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By Rick Ingebritson   |  The Office  |  February 01, 2009


Michael Smith takes a roasting from Dunder Mifflin employees.

Michael Smith takes a roasting from Dunder Mifflin employees.


Dwight starting fires. Michael getting roasted. Cloris Leachman, um, getting it on?

All in all, a fine post-Super Bowl showing by the Dunder Mifflin crew. Super-sized to an hour, Sunday’s episode of The Office was funny from start to finish and a nice rebound from the previous episode.

Stewing over the fact his coworkers didn’t pay attention to his PowerPoint safety presentation, Dwight starts a fire in the office. In Dwight’s World, this makes perfect sense.

With smoke billowing into the office, the staff quickly is in a panic — especially Michael. “Stay $%# calm! Everyone $%# calm down!”

A stressed Stanley suffers a heart attack and Michael tries to resuscitate him. “You will not die! Michael screams. “Barack is president! Stanley, you are black!”


At corporate, David asks Dwight why he thought starting an office fire was a good idea. Dwight says a lot of great ideas were not appreciated at first. Like shampoo.

Michael decides the office needs to learn CPR and brings in Resusci Anne for the staff to practice on. Kevin grows quickly tired of the exertion it takes to pump the doll’s chest, saying he can’t keep doing it forever. He gives up and tells the instructor to “call it” after 20 seconds.

Michael takes his turn and is told that people find it easier by doing it to the rhythm of “Staying Alive.” Of course, Michael starts singing “I will survive,” which, as all of us who survived disco (and, yes, I do mean survived), is an honest mistake. After he gets the right tune, Andy joins in singing, Kelly starts dancing and Dunder Mifflin suddenly becomes Studio 54.

Given his turn with Anne, Dwight pulls out a knife and “harvests” her organs before taking the logical (again, in Dwight’s World) step of cutting off the doll’s face and applying it to his own for a quick Hannibal tribute. Called to corporate again, Michael assures David that Dwight “knows not to cut the face off a real person.”

Andy illegally downloads “Mrs. Albert Haniday” onto his laptop and shares it with Jim and Pam. Enter Jack Black, Jessica Alba and the aforementioned Leachman. Black is dating Alba before dumping her for her grandmother (Leachman). Their attraction blossoms during an unforgettable (though how hard I might try) bathroom scene that … is … just … plain … horrifying. This is way, way too much — even for Jack Black.

Dwight issues his statement of regret to the office staff, though scoffing at talk that he caused Stanley’s heart attack. “Yeah, right. I filled him full of butter and sugar for 50 years and forced him not to exercise.”

During a relaxation exercise, Stanley’s biofeedback machine shows that Michael is what causes stress for his staff. Feeling guilty, Michael makes the logical decision (in Michael’s World) to set up a roast of himself.

Free to express themselves, the staff doesn’t hold back. Especially inspired is the Foxworthy-like riff by Angela: “If you put sunblock on a window, you might be Michael Scott.”

Jim points out Michael’s shaky handle on the English language. “You remember spiderface? You know, ‘Cut off your nose to spiderface.’ ”

After defending his intelligence — citing the “dozens” of online IQ tests he has taken — Michael has had enough of the roast. (This I can relate to after having been roasted by readers who took, um, exception to my last blog …)

Michael sulks off and goes to a park to “feed” birds and clear his head. He returns to the office and serves volleys to the staff members — “Boom, roasted!” — leaving Stanley giggling like a schoolgirl.

The episode ends with Black watching Leachman through the window and catching her … Sorry, I just can’t continue …

I’m just praying to God that Black and Leachman don’t become recurring characters.

One Response to “Office lives up to ‘Super’ time slot”

  1. Wigman says:

    hi there, I didn’t know where to contact you but your layout looked off on firefox and IE. Anyways, i just suscribd to your rss.

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