Cannes Film Festival 2013

Review: 'The Office' - 'Pam's Replacement': Are you hot?

A flagging season shows a few signs of life

<p>Brian Baumgartner and Ed Helms on "The Office."</p>

Brian Baumgartner and Ed Helms on "The Office."

Credit: NBC

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Typical. The day I publish a piece about my disappointment with the post-Steve Carell version of "The Office- along with a post-script about how I don't see a point to weekly reviews anymore - the show presents the episode I've enjoyed the most so far this season. A few quick thoughts on why coming up just as soon as I write something nasty on your Facebook wall... 

It's not that "Pam's Replacement" was perfect (the teaser, for instance, made my Michael Scott Lite point for me by recycling a joke from a Carell episode). But it spent a lot of time on one of the show's most underrated  combinations in Pam and Dwight - he always makes her funnier, and she always him more human - it told a Jim/Pam story that felt like it was about those two and not boring mirror universe versions of them, and if the band subplot was one long joke, it had that "I like hanging out with these characters" feel to it (and an excellent jam band version of "Midnight Rambler").

I wrote that column because most of this season's episodes have left me feeling sad at how tired the show seems. "Pam's Replacement" was far from a great episode, but by just being decent and having the characters all act in character (including Kevin not being retarded for once), it was a significant step up.

Again, I'll check in on episodes where I feel like I have something unique to say, but what did everybody else think of this one? 

Alan-sepinwall-sm
Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching
Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

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  • Default-avatar

    Shane

    Interesting. I felt tonight's was the WORST one of the season thus far. Pam's entire pregnancy plot has been cliche from the onset. Dwight has become so much of a cartoon-ish idiot it's hard to laugh at him. Andy just ain't cutting it as a boss.

    November 10, 2011 at 11:22PM EST Reply to Comment
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      Col Bat Guano What pregnancy plot?

      November 11, 2011 at 1:06AM EST
    • Is he pregnant?

      November 11, 2011 at 5:13PM EST
    • SHE

      (damn lack of comment editing)

      November 11, 2011 at 5:14PM EST
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      Gorab It's not necessarily a plot...she actually IS pregnant so they incorporated it into the show. What else were they supposed to do?

      November 11, 2011 at 6:25PM EST
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      Maggie Q Well, they could have decided the character wasn't pregnant, and "hid" her behind desks and coats and purses - like they did when Angela Kinsey was pregnant (and with many other pregnant actresses on many other shows.) The point is, once a decision is made that the character is also pregnant, it becomes a plot point, as deserved of good writing as any other.

      November 12, 2011 at 12:29PM EST
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      Col Bat Guano Why do they need to write an extended plot about her pregnancy? They've had two episodes addressing it this season which seems just fine to me. What more could be done to address it?

      November 12, 2011 at 3:23PM EST
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    Alex T.

    This was actually my favorite episode of the season so far.

    November 10, 2011 at 11:23PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Matt

    I thought it was easily the best episode of the season. Maybe it would work better if Andy just hangs out in the warehouse a lot and lets the rest of the office do their own thing?

    November 10, 2011 at 11:24PM EST Reply to Comment
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    srpad

    Kevin during the tag at the end made me think of your article. They had previously established he is a pretty good drummer. He was in Scraton-icity for crying out loud!

    Otherwise this was a surprisingly decent episode.

    November 10, 2011 at 11:26PM EST Reply to Comment
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      Jim And Scraton-icity II.

      November 11, 2011 at 1:37PM EST
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    Andy G

    pretty sure the drummer is this guy; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItZyaOlrb7E

    November 10, 2011 at 11:28PM EST Reply to Comment
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      JAMES Yes it is. I played keyboards with Steve (The mad drummer) for about 6 years. He is a great drummer and person. Totally the real deal.

      November 10, 2011 at 11:38PM EST
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      Jeff Guest musicians:
      Steve Moore, drums
      Linda Taylor, guitar
      Robin Swenson, keyboards

      November 19, 2011 at 3:19PM EST
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    Bradley

    How many episodes in a row is Andy going to sing?

