Dwight (above) teams up with Toby on ‘The Office.’

After last week’s amusing season opener, “The Office” returned to the frustrating inconsistency it has shown the past couple of seasons.

“The Meeting” wasn’t a horrible episode. It was, however, just as bland as the episode title, featuring more groans than laughs.

The first groan came with the painfully unfunny opening scene during which Michael asks Oscar for help in getting through a colonoscopy.

With David from corporate visiting the office, Jim asks to meet privately with him. This, of course, sets Michael’s paranoia level to Code Red. He asks Pam for any inside information she might have about the meeting, going so far as to threaten her if she doesn’t level with him. “If you are lying to me right now, your baby will come out a liar.”

In one of the few amusing scenes, Michael stakes out a better view of Jim and David by sitting at Andy’s desk and fakes small talk. Neurotic Andy apologizes for his struggling sales numbers, blaming it on a “weird, flirty, nebulous thing with this cousin of mine.”

Eager to please, Andy helps smuggle Michael into the conference room by stowing him away on a cheese cart, that Andy helpfully describes as including cheddar, aged parmesan and blue cheese dressing.

Once again Ed Helms’ Andy steals the few scenes he’s in. 

David asks Michael’s opinion about Jim and, feeling threatened, Michael sabotages his best friend by comparing him to Big Bird and telling David that Jim is no Bert.

After learning that Jim had gone to bat for him, Michael feels guilty and tries to make things good with David. They come up with a compromise, with Jim being promoted to co-manager and Michael being, um, “promoted” to co-manager.

And everyone is happy. Except Dwight, of course, who has been busy investigating Darryl’s worker’s compensation claim. Dwight, being Dwight, doesn’t buy Darryl’s explanation on how he broke his ankle in the warehouse and convinces Toby that something is amiss.

Dwight and Toby stake out Darryl’s home – which echoes the past episode where Dwight staked out Oscar’s home to see if he was, in fact, sick or just skipping work.

Dwight and Toby bond over trains before seeing someone carrying a bag of dog food in Darryl’s front yard. They swoop in for the bust, only to learn that Darryl’s sister hase more than a passing resemblance to her big brother.

Dwight finally figures out Darryl’s ruse and they settle the matter by doing what office workers do – they each file complaints to corporate.

So, all in all, not a bad episode. But not all that good, either. There were moments with Andy, and Ryan’s character remains funny, as he believes that the fact he once drank a $77 glass of cognac makes him cool and not pathetic by demonstrating exactly how far he’s fallen.

Unfortunately, “The Office” also has fallen somewhat and it’s episodes like these where rip-offs like “Community” and “Modern Family” look new and fun in comparison. A few more clunkers like this and we’ll have to compare “The Office” to another of its rip-offs, “Parks and Recreation.”

Here’s hoping that it never comes to that.

So what did you think of the episode? How will Dwight handle being passed over? How many coworkers do you think will attend Jim and Pam’s wedding? Will Creed ever get more than one line an episode?