26 replies to this topic

[2MuchTV]

"JUNIOR SALESMAN"

01/31/2013 (09:00PM - 09:31PM) (Thursday) : DWIGHT BRINGS BACK OLD FRIENDS—David Wallace (Andy Buckley) tasks Dwight (Rainn Wilson) with finding a new part time salesman to fill in for Jim (John Krasinski). Dwight assembles a super-team of his cronies, starting with Mose. Pam (Jenna Fischer) tries to figure out who will be her new desk mate. Erin (Ellie Kemper) tries to find her birth parents with Pete’s (Jake Lacy) help. John Krasinski, Leslie David Baker, Phyllis Smith, Angela Kinsey, Brian Baumgartner, Oscar Nunez, Kate Flannery, Paul Lieberstein, Creed Bratton, Craig Robinson, Ellie Kemper, Catherine Tate and Clark Duke also star.

Sigh. So everyone who called the cameraman being into Pam were right.

Sigh.

[OhhhCocoa]

DO NOT WANT.

[Carl Carlson]

Finally, pin pointed who Dwight's tall buddy was- one of Jesse's tweaker buddies from Breaking Bad.
Was driving me nuts.

[Contralto]

So they dropped the Erin plot and left it in the synopsis? They've done that at least once before (some haunted-house plot).

I thought Jim was trying to make amends, getting Pam a deskmate she could tolerate.

Rolf looks like a mean old grandma.

[InsertWordHere]

Finally, pin pointed who Dwight's tall buddy was- one of Jesse's tweaker buddies from Breaking Bad.
Was driving me nuts.

Me too. It took me until his second scene to realize that Mose's brother was Badger.

[samsnee]

Oh goody, a love triangle. We've never had one of those.

[flipperova]

As I jot a couple of reactions, I realize I enjoyed a few of the small subplots more than the Dwight job interview business which seemed ridiculous or maybe incredulous is the word.

Go Kevin! Loved Angela's little smirk as she walked away. Didn't expect that scene to play out that way.

Enjoyed the roommate thing with Darryl and Jim a bit. But cringed at Jim's ephiphany about being respectful to a roommate. Doh!

[Brandi Maxxxx]

So they dropped the Erin plot and left it in the synopsis? They've done that at least once before (some haunted-house plot).

If you're referring to the haunted house in 'Koi Pond', it was in the original broadcast but was removed from later versions.

[queenelvis]

I'm kinda bummed about them dropping the Pete/Erin plot, simply because I like to see that side of Erin that isn't dumber than a box of hair, and I think we would have gotten that. I like them together, and I liked the idea of Pete taking an interest in her background. I know I'm being manipulated by the writers, but I enjoy the chemistry those two have together, as opposed to Andy/Erin which tortured me for three long seasons.

Loved Meredith asking Boom Brian, "When are you gonna boom me?" I'd kill to see "outtakes" of Meredith inappropriately hitting on all the documentary crew.

"It's dense! Like bread!" Biggest laugh for me.

In the end, I really think this episode needed a b-plot, just to cut up some of Dwight's search. I liked it though. It was fun to see Tim from Tim and Eric as Dwight's friend from "X-Men School", and I laughed like crazy when Clark was saran-wrapped (poor guy). I still think Dwight would have made a great manager. Please keep sailing, Andy. Please!

[LiberryLady]

James Urbaniak, aka Doctor Venture, was Rolf! He's been on before, right? I was cocking my head like a Jack Russell Terrier trying to place his voice.

[Utica]

Clark (and even Pete) should not be getting this much storyline in a series' final season.

[Cerpintaxt815]

James Urbaniak, aka Doctor Venture, was Rolf! He's been on before, right? I was cocking my head like a Jack Russell Terrier trying to place his voice.

Oh my god you're right that's Dr. Venture! I'm a huge Venture Bros. fan and I can't believe I didn't recognize him. I think Rolf was in the The Office season 5 finale when they were playing volleyball. All I was thinking was that he reminded me of David Hyde Pierce

[AVorlon]

I can pretty much see why this episode was dumped out in front of another episode. Virtually nothing happened here, except for Dwight bringing in his weird and dysfunctional friends and family.

The story arcs tonight were only moved along by the second episode.

[mansfolly]

I liked both episodes (minus the Brian stuff and them turning Jim into a schmuck).

Absolutely I will.
Angela's smirk.

Mose running / running out of the building! Always gets a laugh out of me.
Ooops (the hobbit in the bathroom).
It's dense, like bread. (queenelvis, made me laugh out loud too )

Most of Dwight's friends cracked me up -- good to see some of them again.

Edited by mansfolly, Feb 1, 2013 @ 12:14 PM.

[Col Bat Guano]

This episode had a lot of laughs and some great callbacks (Sensei Ira) that got washed away in the terribleness of the next episode.

[utti]

Jim has been getting paid full-time for DM all this time?? With the loss of that and Athlead not having enough investors I suspect we'll have serious financial troubles between him and Pam.

Edited by utti, Feb 1, 2013 @ 6:13 PM.

[Brandi Maxxxx]

Good thing Pam conned her way into the Office Administrator position then.

[vinyl]

Thank goodness the Erin/Pete subplot was dropped!

[needschocolate]

Jim mentioned that he had spent a lot of time/energy into getting Dwight to make Clark the salesman. How? Dwight relaized on his own that his friends were losers and told Jim to be part of the decision making. Did Jim somehow convince Dwight of any of that (other than insisting to David Wallace that he should be part of it). I expected Jim to come up with some sort of prank that would convince Dwight that Clark was the right guy - like have Clark play tricks on Jim or something. I don't see how Jim deserves any credit for getting Clark promoted.