    November 11, 2011 at 12:00AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Modok

    That's funny; I was sure Alan would consider this episode to convincing proof of the show's decline. I thought it was lousy.

    Pam hectoring Jim to concede temp girl's attractiveness was amusing for the first segment. But after it kept dragging on, I kept hoping she'd just knock it off already. It wasn't cute or funny, it was just that awful "sitcom wife" nagging you see in About Jim or one of those witless shows--you know, the kind where the couple carries on over some stupid meaningless point because "being right" is apparently the lifeblood of all wacky TV marriages.

    The absolute lowlight was Dwight's prolonged grasp of Jim's crotch. It wasn't funny the first time, much less after 3 or 4 repeated attempts. I actually started wondering how many times a dude could firmly grasp another guy's crotch on TV without awakening the censors.

    The band subplot would've been okay as a 2-minute gag, but was repetitive and dull when stretched to 10 minutes. It also continued the trend of Robert California's incredible shrinking character. There's no hint of mystery or weirdness about him anymore; he just comes off now as the typical arrogant-boss d-bag.

    With diminished expectations, I've enjoyed much of this season. But I really don't think I've disliked an episode this much since that church episode last season.

    November 11, 2011 at 12:03AM EST Reply to Comment
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      JBriggs You hit every point I wanted to make. Complete agreement with you.

      November 11, 2011 at 9:25AM EST
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      Dave I While I thought a lot of the plots dragged on a little too long, just a few points.

      1) Pam seemed pretty true-to-life as far as how pregnant women are. They are hormonal, as Bob stated below they KNOW they are big as a house, and get sick of people treating them differently (especially rubbing their belly without asking and treating them like helpless children).

      2) Dwight's crotch-grab; I thought it was kind of funny the first time, if only because it's the stupid stuff Dwight would find acceptable even though it's not. They went way overboard though.

      3) Robert California comes across to me as just socially like a robot. I think he's weird, but not quite like at the end of last season. I thought the band thing dragged on, but it felt pretty much like what we'd expect from Robert California. Of course he'd be the guy who played an instrument and had high-profile celebrities that he jammed with. He's been presented as super-successful and highly qualified, so it made sense to me he'd be THAT guy that if you had a Les Paul guitar, he's have gotten a '59 Les Paul from Jimmy Page. They did it over-the-top for me, but overall I thought it was a pretty solid episode.

      -Cheers

      November 11, 2011 at 11:50AM EST
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      Jake Complete disagreement with both of you. That is all

      November 11, 2011 at 3:05PM EST
    • Also have to agree with MODOK (never thought I'd type that sentence). They tried to salvage the zaniness with a serious "men's health/mortality" bit at the end, but it was really forced. The jab about "oh, I'm pregnant btw" and the drummer battle tag were nice, but this was mostly a pass.

      November 11, 2011 at 5:22PM EST
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      William Agreed throughout. I thought this was actually the worst of the season, and might be the straw that breaks the camel's back and make me finally drop the show. I don't actually mind the early Pam material, but her willingness to continue following Dwight after *prolonged sexual assault* basically kills it. Dwight used to be cartoony, but he was not stupid enough to believe that literally every answer of Jim's was a lie.

      November 11, 2011 at 7:55PM EST
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      Col Bat Guano You mean the Dwight who believed a computer was communicating with him? Or the one who attempted to harvest the organs from a CPR dummy?

      November 11, 2011 at 11:54PM EST
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      LStock5034 Reply to comment...

      November 12, 2011 at 8:49AM EST
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      LStock5034 Sorry for empty post! Couldn't agree more.

      November 12, 2011 at 8:50AM EST
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      Nat King Kong Agree completely, MODOK. This was awful, and the reason is IT. WASN'T. FUNNY. At all. The Office has become very boring.

