which makes me worried that now that Jim and Pam are married, the writers aren’t sure where they are going to take this. Having the two get married was actually a great idea, as it kept the show from being exactly like every other sitcom with a will-they-won’t-they couple, but now that it’s happened, they need to figure out what to do. It seemed like a lot of recycled plot lines were used throughout the episode. We already knew that Michael has always been a weird, oft mocked guy. We already knew that Andy is over eager and ready to settle down. So why another episode about those things?
I think the missing ingredient is a relationship for another character. Since the show hit its stride in the second season, it had Dwight and Angela, Michael and Jan, Kelly and Ryan, Andy and Angela, Phyllis and Bob, Michael and Holly. Some of these were portrayed with only goofiness and the opportunity to do something with the side characters, but others had genuine moments that kept you interested. Now that Jim and Pam are married, it’d be great to have Michael find a new Holly (or bring back Amy Ryan!) or have Andy and Erin get together, just so that we have something more to watch than Michael having another all too familiar meeting in the conference room.
It’s only one episode, but I think that “Koi Pond” really brings to light a lot of the issues the show needs to address now that their old standby plot has been put to rest. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still better than most comedies, and the writers are terrific, but now that it’s in between two strong new comedies and the established king of TV comedies in 30 Rock, they’re going to have to step it up a little bit.
Mike’s Grade: 55
Grade: C
Michael
ulyssesworkman
awarshauer
