Thu, 24 April 2008
I still cannot comprehend how the image below could ever come to pass, but I suppose I have only mere hours to wait for an explanation. From NBC.com: NIGHT OUT 9/8c TV-PG 04.24.2008 
Michael
(Steve Carell) and Dwight (Rainn Wilson) decide to surprise Ryan (B.J.
Novak) in New York for a night of clubbing and meet his friends.
Meanwhile, the Scranton branch is upset when they find out they have to
come in on a Saturday for Ryan's website project. Jim's plan to save
them has unexpected results. Brian Baumgartner, Ed Helms, John
Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, Paul Lieberstein, Oscar Nunez, Angela Kinsey,
Phyllis Smith, Mindy Kaling, Leslie David Baker, Kate Flannery, Craig
Robinson and Creed Bratton also star.
----------------- Leave your comments below, and look for Kevin and me in the TWSS CHATROOM after the show airs (Kevin's got the Pacific shift).
Category:general
-- posted at: 11:46am EDT
Comments[52]
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This wasn\'t my favorite episode, but I did think it worked extremely well at moving along all the different story arcs that have been introduced in this strike-shortened season: Jim and Pam\'s couplehood, Michael\'s love life, Andy and Angela, and Ryan as a NY big shot. I appreciate that the writers are working hard to get a lot of story in before the end of this shortened season. They don\'t have the luxury of taking their time, unfortunately, and while some of the post-strike stuff has been kind of over-the-top, I want to see some action before the sumer hiatus. That said, I was really surprised by Ryan\'s drug problem -- it just seems like a dark turn for the show, but I\'m looking forward to seeing how it plays out. I also really liked the way Jim is kind of a crappy manager, and how Pam, who spends half her time rescuing Michael, is seen as Jim\'s partner in managerial ineptitude. As someone else said, the conflict that arises with their relationship is not between them, but between the two of them and the rest of the office. The writers are really doing an excellent job with this very tricky storyline :-)
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I just returned from a long trip, and caught up on all the podcasts I had missed. This may seem trivial, but I think the show may be implying Ryan\\\'s drug problem is Ectasy, not cocaine. Noted because of the hugging, the loving, the reference to \\\"dehydration.\\\" May be an unnecessary note/distinction, but I think this will give Ryan the perfect \\\'out\\\' of regular appearances on the show (no pun intended, necessarily).
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This was great stuff. I love the idea of reversals, and they played it out in so many awesome ways. Ryan being a cokehead makes total sense to me. Isn\'t the whole point of coke to have an inflated sense of self-importance? Ryan is floundering in the big apple and he\'s in trouble. Him being excited to see Michael and Dwight was hilariously unexpected but also foregrounds how lonely he must be. When you\'re glad to see your old boss from Scranton... and then embarrass yourself publicly and have to be rescued by him... that\'s a low. Dwight being the stud worked for me. Sure, it\'s a little unrealistic, but different strokes, right? Out of context maybe he seems dark and mysterious. And it was really funny. I LOVED that Jim and Pam weren\'t the golden couple in this ep. Jim\'s weaknesses were exposed painfully and awesomely. It\'s easy to think he would be this amazing manager IF ONLY, but it sounds like he is kind of a fuckup as second in command. He doesn\'t have the spare key, he doesn\'t know an important name, he screwed up a responsibility back at Christmas with big repercussions. And the rest of the office was 100% right to be pissed off at him. He\'s the highest up, ergo he gets to be hated for a little bit. I\'d be totally pissed at him, too. And he really handled the late night phone call to the security guard poorly. Where was his charisma? I loved seeing these flaws highlighted. I\'m not sure what to make of the Toby thing, but IMO Toby gets to be like Jim was when Pam was with Roy. Pining from a distance, wondering what Pam sees in this bonehead who is totally thoughtless. Something emboldened him to act, but it didn\'t work out, so he escapes. Awesome. (Will the spin off feature Toby in Costa Rica?!) I don\'t know; something about this ep really worked for me compared to last week\'s which I didn\'t really love and didn\'t see moving the show forward very much. This ep complicates things; this makes the rest of the season have some direction and some intrigue that I wasn\'t feeling before. Awesome.
