30 replies to this topic

[2MuchTV]

DWIGHT AND CLARK POSE AS FATHER AND SON TO MAKE A SALE— Clark (Clark Duke) returns from his sex jaunt with Jan and gifts the office with a new espresso maker, which everyone abuses. Dwight (Rainn Wilson) takes him to sell a father - son suit warehouse. Meanwhile, Darryl (Craig Robinson) interviews at Jim’s (John Krasinski) company and Pam (Jenna Fischer) comes for a surprise visit. Leslie David Baker, Phyllis Smith, Angela Kinsey, Brian Baumgartner, Oscar Nunez, Kate Flannery, Paul Lieberstein, Creed Bratton, Ellie Kemper, Catherine Tate, Clark Duke and Jake Lacy also star.

[NiceGuyEddie]

Weak episode.
The Darryl in Philly stuff, as brief as it was, was the best.
The Dwight/Dwight Jr. stuff was kind of dumb.
And the espresso thing was just blatant, uninspired product placement with cheap caffeine jokes; some of their behavior would've made more sense if it was drugs or alcohol, but, espresso?!

Ah well, here's hoping for next week...

[Contralto]

A fish tank in an office? Isn't that a lot like a koi pond in a lobby?

[Petunia13]

Are they purposely trying to make Erin an idiot? Makes a big deal about signing for a package of pens then is baffled and panics on what to do with them?

"What's with the wig?" Phyllis turns it around backwards. No explanation. Funny.

Edited by Petunia13, Jan 18, 2013 @ 1:14 AM.

[SteakHead]

I dont understand why people evne complain about James Spader last year. He and Kathy Bates were at least not idiots and they injected a different and a much needed dynamic into the show. Spader would actually call out the characters for their flaws and not act like semi special ed candidates like Ed Helms and the Carrell characters. Now they have made Erin a full on idiot with this episode. And the caffeine kick thing was totally unrealistic.

There was some decent moments iwth Dwight Jr.

Just kill the show already.

[Petunia13]

I honestly wondered if there was some inside jokes or drug references considering how loopy and outlandish everyone got on the expresso. I mean they acted like some after school special.

Dwight Jr does look a lot like Dwight. And there were some funny moments, if predictable, during the sales pitch.

Heavy handed the Philly stuff with Jim, Pam, and Darryl. I guess since it wasn't beat into my head enough, Pam is scurred to move. Not just because it's a change but Jim has a hot shot life set up. Well Michael did it. With basically nothing except keeping Holly.

And Jim could get her a job at this rad company.

[Utica]

Jim is working for no pay! And the thousands Jim invested in the company is probably paying for the swank offices.

Looks like Pam is going to create some drama about moving to Philly.

Ack! I thought the show had got rid of the Dwight Jr. scum character. Nope, he's back.

[queenelvis]

This felt like a filler episode to me. I felt like I was watching an infomercial for that espresso machine. It was just so staged and obvious—like the company made them say those lines. There are really good ways of doing product placement (Community/Subway, AD/Burger King, even Apt 23 and Diet Dr. Pepper), but this was so clunky and boring.

I've never really cared for Darryl, but I kinda think he was the bright point of this ep. I like when things go haywire for him (like in Season 6, with the printer that started on fire), so I laughed like crazy when the basketball landed in the fish tank. It felt like one of those classic awkward Office moments. Otherwise, I'm super bored by the whole Jim and Pam plot, mainly because you know those two kids are going to be fine in the end.

Even though it was stupid, I laughed at the sight of everyone ripping up the rugs, followed by everyone hightailing it out of there at 5 pm and jamming up the parking lot. And then Pam and Darryl coming in and seeing all the destruction.

The Dwight and Clark plot fell really flat for me, but the cold opening was fun.

[PJWatcher]

I loved Happy!Stanley, though.

[AVorlon]

Ah yes, happy Stanley, who has never been awake at 2:00 PM before.

The writers really need to get a grip on what they’re doing with the Erin character. It looks like she’s supposed to fall in love with Pete, and they’ll leave together at the end of the show, much like Pam, Jim, and Daryl are set to leave.

Erin has always been kind of loopy, and has had all sorts of odd issues, but this time they went too far with her character.

[ccridernyc]

Good to see Ed Lauter as the old suit guy.

[OpieTaylor]

Oscar had some really funny moments/lines. I thought overall the episode was funny, but I agree Erin was ridiculously dumb. At first it was funny when she was nervously awaiting the pen delivery, but then she got OTT stupid.

IMO the evolution of Jim and Pam's relationship dynamic is fairly realistic - when you're married with kids, things are different; it can't always be "I'm 100% supportive no matter what you do." Pam is nervous; they now have kids they love as much as each other. But of course everything will work out for them in the end.

[Shalamar]

Looks like Pam is going to create some drama about moving to Philly.

