Sorry for the delay in posting this week's recap, my twins have been down with the stomach flu since Friday, what a mess! Only being up to my elbows in toddler vomit could keep me from posting my recap in record time. I've been on a consistent, "Get the recap up by Friday morning" streak so far this season. I guess I'll just have to reset the clock and start again; which is exactly what the Dunder Mifflinites had to do in this week's cold opening.....
“Life In The Office” features recaps written by a revolving corps of four. We four writers often feel “lucky” when our turn comes up, and the episode coincides with a subject that we are particularly fond of, or close to; Donna, a Halloween aficionado, recently had the privilege to review that always-fun episode; Suri has gotten many of the pivotal, “bigger-picture” one-hour episodes, that she gleefully tackles. Kevin has also gotten many of the more “introspective” relationship shows, that he is able to skillfully dissect. And me? I feel lucky, because as a bartender, I got “Christmas Wishes,” the episode where people get drunk and act stupid, and I get to comment authoritatively on the poor judgment of those that are pouring the drinks, along with the over-indulgers. I would have cut Erin and Meredith off long before, but then we wouldn’t have had much of an episode, would we? 
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Mrs. California was, in a word…wonderful. I only seem surprised because the premise of this episode did not interest me in the least. But this episode turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. Color this long-time fan happy. 
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I’d like to start out by wishing Jenna Fischer and her RL husband, Lee Kirk, congratulations on the birth of their son, Weston Lee, born on September 24, 2011. I haven’t been able to find a picture of the little angel just yet, but all the articles say that mother and baby are doing just great! Information about the birth was not released until October 3rd (a day before my twin’s birthday) and I have to say that in watching the first few episodes, I had my suspicions that Jenna might actually be carrying twins; since she was so huge. Oh well, she may just have to wait until her next pregnancy to experience the joys of having twins, like myself, and so many other celebrities before her. That’s right, I’m up there in the ranks of Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lopez and Rebecca Romaine O’Connell (although they’ve never had the prestige and notoriety that comes from writing for LITO; just sayin’. )
I just have to say that I’m really pleased that I got the opportunity to recap this particular episode, because I can totally relate to the feelings of paranoia, insecurity, and general overall irrationalism and insanity that go along with pregnancy hormones. In that respect, I felt the episode was written very realistically. I mean, in what universe would Pam actually be crazy enough to completely trust Dwight above Jim and genuinely subject him to Dwight’s eccentric antics? Only in a pregnant Pam universe, that’s where. The subplot, however, not so in touch with reality; but we’ll get into that later. Read on »
Last episode, LITO writer Donna felt “very lucky” that she got to recap “Spooked,” because she is so fond of Halloween. Well, this episode, I feel very lucky that I was in line to recap “Doomsday.” Not because I am particularly fond of “doom,” but mainly because of the hilarious cold opening, “Closing Time.” As regular LITO readers are both well aware of, when I am not tossing off slapdash recaps and other dubious writing efforts, I work as a nighttime bartender. “Closing Time” is a song that is near and dear to my heart, and rest assured I will be enthusiastically singing it as my shift winds down tonight. Although… I won’t be using a bar towel as a prop in my choreography quite like Andy so graphically illustrated on the show. Read on »
Happy Halloween LITO-ites! I feel very lucky to be reviewing The Office Halloween episode. It’s one of my annual favorites. So fun to see the office crew all dressed up in their Halloween finery! Read on »