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I\'m such a dork. I\'ve been listening to the TWSS podcast for a few weeks now, and just wanted to come post so maybe I could hear my name! LOL. HOWEVER, all of my comments have been SAID!! LOL. I really just wanted to say I love the podcast, and it makes my day of SCANNING go faster. Oh, and a comment, I HATE what they did to Jim in this episode. How did cool Jim become a tool all of a sudden. Man.
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Upon re-watching.... (I\'m sure some people picked up on this the first time through, but they haven\'t been mentioned yet) 1) meredith\'s face was all swollen after Pam footballed it. Awesome. Awesome because Pam can chuck it, without aim. Awesome because Meredith is the face of agony in the office. Awesome because Meredith got hit in the parking lot again. 2) When Ryan is in Scranton, he says to Michael \"you should see these girls at the clubs..\" or something like that. Later, Michael says \"I thought I\'d take you up on your offer\". I caught Michael saying his part, but didn\'t realize that he just interpreted Ryan in that way.
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It\'s all about perspective, I guess. I watched the episode for a second time after a very crappy day at work, and I rewound Meredith getting hit in the face over and over until I was laughing so hard I was crying. Meredith\'s cry of pain and Kevin\'s expression along with Pam\'s and Jim\'s reactions made me forget my own woes for a little while. Although I am worried about what this says of me as a human being... Poor Meredith- she has had a lot of physical abuse at the office- the bat fiasco, Michael hitting her with the car, and now this...she must be one tough cookie.
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Doesn\'t anyone in the office have a friend in the outside world who could swing by with some bolt cutters? It\'s not like that chain is super security. It\'s kind of pathetic to get trapped by that. Maybe it\'s learned helplessness. All I could think was that if Dwight was there he\'d have the tools to break through the chain in the trunk of his car. Another subtle way that this episode shows how great Dwight is.
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The only two things I liked about this episode: 1. Dwight is the man... Jim used to be my favorite character but his cockiness is not appealing; Dwight is becoming my favorite character- he helps Michael in many ways, he gets everyone in to the club, and he starts singing a lullabye to Ryan. So sensitive....... 2. Andy\'s \"who thinks we are a better couple than JAM\", and people actually raising their hands.
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best moment: dwight pouring out his drink and telling the women \"nice try\"---so stupid! i was cracking up! i thought maybe ryan took some \'ex\' or something, i agree, the coke thing is pretty retro. but, i\'ve actually been to a few clubs where people were doing coke in the bathroom. pretty skeevy. bleech! TOBY--WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that was so creepy. i wonder if paul leiberstein is leaving for good. so mad. i also wonder if he\'ll stay on as a writer. (no spoilers please, just thinking outloud..er, in text...) :) matt, you\'re not being a dick. spoilers suck.
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How could I forget about Toby? Honestly, that was one of my favorite parts! I was so worried, what with all of Pam\'s \'Toby! You\'re the best!\' lines that they\'d do a big confrontation scene with Toby and Pam and blah blah blah, but this was far, far better. I\'m interested to see if there\'s a talking head about Toby having been out sick for a week, or hidden in his little corner, rarely coming up for air, or if he really is going to move to Costa Rica. I think they are probably trying to reduce the roles of the characters played by writers because with the spin off, they\'re probably going to be working more as writers than they have been. Also, I forgot to mention my favorite line of the episode: \"Do you have a question?\" --Ryan \"Yes. Lots of them. How dare you?\" -- Kelly (or something like that.) Ha ha ha ha!!
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I hope Toby comes back to his job so we can enjoy the awkwardness that ensues between Toby, Jim, and Pam. There were some funny and interesting moments in this episode, but overall it was over-the-top wierd and wacky. It didn\\\'t even feel like \\\"The Office\\\" TV show as I know and love it. I also don\\\'t understand what they are doing with the Jim-Pam storyline. Why are the writers turning everyone in the office against these two? I hope they\\\'re not preparing for them to leave Scranton so Jim can become a Philly sports writer and Pam become a full-time artist. I like the office environment.
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Oh Flenderson, when will you learn? My prediction is that Toby won\'t be around for the next few episodes and everyone will get worried about what happened to him. Then in the season finale Toby will come back and propose to Pam and that will be the cliff hanger and the surprising proposal that has been thrown around. Of course, before the season finale there will have to be some sort of fight that happens between Jim and Pam that will make the Toby proposal actually a suspenseful cliff hanger.
