The Office – “Search Committee”

Does the show really need another manager? Because when it focuses on the office and not the Carell-shaped hole in the middle of it, it works sooo much better. I’d even go so far as to say that there’s a possibility the show could be even better without Carell, without one singular character  around whom all the crazy antics have to revolve.

“Search Committee” wasn’t a perfect episode, but it was a definite high point in a season that really needed to go out on a good note. Being billed as a big, guest star enema — and right after Will Ferrell’s horrible, four-episode arc — one of my biggest worries was that the show would use its guest spots only for quick, one-off jokes. All of them steadily doled out to us over the course of the hour, to hide the fact that there wasn’t much of a story underneath it all. And to be honest, we got some of that. Warren Buffet and Jim Carrey were two appearances that were fun, but we really could have done without. But the show found a way to incorporate some of those cameos into the story, and only over-relied on them in the first half-hour.

Of the cameos themselves, I thought James Spader was the best by far. And using him and his interaction with Ray Romano as a foil for Dwight — convincing him to interview for the manager position — was both unexpected and a smart move. The show was at least putting a couple of these guys to work. Not, as much as it pains me to admit it, like Ricky Gervais, whose appearance I enjoyed and thought was pretty funny, but you have to admit he kind of phoned in. I doubt David Brent videoconferencing in from England was something written into the script. Jusayinsall. After I’m finished writing this I’ll shoot myself in the face for saying, “jusayinsall.”

The buzz online is that Catherine Tate’s become the frontrunner to actually step into Carell’s shoes. I don’t have strong feelings about that one way or the other. She was funny, but felt a little too much like David Brent. And while Michael was at least a good salesman, Tate — or whatever her character’s name was — seemed genuinely stupid. Michael was always twisted around to serve as whatever the writers needed him to be that week, and when he sunk to his dumbest, the show suffered. I don’t see things being much different with someone like Tate sitting in the big chair.

Clearing out most of the guest stars in its first half, the show got some breathing room in the second, and took the time to focus on its own characters who had interviewed for Michael’s spot. I’m not sure whether I should be surprised or not that the show seemed to offer arguments in favor of Andy, Darryl and Dwight getting the job. Both this week and last week have been particularly good episodes for Dwight, and have taken the character at least a little out of his comfort zone. Threatening Jim (like he did with the rest of the office last week) was a great beat. As the office came together and argued over who should get the job, both Andy and Darryl pitching themselves as the right man was really good, especially Darryl overplaying his hand and using his daughter to put him over the top.

There was more there, too. Pam trying to keep Creed from tearing the company down. Angela’s engagement and this whole annoying-as-hell whatever it is between Andy and Erin. That by the end of the hour they hadn’t picked Michael’s replacement didn’t really come as a surprise. The show’s brought us this far, and if it has to grab us by the collar and drag us all the way to the 8th season premiere, that’s what it’s gonna do. But the Erin/Andy thing is a deliberate attempt to make people think there’s something where there’s nothing. They get both characters to go back and forth on their feelings for each other until the clock runs out and, well, guess you’ll just have to come back next year. You’re harshin’ my mellow, Office.

So, we’re still without a manager. The irony is that the show will go back into production before too long, and the chances are that we’ll know who gets the job before the first episode even airs. Unless the writers figure out a way to drag this out over another season, which I wouldn’t put past them. But speaking strictly about this season, it was a big improvement over season six, but I doubt it did much to convince people that it wasn’t a few years past its prime. The bads were pretty bad, but there were a few moments there, that if the show could just manage to hang on to, could help it make a creative comeback next year… and the 20 after that.

The Office – “Dwight K. Schrute, (Acting) Manager”

Tonight’s episode of The Office was a weird amalgam of both the good and the bad the show’s given us over the past several weeks. On the good side, “Dwight K. Schrute, (Acting) Manager” did something that “The Inner Circle” completely failed at last week. And that is it made a convincing case that the show won’t completely fall apart without Steve Carell there to steer the ship. Actually, tonight’s episode was pretty funny, even if its conclusion was the exact same thing we’ve seen, what, three weeks in a row now?

In a way, we’ve been waiting seven years for tonight’s episode. Dwight’s always wanted Michael’s job, and now he’s got it, at least for a little while. But of course, Dwight’s his own worst enemy, and once he takes over he turns into as bad a boss as you’d expect. He forces the office to clock in and out of work. He takes everything out of the vending machines. He staggers everyone’s lunch break to cut back on wasted man hours. And his office becomes a monument to his overreaching. He’s decorated it with a piranha tank, weapons, a samurai suit and a full-scale replica of Uday Hussein’s desk. His moderate amount of power has driven him mad, and he can’t stop. You could say he becomes… unstoppable. Much like the titular unstoppable train in that hit Denzel Washington joint… The Taking of Pelham 123.

