Grid Effect

Ahh, it’s good to be back. Or rather, it’s good to have a second comedy we watch back on television. After watching some reruns on TBS, we realize we might have taken this show for granted before the strike. It was getting to the point where we were almost dreading Thursday at 8:30 or 9pm to roll around. But as the strike continued and we were left with fewer and fewer comedy series’, the absence that seemed the most noticeable was The Office’s. In other words, we were really looking forward to last night’s half season premiere.

And then….Well, then we remembered why watching three and a half seasons of this my grow wearisome: At times it makes us extremely uncomfortable. Obviously not in any real tangible way, bu when you are watching people, even characters on a television show embarrass themselves for twenty-two minutes, regardless of how funny it may be, it can take it’s toll on you after three or four years.

This isn’t to say that last night’s episode was a complete letdown. Have of the humor is in the awkwardness. But “Dinner Party” was exceptionally cringe-inducing. Between the little couch, the multiple vasectomies, the horrifying love ballad by Hunter, the Pam-Jan confrontations and everything else in between, we felt like we should have gotten up and left to save us any further embarrassment. Except we were being subjected to this through a little box in our living room, not at an overpriced condominium in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

If given the choice of being locked into a room with Bigfoot, Jan or the Loch Ness monster, we’d need ample time to weigh our options.

We’re not sure if that makes this good or bad comedy, but for as much as we were squirming it was definitely effective. One thing we will say is it did seem a bit prolonged, like maybe they could have had a subplot with Dwight and Mose (though it was great situational relief when he showed up with his old babysitter, reminded me of Buster and Lucille Osterro) or some of the supporting cast to provide a little levity. It probably wasn’t necessary to have as many scenes as they did with Jan humiliating Michael and vice-versa. Though the level of dysfunction was captured perfectly, it just seemed redundant and predictable, because we all knew there would be some sort of boiling point for the two of them.

The obvious and probably appropriate comparison seems to be too Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. But in a way, and probably because it’s more recent, it reminded us of The Sopranos second half of season six premiere at Jan and Bobby’s lake house. Both were premieres in the middle of a season, both were “couples only” gatherings and both revolved around dinner, drinking and games. The only real differences were the number of couples and Jim never ended up kicking the shit out of Michael. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t want to. Certainly there lies a seething disdain underneath all the ubiquitous horrified looks at the camera.

Some highlights:

“It has an oaky afterbirth” -Michael

“I’m beginning to think there wasn’t any work emergency.” -Jim, after realizing Michael had duped him into attending dinner at his condo.

“Snip, snap; snip, snap; snip, snap! Do you have any idea the toll, three vasectomies takes on your body!” -Michael

“I can just stand here and watch television for hours” -Michael, referencing his mini-plasma

“Our relationship is purely carnal.” -Dwight, referencing his dinner date/former babysitter

-Andy snagging a bite off of Angela’s ice cream, and her pounding what’s left of it into the side of his car.

It’s good to have it back, though we were expecting something a little….lighter, to be honest. But at this point we’ll take what we can get.

Some links or something later.