Archive for Ceo
Ahhhhhh…. order has finally been restored to the universe.
Can you feel it? The air is cleaner, food tastes better, and the two feet of snow outside my window is a fluffy dream instead of an icy mess.
It seems like the producers of ‘The Office‘ realized things weren’t right in their world and they decided to rectify things. And in the process they made one of the more satisfying episodes of the season.
Has the show been completely reset? Not exactly. Jim and Pam are still married and having a kid (as we’ll see in the first episode back). But at least now Jim is back to being the smirking, going-nowhere salesman he was at the beginning of the series, albeit making a lot better commissions. He can goof on Dwight again, and look into the camera when things go screwy.
It’s the exact antidote to what what was making him a such a tool in the last year or so. Jim in a suit with neat hair, acting like the boss, wasn’t working at all. Jim with his tie loose and sleeves rolled up, makin’ sales and crackin’ wise, is the Jim we love. Hopefully, that’s what we’ll see, even though now it’s a Jim who “knows too much,” as it were; he’s seen what it’s like to manage this bunch, which might change his view a bit.
Still not sure why the producers brought in Kathy Bates to play such a seemingly minor role like Sabre CEO Jo Bennett. Maybe this isn’t the last we see of her, as she might run roughshod over Dunder Mifflin a la Mom from ‘Futurama.’ But at least it was fun to find out that she slept with some of the same men that Truman Capote did, and that her dogs really like Andy’s crotch.
It really did seem like the episode was going to end with Michael being in sales and Jim being manager, didn’t it? That would have been an interesting direction to explore. But it’s better this way. Especially because it short-circuits Dwight and Ryan’s scheme to bring Jim down, a plot that made both characters look more one-dimensionally evil than they had in past years.
Now, the big question is: What is Sabre’s impact? Are we just going to see D-M sell printers along with the paper and everything else will go back to normal? That usually doesn’t happen when companies are acquired. But maybe the integration of the Sabre culture will happen slowly.
It’s not like Bennett’s presence prevented the usual office shenanigans from happening, as we got Andy passing out a ton of Valentines to obscure the fact that he really wanted to give one to Erin. Despite how funny this plot was — good to see Mindy Kaling come out of the writers’ room for some extended screen time — but this fumbling Erin/Andy romance feels like a parody of Pam and Jim, doesn’t it? At least now we know that Erin knows where Andy stands; the near-misses were getting frustrating.
Watch ‘Manager and Salesman’ Episode Online
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Why has this season of ‘The Office’ been so off-kilter? There have been promising episodes but very few that hit the mark. In fact, the only episode that can hold its own with classic ‘Office’ episodes is the Pam-Jim wedding, and I’m starting to fear that the show really is trying to figure out where to go from that high point.
And Jam may be the big problem here. They’re not interesting anymore. But I’ll get to them later.
So Dunder Mifflin is now owned by a company called Sabre. We don’t quite know what they’re all about except that they sell printers and they have a feisty CEO played by Kathy Bates. And in exchange for saving the branch’s ass, they’ve asked for a few very reasonable changes. You’d think that even Michael Scott would embrace those changes. You’d be wrong.
Look, Michael can be petty, but sometimes it’s amazing how truly petty he can be. He can’t drink water out of tiny cups anymore? He was really willing to get fired over that? Oh, sure, Michael was bristling over the changes — however small — that Sabre was implementing on the office because he was used to it being his domain where he made the rules. But, jeez, you’d think even he’d see the wisdom of sacrificing Facebook access for, you know, having an actual job.
I’m wondering if Sabre (which Michael and the staff thought was pronounced “sab-ruh”) is going to show their true nature over the next few episodes. Everything seems hunky-dory, with corporate-babble spewing videos starring Christian Slater and environmentally-friendly policies. But that Jo Bennett seems like a hard-ass, and she made sure her message to Michael about his complaints cut right through her Southern charm. It’ll be interesting to explore, only if the company somehow either gets progressively more evil or Michael thinks they’re getting more evil.
Here’s the problem, though: it didn’t come off very funny. Maybe because Michael’s pettiness seemed idiotic in this case, mainly because he was just resistant to change. Even when he was scared straight by a visit to the depressed and pathetic David Wallace, that whole sequence looked more sad — and scarily realistic, given this economy — than funny. And it was wise of the writers to make even Michael see at that point what not having a job can do to even the seemingly most with-it corporate stooge.
So, on to Pam and Jim… what happened to them? They were the voices of reason in a nutty office. Now they’re just another couple having problems signing their unborn child up for the best day care site in town. They’re not making fun of the goings on at work, they’re not progressing as a couple.
They’re settled now, about to have a kid. Without their usual above-the-frayness, there’s nothing to latch onto anymore. And there’s especially no reason to care that Jim kiboshed his kid’s chances simply because he walked in on the center’s director going to the bathroom. That feels like a bad plot out of the last two years of ‘Frasier,’ not something you see on ‘The Office.’
I’d usually give a “more fun stuff” list here, but there really there wasn’t any, outside of Creed asking if the officemates can solve their re-packing-the-box problem by making everything smaller. Even Andy’s fumbling attempts at trying to ask Erin out are getting old.
So, yes, it was a very dissatisfying episode, which is disappointing given the fact that we’ve gotten nothing but a clip show since early December. Episodes like this are happening more often, and it’s making a lot of ‘Office’ fans wonder if the show’s starting to make its fade to the finish.
Watch ‘Sabre’ Episode Online here
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