Posted Oct 30th 2009 12:07AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, The Office, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S06E08) You know, as a solitary episode, "Koi Pond" was incredibly satisfying from beginning to end. Outside the office, you had Andy and Pam making cold calls, while back at the office you had the aftermath of a different sales call Jim and Michael had gone on.
It was the perfect blend of everything that makes
The Office work, when it's on its game. There were plenty of laughs, great lines and little moments for everyone in the office. We got some developments on the dramatic side, and most important of all -- an incredibly awkward moment with Michael Scott.
As for Jim, he's really struggling with aspects of his new position, and it's adding a whole new dimension to his character. He's always been a little insecure about his leadership ability, but now we're seeing that he's about as ineffective in controlling the Scranton branch as Michael ever was, thus realizing many of his worst fears.
Continue reading Review: The Office - Koi Pond
Posted Oct 29th 2009 9:01AM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Video, Web, The Office, Reality-Free, Webisodes
If
The Real Housewives of Atlanta can record an upbeat party tune, why not (the beautiful and mysterious) Kelly Kapoor and (the pretty) Erin Hannon from
The Office? They may fictional characters on a sitcom, but they are just as real as the
Housewives. And their debut song, "Male Prima Donna," is a lot more fun than tardiness in regards to the party.
Kapoor and Hannon are the new singing sensation
Subtle Sexuality, and "Male Prima Donna" dropped just after midnight this morning. They already have a Web site, a merchandise page with t-shirts, mugs, and tour posters. es, they list several dates in and around the Scranton, PA area and one in Ithaca. If you happen to be in the Dickson City, PA area tonight, you can catch the tour kickoff at Idle Hour Bowling Karaoke.
Continue reading Straight Outta Da Office: Subtle Sexuality
Posted Oct 28th 2009 10:56AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, House, How I Met Your Mother, The Office, 30 Rock, Dexter, Reality-Free, Mad Men, The Mentalist, TV Squad Ten, Glee
Rules are meant to be broken... especially for these ten television characters. For them, the rest of the world has one standard to live by and they have another. It makes them interesting and fun to watch... you just wouldn't necessarily want to be the person having to deal with them because they could drive you to distraction. Here's my ten pack of characters who live in a world of their own, according to no rules except their own. From the not-too-bad to the really bad.
10. Patrick Jane, The Mentalist
You would think that as a consultant to the CBI -- California Bureau of Investigation -- Patrick Jane would be compelled to uphold the rules and regulations of the department. However, Jane is a free spirit when it comes to office protocol. He does his own thing. For instance, bugging the office of a CBI higher-up is definitely not kosher. Jane doesn't care; he did it anyway and will probably get away with it.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: TV's biggest rule breakers
Posted Oct 26th 2009 6:36PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, The Office, Celebrities, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free
During the recent broadcast of the
Primetime Emmys, one of the funniest presenters was
Ricky Gervais. It's not surprising that Ricky was funny that night. He's a brilliant comic actor, writer and director. I say this even after suffering through
The Invention of Lying, a film that had a wonderful premise but was a crappy movie. Nevertheless, I still think he's fantastic. And I will watch the
67th Annual Golden Globes with Ricky Gervais as host.
The NBC censor's finger will surely be on the button January 17, the night of the broadcast, because you could imagine Ricky getting a wee bit close to the line of what you can and cannot say on TV. Although he's probably clever enough to say or do something that the censors wouldn't get till after it airs.
Continue reading Brilliant! Ricky Gervais to host the Golden Globes
Posted Oct 26th 2009 5:30PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Video, The Office, Reality-Free
Since
Fringe comes on at the same time as
The Office now, I'm a little behind on my
Office viewing. But no worries, because the folks at
SlashControl are fantastic about getting new episodes on the site shortly after they air. That means even if you missed last week's episode of
The Office, "The Lover," and your DVR / TIVO failed to record it for you, you can watch it at SlashControl.
Continue reading What's Hot on SlashControl: Last week's episode of The Office
Posted Oct 23rd 2009 1:03AM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: OpEd, The Office, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(
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.
Continue reading Review: The Office - The Lover
Posted Oct 19th 2009 9:02PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: TV Royalty, OpEd, The Office, Celebrities, Reality-Free, Dollhouse, Glee, Joss Whedon
It's one of those things that you think would be cool if it happened, and then it actually happens. Joss Whedon is reporting that he'll be
directing an upcoming episode of Glee.
We know he has on occasion stepped outside his usual genre of sci-fi and fantasy based on his directorial work on
The Office. We know he's into musical theater based on his creation of the musical episode of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and
Doctor Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog. Now, he's merging all that he's done before. Or at least he would be if the episode of
Glee ends up involving evil scientists and vampires.
Despite my own history in musical theater, I haven't been watching
Glee. Whedon's involvement in an episode would certainly pique my interest enough to catch it. Perhaps he could get together with his brother Jed and write the music for the episode, as well, turning it into a 42-minute operetta. They've done it before.
Posted Oct 16th 2009 12:04AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, The Office, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S06E06) After the fantastic wedding episode, there was a pretty good chance that the follow-up would be a letdown. But when Greg Daniels and Paul Lieberstein
described this episode to reporters during press tour time, it sounded interesting. Michael mistakenly thinks he's talking to the Mafia. Sounds good, right?
Well, it wasn't. It was more than just a post-wedding letdown; it was one of the worst episodes in a couple of years. Why? Mainly because the entire episode was built around a silly misunderstanding that could have been cleared up in a few minutes. And this time, it wasn't even Michael's fault!