      November 19, 2011 at 4:31PM EST
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    Robinson

    Interestingly, at about this point last year (wuphf.com), Alan planned on kicking The Office out of the blog rotation (with good reason). However, the following couple of episodes were so strong that you never skipped a post for the rest of the season.

    Here's hoping the show can make another creative comeback like that.

    November 11, 2011 at 12:28AM EST Reply to Comment
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      Bob I think you're misinterpreting Pam in that subplot. She wasn't trying to entrap her husband into admitting that the clearly attractive temp was attractive. She's just fully aware that she's as big as a house and wants people to stop pretending and, as Dwight would say, mollycoddling her. Totally sweet and in Pam character.

      November 11, 2011 at 5:07AM EST
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      Bob My iPhone betrayed me - I was replying to Modok.

      November 11, 2011 at 5:08AM EST
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    TO

    I also thought it was one of the best of this season, certainly one of the funniest; afterward I was even thinking it might be solid enough that Alan would decide to do an individual review of it again, and I'm glad he did. I'm totally in agreement that the Dwight/Pam relationship was working well and I loved that Andy scripted his scatting, I might have actually let out a genuine cackle.

    November 11, 2011 at 12:28AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Robinson

    Interestingly, at about this point last year (wuphf.com), Alan planned on kicking The Office out of the blog rotation (with good reason). However, the following couple of episodes were so strong that you never skipped a post for the rest of the season.

    Here's hoping the show can make another creative comeback like that.

    Here's hoping the show can make another creative comeback like that.

    November 11, 2011 at 12:28AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Robinson

    Interestingly, at about this point last year (wuphf.com), Alan planned on kicking The Office out of the blog rotation (with good reason). However, the following couple of episodes were so strong that he never skipped a post for the rest of the season.

    Here's hoping the show can make another creative comeback like that.

    Here's hoping the show can make another creative comeback like that.

    November 11, 2011 at 12:29AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Tyler

    My wife and I noted, right at the beginning, that they were recycling a Steve Carrell joke. I predicted that it would end the same way as the previous one did, but then they took it in a completely insane, demented, and amazing direction that I never could have predicted and it made it totally worth it.

    November 11, 2011 at 1:10AM EST Reply to Comment
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    asarael

    This WAS a good episode, but if I had complaint it would be that the Pam-trying-to-get-Jim-to-admit-he-thinks-the-girl-is-attractive storyline felt like something that should be in Whitney, and not The Office. Other than that it was fine. Andy is more more tolerable when his stories have nothing to do with running the branch.

    November 11, 2011 at 1:48AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Rambler

    The office is going to be "around for the long haul"!!!

    November 11, 2011 at 8:39AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Rambler

    The office is going to be "around for the long haul"!!

    November 11, 2011 at 8:41AM EST Reply to Comment
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      kronicfatigue Can this site please do SOMETHING about all the double-posts? It's not the users' fault. There's definitely some glitch going on.

      November 11, 2011 at 11:44AM EST
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    thehova

    All in all, I think it's been a strong season thus far. I know it's not a competition, but it seems like Alan and many commenters are quick to jump on The Office's flaw, while overlooking Parks and Rec's flaw (and there are many this year).

    November 11, 2011 at 8:51AM EST Reply to Comment
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      thehova uggh. meant "flaws".

      November 11, 2011 at 8:52AM EST
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    mwilhe01

    Perhaps I was tainted by Alan's earlier post about the "Post-Carrell Office" but I felt this episode was overall not good. However, I did think the ending was nice with Andy, Daryl, and Kevin singing together again after getting kicked out of their own band.

    I'm willing to give the show through Christmas but unless it improves I think it's going to fall off the DVR and I'll just have to rely on the TBS repeats to get me by.

    November 11, 2011 at 10:22AM EST Reply to Comment
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    gsmith140

    I actually think this ep was worse than the previous efforts this season. Spader just seems like a mess to me. The whole band thing was just odd, except it showed Andy getting crapped on and then kind of redeeming himself, which seems to happen every episode. That's getting a little old.