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In terms of characterization, this episode did feel a little... shaky? Jim bothered me in particular. Clearly he is not perfect, but it seems to me that a man who knows the vending machine guy by name would know the security guard. (And in any case, NOT refer to him as \"the African-American guy.\") In terms of tone, I agree with Zach. There was a lot of sadness, and even bitterness in this episode. The football incident was kind of representative of the whole thing, for me-- it may make you laugh, but it stings as well.
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First off I loved this episode and was laughing out loud quite often. I thought it was sort of edgy to give Ryan a drug problem. I thought it was really funny that Dwight was the one who got the group into the club and even funnier when he got a drunk girl to make-out with him. It was a good episode, and it really showed off how sad most of the characters are. Well except for Dwight, some how he came off as like super Dwight. Andy was hilarious in this episode.
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I\'m very on the fence about this episode. There were a lot of parts I liked: -Super Dwight (hooray for him!) -The Fall of Ryan (why won\'t they let me dance?) -Jim stepping as 2nd in command -Jim kind of sucking as a boss -Toby scaling the fence However, it just felt weird. Not in a good awkward way, but just off. I like the setup of Jim not doing so well as a person in charge. I think it equates him to Michael even more, that he\'s a good salesman, but isn\'t meant for management. What are we going to do without Flenderson? Overall, I feel like the sum of this episode is much less than it\'s parts. I miss the office hijinks of season 2.
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If Ryan gets demoted, would they hire Jan back? Or promote Karen? Don\'t mind Jim being less than perfect. But feel bad that both managerial efforts have failed (or at least had problems). We don\'t want Michael replaced so there\'s no spot for him as manager and still keep him in the Scranton picture as well.
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@Bess: [quote] \"...when Ryan was psyched to see Michael and Dwight, Michael feels the need to explain that it is in fact him and Dwight.\" [/quote] Yes! I forgot about that part, I loved it and laughed so hard and that. That\'s when I turned to my wife and said \"WOW Ryan is so messed up!\" Thanks for mentioning that- I just cracked up again. :)
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I laughed a lot through this episode but the one that for some reason got me laughing the hardest was Michael saying to Ryan: \"It\'s me, Michael, and Dwight.\" Those nano-seconds of Michael\'s self-awareness are awesome for me. My husband laughed so hard at Jim & Oscar and the cleaners that he choked up a grape. It was nice to see Dwight win one for a change after Kevin\'s victory for the little guy last week. Overall, good episode and one of those that makes me so glad that the strike is over and this show is back.
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Some good moments, but not a home run for me. The plot movement feels forced lately, forgivable given the strike, but the subtlety is being lost. Ryan didn’t have to be dialed up to 11 to get the drug use point across, for example. I liked the locked-in story, but I gotta think Phyllis would have called Bob Vance and had that gate open inside of 10 minutes. I like Jim’s learning curve arc, but the racial stuff seemed out of left field in a strained parallel to Michael. Kudos to the casting dept. How exactly do you write a non-insulting casting call for Pam’s landlord and Ryan’s sidekick? Toby hopping the fence was hilarious!
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Yay for Creed being the only one who knew Hank\'s name! I thought it was a pretty mediocre episode, the best parts were Meredith being smacked by a football and the fact that whiny creepy Flenderson is leaving. Oh and also at the club when Ryan was psyched to see Michael and Dwight, Michael feels the need to explain that it is in fact him and Dwight. I really wish they hadn\'t made Michael all shallow, isn\'t he pathetic enough to strike out with ladies his own age? Do they really need him to be rejected by younger girls as well? One more thing- I cannot wait until Ryan slinks back to Scranton with his tail between his legs. Don\'t know if he\'d be too great in FLenderson\'s HR job though?
