“Shareholders Meeting” ~ Bob’s Recap

“Shareholder Meeting” opens with Dwight Schrute portraying “Recyclops” for Earth Day. Earth Day is celebrated on April 22nd, so naturally “Recyclops” would make an appearance on November 19th. We are shown footage of Dwight through the years at Dunder-Mifflin, doing his earnest-but-offbeat best to emphasize this message: that pollution and waste are bad, and conserving and recycling are good. I’m guessing that NBC insisted on shoehorning this “green theme” into the episode, and the writers petulantly rebelled by half-heartedly slapping it together. At least I hope that’s what happened. Because as a message about conserving our resources… it was a wasted opportunity. And as a funny cold opening, well… maybe “Recyclops” can take the scraps of the script and re-work them into something up to “Office” standards.

Next we see Michael Scott preening around the office, all full of himself. He’s been invited to sit with the Dunder-Mifflin board of directors at a shareholder meeting in New York City, and he has grandiose ideas about his appearance. The company is not performing well, and rumors are flying that it is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. None of this has much impact on Michael. He feels he is one of the best assets in the company, and as we all know by now, he is. That’s a large part of the show’s charm, that a doofus like Michael Scott could be the top performing branch manager. We all constantly ask ourselves “How bad must the other branches be?” Then, in a ghastly display of arrogant corporate incompetence, a stretch limo arrived to chauffeur Michael to the meeting in New York City. This was a stunt reminiscent of Detroit’s “Big Three” automakers each taking their own private jets to Washington DC, to ask for taxpayer bailouts for their failing car companies. Michael ended up taking along Dwight, Andy and Oscar for the limo ride, and Dunder-Mifflin’s problems were discussed along the way. Oscar had strong opinions about what has gone wrong, and simple solutions to make things right.

The Dunder-Mifflin board of directors, along with a clueless Michael, marched out onstage at the shareholders meeting, and they were greeted by jeers from a hostile crowd. Michael ended up commandeering the microphone, and babbling on to the audience, winning them over with empty promises of an effective plan to “right the ship.” The big shots must have been appalled at this ridiculous rhetoric, but they had no answers themselves, and they let Michael continue to mislead the meeting. Afterward, they retreated to “regroup,” and Michael dragged Oscar into the room to reprise his shirt-sleeve rant in the limo. But Oscar was intimidated by the thought of angering his bosses, and he ultimately had nothing to say.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch… it started dawning on Jim Halpert that he commands very little respect from the staff. Up until this point, Jim has demanded very little in the way of respect, but now he is realizing just how out of hand the problem is. Phyllis admitted that she was tipsy after a two hour lunch, Stanley laughed in his face, and Ryan acted downright contemptuous of Jim’s authority. Even Jim began to doubt his own clout as he wondered aloud if he even has the power to fire somebody. Jim finally put his foot down, and put Ryan in his place, his “place” being an office in a closet. All the rest of the Dunder-Mifflin staff witnessed this punishment, and we are left to speculate whether they approve of Jim taking a stand, or whether they just like the idea of Ryan being stuffed in a closet.

Michael ended up leaving the shareholder meeting in a hurry, literally running with Dwight, Andy and Oscar to catch the limo before the driver got the word that the return trip had been canceled. As they are drove through the city, they drank a “toast” to Dunder-Mifflin, right as the limousine cruised past a building with an electronic stock market ticker “crawl” sign. In a nice visual gag, Dunder-Mifflin’s stock is shown going down. We see Dwight at the very end, finally getting his turn at the microphone to ask the executives a question. He got off to a good start, and then naturally “Schruted” it.

I’ll accentuate what I think are the “positives” about “Shareholder Meeting:” Corporate America makes a lot of mistakes when it comes to efficiently managing companies, and these mistakes make good targets for humor. And the solutions to these situations look very easy to the “little people” (the shareholders), who tend to “solve” these big problems with quick, broad brushstrokes. Oscar had all the answers, right up until the moment he was asked to state them. “The Office” presented this conundrum quite well. Also, Jim’s “delicate balancing act” is fascinating to watch unfold; he is by nature an easy-going, laid-back, all-around “nice guy.” Can he be an effective leader, too? These situations make for thought-provoking entertainment, and there were some sly, subtle laughs along the way. I choose to de-accentuate, or un-accentuate the parts of “Shareholder Meeting” that I didn’t think were well done. They would include the under-written, unfunny portrayal of the board of directors’ cluelessness, along with the incomprehensible inability of Pam to empathize with her husband’s dilemma at work. I’ll give this episode a C+. If other LITO-ites can present a 45-day plan to make it better, I’ll be happy to stop boo-ing and start to cheer!

~ Bob