    I thought the open was awful. It didn't seem like something Andy would do at all.

    November 11, 2011 at 10:37AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Brendan

    This episode makes it clear what the strengths and weaknesses of the show are. The strengths lie in Jim and Pam having fun with Dwight's weirdness. The weaknesses are anything to do with Andy and Darryl playing music. And pretty much Andy and Darryl doing anything. They are just not funny. Kevin provided a few laughs, at least.

    November 11, 2011 at 10:45AM EST Reply to Comment
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      Col Bat Guano Yeah, I don't understand the writers fondness for Andy singing. I got nothing out of the story except that somehow Robert California knows a bunch of musicians from the Scranton area. The scene at the end meant nothing to me because Andy, Darryl and Kevin weren't kicked out of their band. They don't have a band, they are just three guys playing around in the warehouse. As soon as California leaves, they go back in and start playing again. There were absolutely no consequences to that story and so we were subjected to some amateur garage rock that took up much too much of the episode.

      I enjoyed all of the A story though. Pam's insecurities didn't feel too cartoonish and Dwight's zeal to prove Jim was lying seemed in character. Best episode of the season for me.

      November 11, 2011 at 12:06PM EST
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      lita I think they want to show Andy's singing to differentiate him from Michael. Actually I think there's nothing wrong with Andy's singing (look at previous seasons), it's just the whole writing for his character and other characters too.

      I don't think Andy redeemed himself in the end though, if he did, they would actually kick Robert California out. I think the only time Andy standing up was in The List.

      November 11, 2011 at 12:24PM EST
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      Col Bat Guano I've hated every minute of Andy's singing except for when he was being a giant douche and singing out "Zombie" at the top of his lungs in the middle of the office. His singing used to be an annoying character flaw that bothered everyone around him. Now we're supposed to enjoy it.

      November 11, 2011 at 1:09PM EST
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      lita I think it's still annoying to his co-workers like shown in last week's cold open "Closing Time". Jim even said that it's good to see Andy sang at appropriate time in "Andy's Play". Well, beside last week, the rest of the time he sang this season was in "Garden Party" and this episode and technically not at work so I won't say it as not proper.

      I guess viewers will differ at their opinion of Andy's singing. That's OK. I was annoyed at first with his singing but now I think of it as his character's trait.

      November 11, 2011 at 11:59PM EST
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    ed w

    This episode seemed more like a confirmation of Alan's earlier article. Especially regarding the unwatchably bad warehouse subplot, with Spader hanging out for no reason (paging David Wallace) and random musicians popping in.

    There was about 7 or 8 minutes at the start, post-credits, that was solid. But then the A plot went downhill too. A mixed bag overall. B- but with a good stretch early on.

    November 11, 2011 at 11:15AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Ben Kabak

    Wouldnt it have been better to have Spader as branch manager for about 12 episodes and then we see him plot to get rid of the CEO and take over and him appoint a manager? What lazy storytelling

    November 11, 2011 at 11:26AM EST Reply to Comment
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      Dave I I don't think that was lazy storytelling. I think it just set up R.C. as being THAT eccentric, and just the type of character who would both try AND pull that off. I think it would have been nice to have Spader around more to help build his character a bit more, but bumping him up to CEO right away did not bother me. Plus, I think the show typically does a jump ahead in time between seasons, so with the timeline and R.C.'s ambitious nature, that made sense. His abrupt getting the job, the same day flying out to talk his way into being CEO (not getting rid of the old one, she still has Sabre, he's just taking over the Dunder Mifflin portion) helped define the character of Robert California.

      -Cheers

      November 11, 2011 at 11:57AM EST
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      sonia I think making Robert California was primarily a behind-the-scenes logistics issue. Kathy Bates has been busy with Harry's Law, which got picked up for another season, so rather than having a few sparse appearances from her they simply explained her sudden disappearance.

      Not saying it's the best way to handle it, but I think it was less an issue of lazy storytelling and more an issue of circumstance with the actor.