Dwight’s reign turns out to be even shorter than expected when he accidentally fires a gun in the middle of the office. Once he confesses to Jo, rather than let the rest of the office blackmail him into what he calls a mediocre job performance, she’s got no choice but to cut him loose and charge Jim, Toby and Gabe with the task of finding Michael’s — or should we say Deangelo’s — no, let’s say Michael’s — replacement. So we’re right back to where we were at the end of “Goodbye, Michael,” when Dwight and Jim realized that Deangelo may not have been the right person for the job. Dwight looks to Jim and says, “Uh-oh.” Uh-oh, indeed. Uh-oh for all of us. When Deangelo Vickers was thankfully put out of his misery a scant week later, Jim, in lovable fashion, shrugs and asks, “What now?” And it seems like this has been the show’s mantra in the lead-up to its guest-star-enema season finale. What are those Office kooks gonna get into next? Isn’t season 8 gonna be cuh-raaaazy?

Part of me says that at least it’ll all be over in a week, but another part of me says that the show’s going to knee us all in the soft stuff and make us wait until next season before finally revealing who’ll be taking Michael’s place. And it’s a shame the show is relying on these theatrics as a way to prove that, even without its star, it’s still funny and worth everyone’s attention. We see that from week to week. Dwight’s story from tonight’s episode landed on a dud, but everything leading up to that (minus Kevin’s back rub) was good. Even the Andy/Gabe/Erin story seemed a lot funnier — although I suspect that had something to do with the fact that it wasn’t being used as a backdrop to Michael’s exit, which just outweighed that story in every way. As much as I’m looking forward to seeing Ricky Gervais back as David Brent, The Office doesn’t need all these bells and whistles to prove that it’s funny. It’s just like Jim said: “So as it turns out, unless you’re a young child or a prison inmate, you don’t need anyone supervising you. People just come in and do their work on their schedule. Imagine that.” You cock your head to side a little and it’s almost like he’s talking about more than work.

The Office – “The Inner Circle”

It’s over! Will Ferrell’s reign of terror is finally over! And as an extra “screw you” to anyone who was at one time excited about him coming on the show, “The Inner Circle” proved to be the worst of his 4-episode arc. A half-hour just to say that this guy isn’t coming back. Get ready for the guest stars! This is going to be fun!

It wasn’t the worst episode of the bunch right from the start. After getting a few chuckles out of the opener, in which Deangelo tries keeping everyone off their game by shouting all the great changes he’s making right in their faces, I cautiously asked, “Could it be? Is he going to redeem himself?” The answer was no, as the rest of the episode only set Deangelo up as Michael Scott 2.0, minus the salesman skills and affection for the office.

I should draw a line between these last few episodes and Will Ferrell’s role in them. To be honest, they’ve made some good moves, moves unsullied by his stunt casting. Of course, Michael’s exit last week is some of the best TV we’ve seen this year. And in tonight’s episode, we may have seen another character take an important step forward. At one point, Jim says to the camera, “So, this is my life.” This echoes all the way back to season 1, to “Health Care,” when he says that working at Dunder-Mifflin is his job, and if it ever became his career he’d have to throw himself in front of a train. Well, six years have passed. Jim’s married, has a kid, and I don’t see him going anywhere anytime soon. He may be waking up to that fact, and that may spur him to aim for something higher than a mid-level salesman at a paper company. Although Michael had an arc on the show, how much he developed as a person could be debated. I see things with Jim a little differently, and think feeling out that next step in his career would make a great third act for the character — although I don’t see him leaving the show, unless NBC is so strapped for hits that it tries keeping The Office around for another seven seasons.

But still, this bit with Jim lasted a fraction of a moment, and may have been nothing more than a throwaway line. The rest of the episode was spent running out the clock, setting up Deangelo’s injury and his own exit from the show. Which, as a segue to next week’s episode (the obviously titled, “Dwight K. Schrute, (Acting) Manager”) and the celebapalooza season finale, was so painfully ADD that tonally it fit with nothing that came before it. Whoops! Deangelo fell and hit his head! Next! The first thing that ran through my head was, “He has to quit his job because he fell down?” This obviously occurred to the writers as well, because we got that tag at the end with Deangelo stumbling into the office, talking all sorts of crazy jibba jabba, rendered retarded by his five-foot fall. So of course he has to quit. And I’m sure we’ll never hear about that fire at Mercy Hospital, which will quietly take care of Deangelo once and for all. By next season it’ll be like he never existed. That’s probably as it should be.

By the end of the episode, we, much like Jim, are left asking, “What now?” But although the questions are the same, I believe we — the audience — aren’t asking the same thing as the show (through Jim). After last week’s “we’re still fun!” promo for the rest of the season, the show is asking in the sense of, “If you loved that, just wait’ll you see what’s coming next!” We, on the other hand, are asking in the sense of, “What else you got?” The show is much more amused by its cleverness than its audience may be. And as a small piece of that audience, I’m hoping the show uses these next two episodes to actually build toward something, rather than shove bright, shiny cameos under my nose to distract me from the fact that, without Michael Scott, there’s no more show.