TVSquad

(S06E07) "You know, I really would have appreciated a heads up that you were into dating mothers. I would have introduced you to mine." - Dwight

Ahh, that's more like it. After last week's garbage episode, "Mafia," The Office seems to be back on track by exploring two of the best plots the show has had in quite some time. Jim and Pam's wedding is obviously still the high-water mark, and it will probably continue to be that way for quite some time, but "The Lover" was certainly a step in the right direction.

(S04E14) I performed tonight in Hartford, CT. Coming out of the comedy club, a woman who wasn't at the show checked me out. I heard her say helloooooo in a guttural way, like I was a really good looking guy. A few seconds later, though, once she got a better look at me, she said, "Never mind." Then, she and her friends laughed for as long as I could hear them.

Apparently, I'm only good looking when someone is looking at me out of the corner of her eye.

I bring this up not to inform you that I'm unattractive -- my blogger profile photo does a better job of informing you of that than I ever could -- but rather because I didn't think I could be any more depressed than I was after that comment. I honestly thought their derisive laughter was going to be the low-point of my evening. Then I watched tonight's Office finale...

(S04E13) Remember that movie The Chase? Okay, you probably don't, but believe me, it exists [link NSFW]. Anyway, Charlie Sheen takes Kristy Swanson hostage, and over the course of the movie some major league Stockholm Syndrome kicks in (like, really major league: they do it while he's leading the cops on a high speed chase). The lesson of the movie is obvious: if you kidnap the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she'll eventually fall in love with you.

I bring this up because I'm becoming scared that I might have lost perspective on The Office. I've sincerely loved every episode that has aired since its return from the break. Now, here's the question: is this because the writers spent the entire strike doing brain push-ups? Or is it because The Office is Charlie Sheen to my Kristy Swanson? My (glowing) review after the jump...

(S04E10) Hey Pam will you... wait for me one second while I tie my shoe?

For everything that happened this week -- a return to form for those of you who were upset that the previous two episodes strayed from the confines of Dunder-Mifflin -- I believe it's that question (and Pam's reaction to it) that will set up the conflict over the remaining episodes of the season. I'm about as good at reading female facial signals as Rain Man, but even I could tell that Pam's face during the "proposal" wasn't exactly filled with the kind of joy you'd expect it would be. Maybe the producers are just giving us a red herring and Pam's reaction tonight will be the equivalent of Lost's four-toed statue (interesting for a blip, then forgotten about) or maybe things are not all that well in JAM-land.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's talk about the rest of the episode first...

(S04E09) It feels really good to be back, doesn't it? My calculations might be a bit off, but it seems to me the amount of time we had off for the writer's strike was about the same as what we usually have off for a summer break. For some reason, though, it felt longer. Something about the cold winter months makes me long for the sweet siren song of Scranton, I suppose.

I wasn't there when we won WWII, but I imagine the joy I felt when a new Office showed up in my TiVo was similar to what it felt like on V.E. day. I almost wanted to dress up in a sailor uniform and give Steve Carell a long, deep kiss in Times Square (though, to be fair, I almost always feel that way). I was happy The Office was back, the only thing I worried about was whether it'd still be good...

Friday at Comic-Con got underway with the Warner Brothers presentation. The swag bag included a Get Smart t-shirt with "KAOS" written on one side and "CONTROL" on the other. Not so surprisingly, no one under the age of 20 seemed to know what this meant, but Warner Brothers needn't worry because the kids love The Rock. And, because this is Comic-Con, The Rock (Agent 23) put in an appearance along with his Get Smart co-stars Steve Carrell, Masi "unofficial Comic-Con poster boy" Oka, Studio 60's Nate Torrence and Borat's Ken Davitian mercifully wearing pants.

First Stephen Colbert, now The Office.

On a recent episode of the NBC comedy, boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell) went to Wikipedia for tips on how to fire one of his employees. So fans of the show have, naturally, gone to the site and started to edit the entry on negotiations like crazy. Because, as Michael put it (I'm paraphrasing here, don't remember the exact quote), "having a bunch of people edit a web site is best way to get accurate information."

First off, it was a great episode. Dwight shooting Roy in the eyes, all the Toby/Michael stuff (Toby is truly one of the great characters on TV right now), and Ed Helms returning at the end (which I didn't see coming) were all really funny moments. But I'm wondering: was the show really "supersized?"

Oh, I know it was longer. It started at 8pm and got over at 8:40, so it was longer in length, but didn't it seem like there were more commercials than usual? And what about that 4 minute long commercial for 30 Rock? Sure, they increase the length of the episode by 10 minutes, but 4 of those minutes are for an extended promo for another one of NBC's shows? It seemed to be shoved in there and was rather distracting.