      November 11, 2011 at 6:29PM EST
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    Dave I

    I thought this was a surprisingly good episode as well. The Pam & Dwight collaboration worked well. My pregnant wife assured me people treat you like a child when you're expecting so that struck a chord. The band plotline worked well. I enjoyed that Robert California took over the band. I even enjoyed how the realization of Jim having hypertension led to a more human moment.

    That said, they pushed everything too far. Dwight checking Jim for an erection? Sure, that's the crazy socially-unacceptable stuff we'd expect Dwight to do over and over. But to practically sexually assault him? That got old. Robert California joining the jam session and upstaging everybody? Sure. Him having a harmonica? Weird, but sure. He's kind of a weird guy. Him just happening to bring along a celebrity keyboard player, guitarist, and drummer who are all fine with going into a warehouse on a moment's notice (including the guitarist lady who came in with her Les Paul already strapped on and ready to go as soon as she plugs into an amp that happened to be lying around unused?!!!!!) and then ignoring all social norms? That was a bit much, even for The Office.

    Finally, why couldn't Jim just admit yes, Pam's replacement was hot, or at least pretty but maybe not his type, but follow up with how he still loves Pam and find's her beautiful, they go home, and everybody's happy? Sure, I get not upsetting your very pregnant wife. Still, it went on way too long. The only point of which after a while seemed to be to have some way for them to get to the blood pressure monitor to introduce Jim's hypertension as a possible plot device.

    Overall, a lot of it worked for me. However, it's seemed they felt like they had to pull a Nigel and turn everything up to 11. Unfortunately, for me at least, it just seemed stretched a bit too far. While watching it, it was just a bit distracting, but in hindsight there seem to be places where I can see that I would have at least liked them to have shown a bit more restraint.

    -Cheers

    November 11, 2011 at 11:40AM EST Reply to Comment
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      lita I agree with what Dave said, this episode still makes me laugh after the two previous episodes. It's way over the top with the crotch grab. I think the band thing is just to showcase how Robert California liked to misabuse his power. I actually read Alan's review before watching the episode but surprisingly I still laugh. I like the cold open went completely out of rail because of Erin.

      November 11, 2011 at 12:19PM EST
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    JedyKnight

    Even though i liked how Pam inmediately let go of her little crusade once a real life concern came up, i think this counts as a win for Jim against the united forces of Pam & Dwight (plus Kelly).. Jim has always been my favorite character, but i agree with his haters, that he wins too much.

    November 11, 2011 at 2:14PM EST Reply to Comment
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    John

    Pam + Jim + Dwight = Funny

    November 11, 2011 at 2:23PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Prof Zed

    I couldn't help but think that the creepy comments made by Gabe in the episode would have been about 1,000 times funnier had Creed spoke them. Has the Erin character had a lobotomy that will be mentioned in the deleted scenes? I'm really starting to wish this moronic character would go away - and take Gabe with her. I thought the crotch-grab joke got better as Dwight continued with it. It's the sort of joke that gets funnier as it's taken further and further - then even more further. As for Robert California taking over the jam session? I don't think California had a care or a clue that he had taken over the band. I think it gives a bit more insight into the character that he didn't even notice that Andy, Daryl and Kevin had left. I agree that Pam and Dwight bounce off one another well. The episode was good. Not great, but thankfully not bad. It was good to see Andy not just being a Michael-lite echo. Still hope to see Andy really screw-up, be demoted and have Jim take over. Jim's angst at dealing with a group who always thinks he still just joking and don't listen to him trying to be serious, could be a great direction in which to take the show for another few years.

    November 11, 2011 at 4:02PM EST Reply to Comment
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    BigTed

    Why do the cameo roles make so little impact? The musicians were barely characters at all, and neither was the new temp.

    Contrast her with the girl who came in to sell bags (and all the men flirted with, and Jim ended up dating). They managed to get Amy Adams for the small role, and she turned it into a believable character.