For my first recap of the season, I think I actually drew a golden episode. The idea of the warehouse staff winning a lottery pool and quitting all at the same time, I thought, was a very novel concept and a great idea for an office episode. I really enjoyed this episode, starting from the Cold Opening, where Oscar really takes command, and then backs down at the very end. Unlike last weeks cold opening, where Bob mentioned that they portrayed Kevin as a bumbling idiot; his inferior intelligence is much more understated in this week’s Cold Opening – Jim, Dwight, Darryl and Andy are walking into the parking lot after lunch and find Oscar and Erin standing by an unfamiliar car. Oscar is appalled that the owner left a dog in the car under the sweltering sun. Kelly, Meredith and Kevin show up and they all argue about whether or not to save the dog from it’s automobile inferno. Dwight then pours some of his drink into the car through the sunroof to give the dog something to cool him down. Which begs the question, “If the sunroof is down, then air is getting into the car, so why is everyone making such a big deal over this?” Kevin decides that he will get into his car as well and when he starts dying, he’ll honk the horn three times which means, “SAVE THE DOG!!”. Oscar has had enough and comes over with a crow bar. He declares that the owner has been gone long enough and has lost his right to a window and promptly breaks it to give the dog some much needed air. Everyone is shocked at Oscar’s display but then cheers him on. He breaks one of the car’s tail lights for good measure. Then Jim brings up the obvious question that no one has thought of, “Who’s going to take the dog?” When Oscar wonders why they would take the dog Jim replies, again with the obvious answer, “What if he jumps out and runs away?” Which the dog then attempts to do. Dwight commands the dog in German, “Naiyn! Sitz!” Which means, “No! Sit!” and the dog is intimidated enough to listen (either that or it understands German). Then Jim asks Oscar if he wants a dog to which Oscar responds by taping a piece of cardboard over the window and punching four holes in it to allow for air flow. Satisfied, everyone heads into the building just as Kevin begins to honk. He makes it to the second honk before he passes out with his head leaning on the horn and we fade into the opening credits listing to the constant blast of Kevin’s car horn.
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New season’s greetings, LITO readers. After the fine premier, I was given the task to recap the second episode, “The Incentive.” While it had its moments, I didn’t think it was as good as the opener. But, I’m going to put a positive spin on it; rather than complain, I’m going to challenge “The Office” to double those good moments for next week’s episode. I think they are up to the challenge, and I won’t even have to promise to tattoo my butt to achieve this goal. (“B-Dog?” “Bob-Dog?” “S’up Dog-B?”) Read on »
Welcome back to The Office, everyone! It’s hard to believe we’re in season 8 of our beloved show. Where has the time gone? Eight years ago, we were just being introduced to the Scranton gang. Now, we are awaiting the birth of two new Office babies!
The episode begins with some of the staff engaging in the pop culture phenomenon: planking. If you’re unfamiliar with planking, it’s basically people lying face-down flat in odd places. Personally, I don’t get the hoopla about it. But it’s clear that some people must love it, or else it wouldn’t be a fad, right? The staff is divided about it. Some people love it (Erin), and some people don’t (Dwight).
We are also finally told who got the manager position. It was Robert California! Read on »
The long awaited season finale of the office is finally here and I find myself, let’s see what would the correct adjective be……..underwhelmed. I was expecting more out of a season finale filled with such comical geniuses as Ricky Gervais, Will Arnett, Ray Romano and Jim Carrey. Not to say that the episode didn’t have its moments, it definitely did, I was just expecting less over-the-top comedy and more down home funny.
Let’s get to the recap, shall we? The cold open starts with a snazzy looking Porsche being driven at a high speed into the Dunder Mifflin parking lot. It comes to a screeching halt at an angle in front of the doors to the building. Who is in the driver’s seat of such and expensive sports car you might ask? None other than the new “acting” manager himself; Creed Bratton. The car is sporting vanity plates that say, NEW MGR. As Creed get’s out, he tosses the keys to an imaginary attendant and calls Dunder Mifflin, Great Bratton. Do you think being manager has slightly gone to his head? Maybe just a little. He goes on to spew gibberish to the camera, tries to have Jordan identify a made-up language, give a meeting to a near-empty conference room because he forgot to actually call the meeting and tries to come up with acronyms for a nonsensical word for which the first letter is “B”. When Kevin suggests that “B” stands for business, we find out that not only can’t Creed be a manager, he can’t spell either. Pam succinctly states that they need a new manager. I actually thought the cold opening was a pretty good one and I got a kick out of Creed’s antics. You gotta love the bizarreness that is Creed.