Spring Break
The Daily OrangeBack in action
Four top-rated TV shows return for their fall season
By Ben Tepfer and Rebekah Jones
Posted: 9/29/08, 12:28 AM EST Section: Clicker
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"The Office" - Thursdays at 9 p.m. on NBC
Most of the employees at the Scranton, Pa., branch of Dunder Mifflin are back for the fifth season of the British spin-off series, "The Office." The hour-long season premiere recapped the summer, following the office's journey of the corporate-sponsored weight loss competition.
The employees weighed in weekly on an industrial-sized scale and went through extreme measures attempting to be the victorious branch. Dwight Schrute, the assistant to the regional manager, replaced all vending machine snacks with fruits and Kelly Kapoor, human resources, drank a mixture of "maple syrup, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and water."
The highlight of the weight loss competition occurred when Dwight took overweight sales associate Phyllis Lapin five miles downtown and abandoned her with no money or cell phone. Phyllis returned from her five-mile walk exhausted, and the audience's patience with Dwight's antics transition from amusing to annoying. Along with his lucid affair with accountant Angela Martin, Dwight's character is crossing the line from funny to when can we kill his character off in a tragic plane crash?
There are no new cast additions, although former secretary Pam Beesly is now studying art in New York City and former VP of Dunder Mifflin, Ryan Howard, is back in Scranton working as the branch secretary, an interesting twist because Ryan's character wasn't an audience favorite, and his arrest last season seemed like a good way to get rid of him.
The new human resources woman, Holly, continues to romantically pursue regional manager Michael Scott, but in the mix of a communication error, Michael missed another opportunity to take Holly out by buying her Counting Crows tickets and ripping them up, instead of taking her to the show. Of course Michael's socially awkward approaches to dating are still funny, but audience frustration with the long-awaited hookup, along with the tension from pregnant former lover Jan Levinson, make the complex love octagon unnerving.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
John Ross
posted 10/19/08 @ 11:28 PM EST
I don't think you've actually ever seen The Office. Pretty poor review, sir/ma'am. I'm kind of unhappy to read this.
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