    November 11, 2011 at 4:16PM EST Reply to Comment
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    David K.

    I'm a little perplexed reading many of these reviews.

    To me, this episode was the only 'bad' episode in the history of the show. OK, call me a 'fan boy' all you want, but I've been in love with 'The Office' ever since Gervais gifted it to us over a decade ago.

    Last night's episode, to me, was a blip in an otherwise believable show. Not believable in a general sense, of course, but consistent in its characters, their mannerisms, and the manner in which they speak.

    Everything, and I mean everything, was 'off' in this episode. I'm not even going to bother going into details, for if you don't see what I'm talking about, then there's little point in you reading this.

    Almost everything the characters did and said was out of character. I mean everything! The Pam of every other episode would not say the things she said. Same for Jim, Ryan, Dwight, hell, even Gabe. OK, I'll give one example. The scene in the drug-store was such an aberration. Dwight would never speak to an old man as he did, twice, and for no reason. Jim and Pam would never stand for it either. Then, after the 'test results', Dwight would not go on to believe that Jim was 'lying about even his name' because his blood pressure was constant at 150. You know why? Because Dwight is not an idiot. Say what you will about his social skills, but Dwight is well learned enough to understand the inner workings of a lie detector test, why their 'Pharmacy test' would be pointless, and why the 'results' wouldn't show anything save some high blood pressure.

    That is how the 'situations' were off. But it didn't end there, as the dialogue was easily as jarring.

    Never before have I felt this uncomfortable watching 'The Office'. It felt as though it was 'guest-written' by Chuck Lorre.

    OK... I'm unconcerned with those who disagree... I just want to know if I'm totally alone here.

    In my mind, as arrogant as it may come off, I 'think' I know this show better than most who've posted here. I've seen every episode; most multiple times. And aside from a few recent shows (Community, Parks & Rec.), I haven't been a viewer of any network sitcom since Seinfeld. I could see how a person who watches dozens of show on a regular basis wouldn't see it as I did. But surely I'm not the *only* person here with a serious commitment to 'The Office'. Did anybody else see what I saw?

    November 11, 2011 at 7:40PM EST Reply to Comment
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      William I agree with your assessment of this episode. I wouldn't call it the only bad episode of the show (there have been other weak episodes), but I could definitely see myself describing it as the worst. I'm a little surprised that people enjoyed it so much. People probably just saw a different episode than I did -- and that's okay. But I am glad to see that I'm not alone in finding this terribly, haphazardly written.

      I will add one detail: the crotch-grab is very, very hard to believe happening from Dwight; it's too far even for him. But let's accept for the moment that Dwight, who is sometimes wacky, would go for that. This is *sexual assault*, and at that moment Andy and Toby should have intervened. But okay, say they didn't know, and Jim didn't push it. The question is: why would Pam continue working with Dwight, who is clearly a maniac?

      November 11, 2011 at 8:12PM EST
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      sajid anwar Reply to comment...

      November 11, 2011 at 9:10PM EST
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      sajid anwar David, not sure what you are talking about. Earlier seasons established Dwight as someone who could easily be fooled by Jim. Jim got dwight to think he was a CIA operative, sent him fax from Stamford as "dwight from future", literally had dwight run up a pole by simply putting a red wire at his desk, had dwight kick out a old guy with dementia from a wedding because he was convinced wedding was being infiltrated with wedding crashers. There's been plenty of examples throughout the series where it's been established that Dwight isn't as expert as he portrays himself to be. There's been plenty of time where he has treated strangers with utter rudeness.

      Same goes for Ryan. He has hit on Pam. Sent e-mails to karen about her availability. Did the same with Katy. Kelly has said that he cheated on her. It's not out of character that he would try to get some of the new office administrator.

      Pam being jealous might be out of character for her. But she did admit that she was jealous that Jim was with michael and dwight trying to prank karen at utica branch. Not sure if it made broadcast, but it definitely was in the deleted scenes.