Continue reading The Office: Mafia
Posted Oct 8th 2009 11:35PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: The Office, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S06E04 / S06E05) The one thing you knew going into this episode was that Pam and Jim were going to be married at the end of it. There wasn't any big mystery; no old lovers were going to come back to interrupt the proceedings; Jim wasn't going to say Karen's name instead of Pam's.
Nope, that's been the beauty of the Jam pairing from the minute they got together; they just continue being a solid couple in the background while the craziness spins around them. Even when one of them gets sucked into the craziness -- Pam defecting to the Michael Scott Paper Company, Jim becoming co-manager -- the pairing is still solid.
That's what made this hour-long wedding episode so enjoyable. It wasn't the fact that Pam and Jim got married, it's that they had a memorable, very PB & J-style wedding
despite the presence of the crew from Scranton.
Continue reading The Office: Niagara
Posted Oct 7th 2009 6:09PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Video, Watercooler Talk, The Office, Reality-Free
The event that all of us hopeless romantics have been waiting for is almost here. On this Thursday's one-hour episode of
The Office, titled "Niagara," Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly will finally tie the knot. Their big plan was to have the wedding at Niagara Falls, so that no one from the office would be able to make it. Unfortunately, Michael gave everyone the time off to go to the wedding. Bad for Pam and Jim. Great for us.
I'm one of those people who's been patiently waiting for this day to happen. In fact, it ranks right up there with Luke and Laura on my list of most anticipated TV weddings. Ever since Jim planted a big smooch on Pam after Casino Night (season two finale), my heart's been all aflutter for these two. Sniff ... I knew they'd be walking down the aisle (or whatever they have at Niagara Falls) one day.
After the jump, check out
seven sneak peek clips straight from AOL's awesome video site,
SlashControl.
Continue reading Sneak peek at Pam and Jim's wedding on The Office (tomorrow!)
Posted Oct 2nd 2009 1:40AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: The Office, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S06E03) Your regular host, the esteemed Joel Keller, is off hiking the Appalachian Trail this week, so he asked me to cover for him. He should be back in time for the nuptials of Pam and Jim next week. But before we could get to that, David Wallace decided to throw new co-manager Jim a major curveball fresh into his new job.
I'm with Joel on the David Wallace situation. Is he really as clueless about how things are at the Scranton branch? My experience with executives is that ... well, he probably is. In fact, on the one hand, I'll say it's a smart move to make Jim and Michael co-managers. Wallace knows the branch brings in solid sales figures, but he also knows what a loose cannon Michael is.
Maybe the thought was that Jim could reign him in and bring a semblance of sanity to the office. If tonight's challenge is any indication, it's not gonna happen.
Continue reading The Office: The Promotion
Posted Oct 1st 2009 12:42AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: The Office, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Jay Leno
We've seen comments the past few days regarding the fact that we're reviewing this show daily so I thought I should go ahead and address this at the top. We're continually evaluating our coverage of this show, but for the rest of this week at least, these will be daily reviews. Regardless of how we or you feel about it, the very existence of
The Jay Leno Show is a groundbreaking chapter in television history.
As such, we'd be remiss to not acknowledge it and cover it upon its premiere. It is a primetime major network show that has completely shaken up the television landscape this season, after all. As for how we'll continue covering it, we have considered weekly roundups or even sporadic reports. And we do listen to you, our readers, as to what you want to read.
Tonight, Jay brought us Steve Carell, "Celebrity Pets," and the "Jackass of the Month." If you think about that last one, I'm sure you can figure out who it was.
Continue reading The Jay Leno Show: Steve Carell/Vince Gill & Emmylou Harris
Posted Sep 24th 2009 11:10PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, The Office, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S06E02) Well, we knew the closing of the Buffalo branch would intrude on the world of Scranton at some point. Little did we know that it would produce convoluted but ultimately positive results.
Well, the results could have been even
more positive, but you just know that can't happen in the world of Dunder Mifflin, not with the insecure Michael Scott running the branch and the seemingly clueless David Wallace in the executive offices.
This episode proves to me that Wallace is either a brilliant executive or the most patient sap I've ever seen in an executive position.
Continue reading The Office: The Meeting
Posted Sep 23rd 2009 10:00AM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: TV on DVD, The Office, Reality-Free
When I received my copy of
The Office season five DVD in the mail, the first thing I noticed was that there may or may not be a Golden Ticket enclosed that would win me a trip to Hollywood. I tore into the packaging, and saw that I had not, in fact, won. So, this DVD set sucks. THE END.
...Okay, I've been informed that I won't get paid unless I tell you about what's actually on the DVDs. So, let's get to that.
The short version of the story is, the folks who make
The Office DVDs do so with fans in mind. They are not creating merely a collection of episodes: They chock the DVDs full of enough extras and other goodies to make buying the DVDs preferable to say, buying a season pass on iTunes or just not erasing the season's episodes off of your DVR.
Continue reading The Office: season five DVD review
Posted Sep 21st 2009 4:26PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, The Office, Reality-Free
Most wedding-related websites tend to be annoying. The website for the
wedding of Pam and Jim ... well, it almost was. However, the quote from the "About Us" section of the site which states "Together, we're easily the seventh most interesting couple in Northeastern Pennsylvania paper sales" sold me on the concept.
This isn't the first time
The Office has launched an Internet campaign. Who remembers
Schrute Farms? This one seems similarly clever, although most of the sections give you a pop-up window that says "Coming Soon!" (hopefully it won't remain that way indefinitely).
Look in the Guest Book for comments from other characters (my favorite, of course, is from Michael Scott: "Pam, you are like a daughter to me, and Jim is like a son. I'm so proud that my son and daughter are to be wed!"). Apparently anybody can leave comments as well, so go for it. Try not to overwhelm the web servers.
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