Grid Effect

An enjoyable night of television last night. Ashley the pretend wrestler went home on Survivor, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia pushed the envelope yet again, and Mad Men came back with a vengeance. Good God, that series is simultaneously abnormal, vexing, ambiguous and disheartening. Really, nothing better on television.

But enough of this, to the post at hand…

“The energy were using to keep Meredith alive could be used to run a ceiling fan for two whole days. You tell me, who’s immoral here?”

I completely forgot how much I enjoyed this series during its hiatus, but the above line from Dwight Schrute definitely reminded me. That, my friends, is how a dramedy (sorry, that’s what it is now) should return, with an hour chock full of Rainn Wilson spouting out preposterous philosophies on euthaniasia and using them to kill his girlfriends cat, who was on an absurd amount of medicine and had probably seen better days. Personally, all I could think of was Mike Vick during this entire storyline (i.e. when a pet no longer serves a purpose, you dispose of it). I mean, Dwight even said himself, “I’m a farm boy, we farmers were raised to do things city-folk don’t have the stomach for, when an animal no longer provides milk or meat or wool, then you kill it”.

Still, it delivered the best comedic moments, particularly the back alley meeting between Dwight and Angela who were skeptical of Meredith’s cracked pelvis she sustained when Michael accidentally hit her with his car in the parking lot. Was Michael concerned for Meredith? Of course, but he was more worried about the hit to his own reputation, and inoculated himself when they discovered she had rabies from Dwight wrapping her head in a trash bag with a bat in it, which seems like years ago. Dwight’s explanation, “Just doing my job”.

Anyhow, much to the chagrin of his entire office, Michael uses the discovery to raise awareness about the rabies epidemic. Aside from Kelly who is still depressed about Ryan leaving her, and Creed, Stanley (Oh yeah, I’m going to work out, I’m going to work out not racing in a race for some ridiculous cause) and Oscar who skip out for drinks, everyone participates. Over the course of the race to raise awareness for a disease that’s already been cured, Andy bleeds profusely from his tape covered nipples, Toby meets a personal challenge, Dwight reveals to Angela he killed her cat, Michael struggles to finish and with his ineffective philanthropy, and Jim and Pam hit up a garage sale.

The jig is up

Which brings us to the most tedious part of the show, but I appreciate how the writers are handling it: The Office Romance. Jim and Pam attempted to be discrete about it for the first 20-25 minutes, but when the camera man caught them, they at least let the viewer in on the non-secret. This storyline is necessary to keep the attention of their core audience, but it seemed to still be on the back burner (or at least as much as it could with two of their three main characters involved), which I appreciate. Not to say it doesn’t have its moments, the exchange they had about the 5K race for rabies awareness was hilarious (paraphrasing):

Jim: So, how are you approaching this race?
Pam: Oh, I’m going to run fast, then I’m going to run faster, then I’m going to finish really fast.
Jim: Really? Why don’t more people do that?
Pam: Because they’re stupid.

So, the relationship tinge of this episode didn’t kill it. In fact I’d argue it enhanced it. Which is a credit to Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski. Or, at least, it beats the hell out of them pussy-footing around their mutual affection, now at least its less of a distraction, and they can be happy and whatnot instead half of all episodes being clouded with melancholy behavior.

Other notes:

-My only complaint? I could have done without the Pam consoling and reassuring Michael scene. We sort of already saw this in the fourth episode last season, “Grief Counseling”, and it felt rehashed.

-No word on what happened to Karen, or if it was mentioned in passing I completely missed it. She was in the promos, but maybe that’s the extent of her role now. Either way, she is definitely no longer an employee of Dunder-Mifflin Scranton.

-For the first time I can remember, Creed’s creepy ramblings were overshadowed by everyone’s visceral reaction to them. His inquiries about the painkillers Meredith was receiving proved a vast knowledge of prescription medication.

-Michael’s solution to sacrifice an animal to un-curse the office had me harking back to the “Woodland Christmas Critters” episode of South Park.

-In his newfound executive position, Ryan wasn’t nearly as smarmy as I expected him to be. Smarmy, yes, but not anywhere near as bad as I would have figured.

Definitely a strong episode, and beside a two minute scene there isn’t really anything I’d cut out or change. Solidifying the case that this show should be extended to an hour regularly. The first few episodes are going to be an hour, so its a nice trial run to see if the show can hold up. Either way, its nice to have it back, if only they could move it to a less occupied night.

It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia recap and hopefully I can finally get to some links later today.