Did I miss something, because I got the impression that it hadn't dawned on Pam yet that they would be moving to Philly. Maybe, in her heart of hearts, she believed/hoped that Jim would crash and burn.

[Petunia13]

Did I miss something, because I got the impression that it hadn't dawned on Pam yet that they would be moving to Philly. Maybe, in her heart of hearts, she believed/hoped that Jim would crash and burn.

I think it at least crossed her mind when she saw Jim and how happy he was and fit in. The fact it's a seperate life. When his coworker described it as Jim working part time at Dunder rather than the other way around and she corrected him. Then Oscar talked up Philly and she kept making the case it was no big deal...Scranton's great...why change from what you know, ect. Jmho she had some stark looks on her face in those scenes like she was facing the truth. And it bothers her since she sold him so much on not leaving. Then when he got the job in the car she was dejected and wouldn't sing along until he prompted her like twice. She knew.

Forgive me if I made a mistake with the dialogue. I did not write it down and was watching with others so might have a murky memory.

[NicoleMN6]

So Jim has been driving 2 hours each way to Philadelphia three days a week? Or is he staying overnight there and crashing on someone's couch (or maybe at the office) those nights?

Can Daryl afford to quit his job and go work for no pay in Philly? Or is he going to be like Jim and work part-time there? (I don't think that would be an option for a warehouse manager, though.)

Edited by NicoleMN6, Jan 18, 2013 @ 1:33 PM.

[Sister Magpie]

Did I miss something, because I got the impression that it hadn't dawned on Pam yet that they would be moving to Philly. Maybe, in her heart of hearts, she believed/hoped that Jim would crash and burn.

Yup. I think Pam and Jim have both had surprisingly clear and reality-based arcs about this. One that actually rather mirrors their first situation. Back then Pam was set on holding on to the status quo that she found comfortable: engagement to Roy and great friendship with Jim. Only Jim wasn't happy with that because he didn't want to be stuck as Pam's friend. But he played along and hid his feelings, especially since Pam had a negative reaction whenever they came out. Eventually that made him desperate enough to upset the apple cart entirely by confessing to Pam and transferring. Pam hung onto Roy through that and was tempted to go back to him later.

Same thing basically this season. The job possibility makes Jim dissatisfied. He plays along with Pam. Pam makes concessions when she has to (forgiving him for the secret, letting him work part time, agreeing to invest money) but consoles herself with her belief that none of this is real. In this ep the reality smacked her in the face. It's a real company (it's not Michael Scott Paper), Jim's energized and doing a job, people there see him as one of their own, everyone takes it for granted Pam's moving to Philly. Now they've got Darryl (who was awesome).

This was the first time she met Philly Jim.

I did love Jim and Dwight Schrupert. Wish we'd seen more of them in action--it didn't even contradict previous continuity, which is shocking.

[PJWatcher]

I think Pam was content to let Jim try this out without really thinking that the reality of how this would affect their lives would eventually push in.

She's beginning to realize that she and Jim and their two young children will have to sell their house, leave their friends, family (where Mom is a phone call away for last-minute baby-sitting), the security of their jobs and move to a large city to take a chance that a start-up company that is not making any money yet is going to take off.

[kariyaki]

I liked the espresso plot because we would have latte days at this one job I had and we would run around over-caffeinated out of our minds, getting NOTHING done. We didn't rip up any carpeting but we did play stickball with balls of tape and threw Nerf footballs around, knocking over every single desk lamp in the place.

[NicoleMN6]

Pam doesn't have to move until Jim's company starts taking off and giving him a paycheck. It wouldn't make sense, since they'd have to sell the house and give up her job plus the free babysitter (Grandma), and Philly is only a 2-hour drive away.

She may have thought of this in the context of her own adventures in art school -- that Jim would spend some money and get some distance from Dunder Mifflin, only to realize that what he really wanted was in front of him all along. Only Jim actually has ambition and talent for this enterprise...

Edited by NicoleMN6, Jan 18, 2013 @ 4:50 PM.

[Sister Magpie]

I think Pam was content to let Jim try this out without really thinking that the reality of how this would affect their lives would eventually push in.

She may have thought of this in the context of her own adventures in art school -- that Jim would spend some money and get some distance from Dunder Mifflin, only to realize that what he really wanted was in front of him all along. Only Jim actually has ambition and talent for this enterprise...

Yes, I think these things go together. Because Pam's first response to the whole idea was that it was impossible. But when Jim was enthusiastic it didn't feel right to tell him no when he's telling her how much it means to him. So she began to consider it more like the art internship. So she's always been in denial about it--and Jim's commitment to it. And apparent potential success at it. Even if the company crashed and burned it could lead to a very different career for Jim, possibly in Philly.