[HyeChaps]

Angela dressed her baby like a princess.

[daria405]

Angela dressed her baby like a princess.

Too bad said baby is a boy!

I would have liked it better if Mose actually had the job he put on his resume, rather than him trying to con Dwight. I'd like to think there is a secret life of Mose the viewers don't get to see.

[ikar]

Yes, I'm with daria405. I think Mose stares into the distance (or his snowglobe) and dreams of a pretty woman with yellow hair who lives in the make-believe town of Pawnee...

BTW, Mose running will never not be funny. That callback was hilarious.

Edited by ikar, Feb 2, 2013 @ 3:30 PM.

[qtbluemoon]

What was Darryl saying when he sat down in his chair and started pushing buttons on his remote? Jim says "Oh crap, were those yours?" There were two other people in the room with me, and we re-ran that scene at least a dozen times, and we weren't able to figure it out! Anybody?

[ikar]

I don't know the exact line, but it's something along the line "Where's my Tavis Smiley?" The interviewer on PBS.
I guess Jim deleted them on the dvr.

Edited by ikar, Feb 3, 2013 @ 2:04 PM.

[possibilities]

I took Jim deleting Darryl's recordings to be even jerkier than him taking the wrong mug. You could possibly grab the wrong mug and not notice the label, but to deliberately delete recordings from the DVR takes deliberate intent. And when you share it with one other person, asking first seems to me to be the minimum standard of basic decency. It's things like this that make it seem to me like they are in fact trying to portray Jim as acting like an asshole, and tipping the conflict away from Jim and Pam just wanting different things, to him being an inconsiderate, self-absorbed jerk across the board.

Jim having gotten involved with the new company without telling Pam he was even thinking about it, was the first sign, but I kind of handwaved it as him being carried away in the moment and then not finding the right moment to tell her as soon as he should have. But in retrospect, it's kind of hard to justify that either, since they commute together, live together, and work together all day long. There had to be opportunities.

The writing is all over the place. He sincerely wanted to be at CeCe's recital, so it's not boredom with the family. He had time to play games, so it's not just that the new job/commute/two jobs is too much for him to handle. So... what is it? He was never portrayed as being clueless or inconsiderate or sloppy or a jerk to his neighbors before (except for Dwight, who earned it by interfering with his biggest client way back in season 1).

Edited by possibilities, Feb 3, 2013 @ 3:25 PM.

[Sister Magpie]

So... what is it? He was never portrayed as being clueless or inconsiderate or sloppy or a jerk to his neighbors before (except for Dwight, who earned it by interfering with his biggest client way back in season 1).

I think part of it is that they overestimate how likable he is. There's a lot of writers who seem to want to "take Jim down a peg" and show him losing or being flawed or having people get mad at him as if this is the first time anyone has thought badly of him, when really he's not some character people think is perfect to begin with. They don't seem to like to do that for Pam. She's flawed and makes mistakes, but she isn't hung out to dry like Jim in this ep. Pam gets portrayed far more as the good-hearted victim.

I think with the business it's supposed to be more that Jim went through an understandable and ultimately good crisis about his life, but was at first afraid of telling his wife. So he kept it secret--but not to the point that he was really committing anything on her behalf. When Darryl tells Jim it's not real if his wife doesn't know, he's right. All Jim had really done at that point was get himself into the discussion. Pam could have said no--he just made it harder by having already told the guys yes. So he was wrong, but it's not like suddenly Pam's bank account was invested in Athlead or anything.

Once he did get onboard I'm not sure he's really supposed to be as selfish as he comes across. I mean...it's hard to pinpoint it. Clearly he's often having fun at work, having his best day ever, enjoying the bachelor pad. But I don't think it's that he's supposed to be selfish so much as this situation is enjoyable in some ways for him and he's so taken with it he's distracted by it.

It was possibly just dumb to come up with a sudden "he's a big slob" thing for Jim because they made it seem like such a metaphor for the situation they pretty much came down on Pam's side: Jim's using Pam's cup by disrupting her life for his own use. Jim's acting like he's the only person who matters in his marriage just like he treats his obviously shared DVR as if he lives alone. (And really, who does that? It's not like Jim had any reason to not want Darryl to have his shows. It was supposed to be completely ceaselessness that made no sense.) But at the same time I can't believe they really see Jim as being selfish by not agreeing with his wife that the best thing for them and their family is obviously to keep their joke jobs at the dying paper company. If they'd played the story a different way maybe Pam would seem more like Jim in wanting him to give it up. (He has in the past supported he similar desires, especially with Michael Scott Paper--different situation but same automatic support of something she thinks she needs/wants for herself.)

Edited by Sister Magpie, Feb 3, 2013 @ 3:53 PM.

[Col Bat Guano]

There's a lot of writers who seem to want to "take Jim down a peg" and show him losing or being flawed or having people get mad at him as if this is the first time anyone has thought badly of him, when really he's not some character people think is perfect to begin with.

I thought Mindy Kaling was the biggest offender of this, but clearly some on the writing staff still feel this way. Just like it was unnecessary to throw Brian into the mix to add strain to their relationship, making Jim a clueless jerk by having him dump the coffee or delete Darryl's shows off the DVR was also a bad choice. Subtlety seems to be a lost art on the show these days.