      All in all, I don't think people are overlooking your concerns because they don't pay attention as close as you do. I just don't your concerns are as far fetched as you believe them to be.

      November 11, 2011 at 9:27PM EST
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      David K. William: Thank you for confirming I wasn't crazy. I've since learned that this episode was written by a 1st time writer for the show, but a person with an impressive resume. Perhaps her resume clouded the minds of the higher-ups and she was given carte blanche to write an episode, and the Producers & Writers were powerless to edit it. i have no idea, I don't know how those things work; but I would not be surprised if the cast didn't have reservations throughout the shoot that they would never mention publically.

      Sajid: Perhaps I didn't elucidate my position well enough. It wasn't that the general 'themes' of the episode were off. Pam being self-concious about her body while nine months pregnant; her employ of Dwight to make Jim come clean; and Robert taking over an impromptu jam session, are perfectly fine as far as themes and plot elements.

      Instead, my problems were with how these situations were handled, i.e. Dwight thinking that a pharmacy blood preasure tester would be in any way capable of helping them in their plight. The military & espionage expert Dwight that I know would have quickly pointed out that Lie Detectors are useless, as one only needs to clench their sphincter to fool them. Which is both true, something Dwight would know, and something that would have been included had the writer done her research. Also, the crotch grab was ridiculous. I don't think 'The Office' is actively trying to pull in different demographics (I could be wrong), but typically the people who would find that, in it's pointlessly repeated (five times!) form, aren't watching 'The Office' anyways, unless they're only doing so because they need to write a review for the website they contribute to.

      But far more than any of those things, my problem was with the lines themselves. Again, they seemed to me to be written by somebody who wasn't familiar with the characters, and their individual manners of speaking. It was just 'the way' they said things that made me so uncomfortable, and reminded me DOZENS of times that I was watching a television show that is being written by somebody who's never done it before.

      And hey, it's OK that we disagree. We're probably rather different individuals. William, on the other hand, is probably a more similar to myself... I only wanted confirmation that a like soul felt the same way about it as I did.

      True, regardless of how crazy or unconventional a person may be, they could find a doppelganger personality somewhere across the internet, just knowing that I'm not alone in this instance, and knowing that these feelings will be forever recorded on the web, and maybe... just maybe, a producer or cast member may read my ramblings (and think to themselves "Yeah, they noticed it too..."), is enough to satiate me, and bring my burgeoning campaign to a close.

      Thank you both for your feedback.

      November 11, 2011 at 11:57PM EST
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      Col Bat Guano Yeah, you and William are pretty much alone on this. There are plenty of us who have watched every episode multiple times. Just to add to Sajid's points, Dwight was also convinced there was something called gaydar that could detect a person's sexuality and that repeating a speech by Mussolini was a good idea for accepting a sales award.

      As for this being the "worst" episode, there have been far worse than this one. The clip show from S5, The Christening or Scott's Tot's were all far worse than this episode. All in all you do come off as arrogant.

      November 12, 2011 at 12:09AM EST
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      sean "Dwight is well learned enough to understand the inner workings of a lie detector test, why their 'Pharmacy test' would be pointless, and why the 'results' wouldn't show anything save some high blood pressure."

      As others have pointed out.....Dwight was convinced Gaydar was a real thing and that it worked. So I thought the lie detector thing was fine.

      November 16, 2011 at 2:27PM EST
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    Gang Green

    I think the temp is hot.

    November 11, 2011 at 8:50PM EST Reply to Comment
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    John

    When I saw the teaser, and immediately recognized it as a repeat of a Michael storyline, and noticed that the episode was called Pam's Replacement, I figured that maybe they were doing an episode highlighting the differences between Pam and Erin as receptionists. But no. It was just a recycled bit.

    November 11, 2011 at 9:17PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Saulo

    Pam should be the new boss. She has by far the best chemistry with each one of the show's characters.

    November 12, 2011 at 2:45AM EST Reply to Comment

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