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What is up with Michael falling in love instantly & having his heart quickly broken two episodes in a row? I hope we are in for a romance for Michael, otherwise it is just a lame & cheap shot at Michael trying to make him look pathetic. Also, why is he listening to Ryan\'s advice on anything, let alone on women? He is \"in love\" with Ryan, but doesn\'t like any advice he\'s ever given him, so it doesn\'t make sense that he would listen to him about lying about his job. Also, it doesn\'t make sense that Michael would lie about his job anyway....He\'s more loyal to Dunder Mifflin than he was to Jan (remember the Deposition?) & he is so proud about his powerful position that you think he\'d brag about it instead of pretending to be a bank teller. I guess it was a mild laugh but it\'s just out of character, even for a sometimes-wacko like Michael. Dwight came across good in the episode, but I like seeing Jim successful when he has a good idea. He can be arrogant, but if you want to humble him, make him fall for a good prank on him. I like when Jim actually takes his job seriously & I surely hoped he could outsmart cokehead Ryan!
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I quite liked the episode. I like the idea of Ryan\'s success being completely hollow and empty. the complete failures of the website were hilarious. Him being on coke, despite being a bit of a cliche (although certainly not one found in sitcoms). I like both Jim\'s successes and failures humanizing him more. We\'re seeing Jim-the-second-in-command much more lately, which is a really great arc I hope they continue with it. Decent episode, but nothing spectacular. More interesting as far as character development (of Jim & Ryan), and although it wasn\'t rife with tons of laugh-out-loud moments, it was humourous throughout.
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Of the post-strike episodes I\'ve seen so far, this was my favorite so far. The cold open and the last scene were hilarious, the downfall of Ryan was both funny and poignant, Jim being the not-so-perfect good guy brings a much needed humility to him (like Michael and Dwight run the risk of being cartoonish, Jim runs the risk of being too perfect). the cast interactions were perfect and Toby gets a moment to shine before blowing it all to Hell. If this is his exit, then I can\'t think of a better one than jumping the fence and making a run for it. Of course Dwight would be able to get it on with an Amazon. Who else, other than Angela.
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Wow. Talk about the rapid descent of Ryan. Matt was right on the money about Scranton\'s least favorite Wunderkind - ie, that his swagger and arrogance around the office is just a façade, and his attempt to cover up his pathetic life in NYC. Couple observations: 1) I am always a big fan of Fancy New Ryan\'s big swinging d!ck routine, combined with the Scrantonites\' total indifference and disgust. The failure of the DMI Website was both a reminder of the dot-com era of failed promises, and a symbol of the fact that Ryan is more style than substance. The coke habit seems a bit much, but it will be interesting to see where they go with it. His \'my friend has a drug problem\' lie at the end was pretty believable though – typical words of someone living in denial. 2) This episode had perhaps the biggest FLENDERSONNN!! moment ever; I literally rewound that scene five times, and laughed harder each time. I think Toby is so used to being trampled by Michael that he didn\'t know how to react when he got a positive response to his \'Everyone get your boss laid\' joke. His mad dash over the fence was perhaps the only appropriate action that could follow the creepy leg caress. The looks of horror and disbelief on Andy and Jim\'s faces were priceless. Will the new spinoff be \'Toby in Costa Rica?\' Man I hope not. 3) I was glad that they made Michael Scott seem more like the clueless 40-Year Old Virgin than the swarthy David Brentish character we saw last episode. His naivete reminded me of the \'Valentine\'s Day\' episode, when he rhapsodized about Sbarro\'s, Bubba Gump Shrimp, and other amazing \'NYC restaurants.\' It never occurred to him that Ryan was zonked out of his mind. I almost bought his heart-to-heart with Ryan near the end, until he meandered off into a comment about The Wire, and then I remembered, \'oh yeah, this is The Office.\' 4) Nice to see the cameraman play an active role again, something we haven\'t seen since \'Fun Run\' and \'Email Surveillance\' before that. Although, it defies credibility to think that a camera crew would follow Michael et al. into a nightclub in NYC. 5) Jim is realizing, little by little, that being the boss is not as effortless as it seems. His self-satisfaction over the \'let\'s stay late\' plan is quickly doused by a bucket of cold water when the gang gets locked into the parking lot for the night. This plotline is very similar to \'Survivorman,\' when the office stages a revolt against his \'birthday consolidation\' initiative. It is scary that he is already showing some Michael Scott-like behaviors, ie, his awkward and un-PC dealings with minorities such as the desk security man and the cleaning crew. 6) Dwight, the accidental pimp?
