Thu, 30 September 2010
From Wikipedia: COUNSELING Corporate assigns Michael to have counseling with Toby. Dwight vows revenge on a shop owner at the Steamtown Mall and Pam tries to change her job title. ____________
Seeing as both this episode and the premiere were directed by the same individual, I can't help but wonder if this is actually going to be a "part two" sort of continuation from last week. Michael and Toby in counseling has the potential to be a good time, but have the writers already wrung the Flenderson hate dry? Hopefully they'll give us a little something more than just the "Toby is the worst!" sort of material. Pam's move to salesperson still seems completely underdeveloped, so her trying to change he job title seems a little odd. I know several people seem to want to see her take over as manager after Michael leaves, but she hasn't been anywhere close to earning that position. If she experiences some sort of career rebirth this season, maybe I can buy into the idea a bit more. As always, leave your comments below. Be sure to join Kevin and me in the TWSS Chatroom during and after the show (just hit that green "Chat Now" button on the right sidebar).
Category:general
-- posted at: 11:59am EDT
Comments[14]
|
-
Completely agree with you, Molly. What was once an intelligent, unique show has become a big fat sitcom, indistinguishable from all the other 'wacky' sitcoms out there. It's saddening to see all the beloved Office characters reduced to caricatures. There are still funny and clever moments from time to time, but overall the quality keeps declining. I hated how the Pam as Office Administrator plotline was done. If she'd earnt the role over a few episodes, fine, but it was such lazy writing to just magically give her the role like that. Also completely out of character for her to get it the way she did. I did enjoy some of the Toby/Michael moments, though. And Angela's punchcard gave me a laugh. Pity Dwight is so over the top these days. I'm really enjoying listening to the Season 3 TWSS podcasts at the moment. Hope you guys do some more retro eps soon!
-
Toby was pretty brilliant to find a way to counsel Michael through play therapy. Michael didn't catch on for a while. Loved the Sesame Avenue daycare center. The setup of the buckets would allow Dwight to run it s a farm. Eat, drink, generate waste, and use waste product to grow plants, most certainly beets. And Mose, painting (in the dark?) with a Cabbage Patch doll in a carrier, funny, but the fake beard always looks so stupid
-
Matt, I know you love your literary references (as do I), so here you go: the joke of Erin throwing away a disposable camera is from the children's book "Junie B. Jones Has a Peep in her Pocket!" Apparently Erin is at the same level of intelligence as a kindergartener--sounds about right.
-
This episode seemed to cement what I had in the back of my mind, without Michael this show won't be worth watching. The Michael/Toby plotline was very well done, a good dose of seriousness with a dash of The Office insanity thrown in made it quite enjoyable. The Dwight plotline, well I saw that coming from the first mention. The thought that entered my mind was that either he looked like a freak trying to get into a store, or he was ringing the buzzer to get into some storage closet that he mistook for a store. Ahhh, I wasn't let down, he looked like a murderous freak trying to get into a store... surprise! Pam... well there was a comment made in Season 3 that Michael wasn't ready for any promotion that he recieved, welcome to Pams current stature in The Office. The only difference between her and Michael is that Michael never admitted he wasn't ready for his current position. But, hey, maybe Pam is ready to replace Michael when he leaves, perhaps we can put Erin in her sales position, she can't figure out a disposable camera, so yea, she's ready! I can't see why Pam is having any issues though, evidently all you need to do to be successful in sales is spend your entire day either pranking your workmates, running one of your many other business' or... no, that's it. Perhaps she's been TOO focused on making sales? Oh well, whatever the reason, she should be up for a promotion soon so it won't matter. Perhaps to Manager in charge of Paper Stapling, how does that sound Gabe? You refuse to say anything negative because the one time you did you were castrated? Ok, I can take advantage of that, MiC of Paper Stapling pays $200k a year, that way only Pam has to work and Jim can focus entirely on pranks, rather than having to make those two pesky sales calls a day. Anyway, great podcast guys, keep up the awesome work!
-
A much better episode than the season premiere. The Toby/Michael counseling parts started our really slow, but ended up decent. Michael isn't funny when he is angry. I have never cared much for the Toby/Michael plotline. Sure, some humorous moments have come out of it, but for the most part I can live without Toby in the show. He is a good foil for Michael, but I think it is better when he has a minor role in the episodes. I never liked Pam in sales. The Office Admin job is much better for her. Do they need one? No, but there are plenty of folks in that office that would not really be there in real life so it fits in well with the office world that they have created. For the most part, Pam is the Bob Newhart of the show. Office Administrator will allow her to interact with the entire staff more. I think only good can come of that. Pam replacing Michael? I don't see it. The boss needs to be a doofus or the show won't work well. In the current staff, Gabe or possibly Andy would work, otherwise I think they need to go outside the current group. I didn't understand Jim's willingness to help Dwight. At first I thought it was just for his own amusement, but there was no real prank feel to his actions. I guess it was just so Dwight would stop terrorizing their customers, but it didn't have that sort of feel either. The pacing of the first two episodes was too slow to me. Not the quicker, more even pacing that The Office normally has. Many more zoom into focus shots than normal. I was worried about Dwight buying he building. I am glad to see that it seems they won't corrupt the show too much with that. It is just an area to try and mine more material from. I liked the day care room. Stuff like that will keep his ownership lighter. Too much power for Dwight and all is lost. That's why I don't think that he will get Michael's job either. Dwight coming up with crazy ideas is funny. Dwight actually in charge of people is a bad idea. :-) All-in-all a much better episode for me than the season premiere.
-
I loved the Toby/Michael plotline. Pam's...Not so much. Actually, I didn't like it at all. I'm not a fan of the new Pam. The cold opening was pretty good. I always enjoy a good Mose spotting. Also thought the Insane Clown Posse poster was a funny touch. Overall I was look warm towards this episode. I would have liked to have seen more Michael/Toby and less of Pam.
-
I have always loved the Toby/Michael pairing and this episode did not disappoint. I've never been a fan of Toby and Michael's disgust has always been a source of enjoyment for me. And while I laughed at the "take two of these" line and others, I found myself rooting for Toby to get through to Michael. It was nice seeing some growth between the characters and from Michael. There were moments of sadness and truth about Michael that I found refreshing, especially to balance the crazy Dwight storyline. Aside from the actual plot, this episode really makes me realize how much I'm going to miss Steve Carell. He is able to convey so much emotion with just a look and as Angela would say about Harry Connick Jr, "He's just so talented."
-
If you go into a job search engine, and you type the words "Office Administrator," you end up finding a bunch of job descriptions that seem dangerously close to the role Pam vacated to become a salesperson. Is she that dissatisfied with sales, that she would be willing to venture back towards the receptionist/administrator role? Then again, she does seem to know the actual intricacies of the office better than most other Dunder-Mifflin/Sabre employees. Perhaps this may be a bridge towards Pam replacing Michael when he leaves? After all, Michael did once say that he would rather have his replacement have some sales background. Now she has both. Hmmm....