[BogoGog24]

The Erin plot was completely over the top, unrealistic, and annoying. The writers are extremely inconsistent with her character. In the last episode she actually exhibited a normal level of intelligence, now in this episode she gets freaked out by pens? It was funny in previous seasons when they made her just a little ditzy, but in more recent seasons it's just not even realistic. Pete seems like a really good match for her character and she is being so dumb and oblivious to his affections for her. It's like the painful on again off again thing she had with Andy, trying to get them together for so long, they finally do, then break up, then get back together again, now he has disappeared... What the heck is going on with this show?

I was surprised that they kept the running gag of bald Meredith in it though. This show seems to have problems with continuity recently. Like a few episodes ago we saw Pam working on the warehouse mural? What has she been doing with it since then? How much time has gone by? Has she worked on it consistently off-camera? Has she not worked on it at all? The writers have issues when it comes to keeping up with certain story lines- they introduce something and then abandon it with no explanation.

I laughed really hard when Darryl killed the fish with the basketball. Felt like a classic Office mishap. I lost it when I saw the dead fish floating at the top.

[whywatch]

This episode gave me my first literal LOL in a long time -- Dwight's "love you" to Jim after the hang up in the cold open.

I don't think Pam knows Philly Jim. She's used to Scranton "dork" Jim. He was confident and engaged. I think it threw her.

[TheRabbi]

The stuff in the office was super weak and boring, but I personally loved the Dwight/Dwight Jr. plot, and the Darryl/Philly plot was decent enough as well. The Dwight plot had just the right amount of awkward and it worked for me somehow, where the espresso bits in the office were just super lame.

Overall enjoyed the episode enough.

[cousinsrock]

This episode gave me my first literal LOL in a long time -- Dwight's "love you" to Jim after the hang up in the cold open.

I was cracking up when that happened. The whole cold open was great. I am really going to miss those Jim/Dwight moments.

[Sister Magpie]

Pete seems like a really good match for her character and she is being so dumb and oblivious to his affections for her.

I agree about Erin sometimes crossing the line into crazy stupid, but she's not dumb or oblivious about his affection for her. She's avoiding him because she doesn't think she doesn't want to cheat on Andy with him. That was part of the reason she was freaked out by the pen stuff. When he joked that she was doing Pam's job she connected it to cheating on Andy.

Which is really silly because it seems like Andy's just ceased to exist and their relationship was so weird to start with. Andy's a slightly different guy and this guy doesn't seem like he'd have dated Erin.

[ElectricBoogalo]

I don't think Pam knows Philly Jim. She's used to Scranton "dork" Jim. He was confident and engaged. I think it threw her.

ITA - she's used to seeing Jim slack off at a job he doesn't really like and spending a good part of his day planning pranks to waste time until he can go home. But in Philly, he likes what he's doing and he's a completely different Work Jim than she has known at Dunder Mifflin since she met him. Most of the time that he's been in Scranton, his main goal was to make a few big paper sales and then mess with Dwight or amuse himself with events he created like Office Olympics. But he clearly doesn't have time for that at his new job because he's actually working and getting things and enjoying his work.

I don't think that she consciously expected him to fail at his new job. I think it was more that he wanted to do something and she d.idn't want to say no because he obviously really wanted to do it. She never considered what would happen further down the road because she was so wrapped up in the immediate issues like how much money he invested and his struggle to be involved with the company from Scranton. I don't think she realized just show hard it would be for her to be a single parent for half the week, let alone what would happen if the company became successful. At the core, Pam and Jim love being supportive of each other's dreams (similar to the way Jim told her to go to New York) because they each want the other person to be happy but I don't think Pam ever considered the possibility that this would lead to moving to Philadelphia because she wasn't thinking that far ahead.

I did laugh a little at Oscar assuming that people would pronounce espresso incorrectly. Given how many times I've heard people pronounce it expresso, it seemed like a fair assumption.

[NiceGuyEddie]

I did laugh a little at Oscar assuming that people would pronounce espresso incorrectly. Given how many times I've heard people pronounce it expresso, it seemed like a fair assumption.

That scene fell flat for me, maybe partially b/c I was annoyed at the clunky product placement that had just started a few seconds before, but also because "expresso" is not incorrect. The latin root has an "x" (exprimere, to "press out"), and in some parts of Europe it's common to say "expresso". "Expresso" is even listed in the dictionary.

[ChipBach]

Pete seems like a really good match for her character and she is being so dumb and oblivious to his affections for her.

I disagree. I think Pete is too intelligent for the character that Erin has turned into. She is seriously not only silly stupid, but acted as if she had a full on mentally disability based on the pen dilemma. Heck, my cousin (who is high functioning challenged) would think she is an idiot. Having said that, Pete might try to score with her, but a relationship with anyone but someone like Gabe would be unbelievable...

Show is re-jumping the shark every week... Too bad, like Tyson trying to fight long after his time has past...

[ChipBach]

Double post...

Edited by ChipBach, Jan 22, 2013 @ 4:13 PM.

[ChipBach]

Triple post...

Edited by ChipBach, Jan 22, 2013 @ 4:12 PM.