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Blergh. This episode was... alright. Probably worse than alright. I\'m not really a big fan of Ryan unless he\'s getting inappropriately abused by Michael (like in S2), so seeing him dancing around in a lame club coked out of his mind was less than entertaining. Good parts: - Michael watches The Wire (best show ever!) and doesn\'t understand a word of it. Excellent. - Pam hitting Meredith in the head with a football? Awesome - though she should study Joe Montana\'s form more, follow through and plant her weight on the left foot. - The exchange between Oscar and Jim at the gate about the cleaners was great. The bad: - everything else. I like The Office when they venture out of the office, but the whole club angle did nothing for me. I could do without ever seeing Ryan, Jan, or Phyllis ever again.
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Ok, now I\'ve seen the whole thing. I liked the episode, though the club stuff exploded any concept of getting back to this being a documentary rather than a show shot by epileptic bears with cameras. This may have been something that required personal experience. I\'ve been trapped in a locked-in situation due to someone deciding they didn\'t need their key that day. Also, as a survivor of a few turn of the century dot-coms, the dweeb trying to be hip explaining how crazy crap completely unrelated to the function of a website was going to save it rang way too true. I wish they had done more of it -- it could have been a nice, long, awkward conference scene rather than the almost too easy scene it was. However, other than Toby\'s shame induced powers of escape, nothing really happened here. It was amusing, but not memorable.
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I just finished watching, so my thoughts aren\'t completely collected, but I will say that I like that Jim isn\'t portrayed as perfect. He has his moments (many of them in my opinion!) and he has times when things just don\'t go his way. I like that because I relate to that. Also, I didn\'t love the stuff in the club. I don\'t like clubs and nothing really interesting happened and the only new thing we learned is that Ryan is on drugs, and Dwight with all his weirdness has better luck with the sort of women Michael is looking for than Michael does. O.k. so THAT was funny, but yeah.
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Well, Ryan\'s character has officially become a yuppie from the 1980\'s. Coke habbit? Yowch. While it doesn\'t seem too outside of his character to turn to drugs to cope, it leaves his character at an interesting crossroads. Will he get clean and start doing work right, or will he tank, leaving the company in major jeopardy of bankruptcy or worse? Or even worse than that...will Michael get promoted to his position, leaving Jim in charge? I\'m scared... As for the Jim storyline, he learns yet another lesson about being the boss: always remember to let security know when you\'re working late! I work in an office building so leaving the place is never a problem, but at an office park, yeah, that\'s another story. And Tobey...no! What will we do without your incessant whining and disappointment? Seriously, what will he do? That\'s what makes him awesome! Maybe Pam will realize how he feels and do something about it? Questions, questions, questions. Oh, and Dwight is a playa. Who knew?
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OK, about the only thing that I laughed out loud at was the football to Meridith\'s face. Michael was just pathetic, Dwight strangely normal, Ryan pitiful, and the rest of the crew unfunny. Toby was creepy and I\'m not sad to see hum go as he was never much of a favorite for me. I could have used a LOT more Oscar, Crede, Andy or Kevin. Disappointing episode on the whole for me.
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OK, seeing this picture of Dwight and this hot babe instantly conjures up thoughts that this girl is either being blind or a man. Yes juvenile, I know, but that kind of National Lampoon humor would be welcomed by me whenever Dwight is concerned! Can\'t wait for this one!!
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WARNING!!!!!!!!!!! DO NOT GO TO TV.COM\'s OFFICE PAGE!!!!!!!!!!!! IT HAS THE TITLE OF THE SEASON FINALE EPISODE AND IT IS EXTREMELY EXTREMELY REVEALING!!!!!! I MEAN FLAT OUT BLATANT ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS!!!! I AM SO MAD I SAW IT, I AM WARNING OTHERS NOT TO GO THERE
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I\'m no expert either, really, but I\'m thinking about the club/dance/drug culture...E being what I could see Ryan taking, only based on the stereotypes that he has fallen into in recent episodes. You do have to drink a lot of water when \"rolling,\" so that may have something to do with the bathroom? Don\'t think it is of tantamount importance, but from what I know of clubbing and clubgoers (I\'m a DJ), this could be eluding to more layers of Ryan\'s personality than just coke and excess. Hmmm. I read too much into everything anyhow...
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