I realized a few days ago that I haven't really been talking about my shows much this fall - by that I mean the shows that are my real favorites, like Parks & Recreation. Partly it's because I've been so busy, and partly it's because Community's not on the air, but it's also partly due to the fact that I've been watching with a more over-arching point of view, instead of simply evaluating shows on an episode by episode basis. And with that in mind, it is time to talk about The Office.
Now, I have loved The Office for a very long time, and I was never the hugest Michael Scott fan. I even thought the show had the potential to improve in his absence. But they made some bad decisions along the way and cast the wrong people and went way too far down the Robert California rabbit hole and last season the show was, let's face it, bad. Very bad.
But then this season came around. And since we all know this is the final year, the show has been given a chance to get back to where it started as well and demonstrate how far it's come. At the center of all that is the combination of relationships between Dwight, Jim, and Pam. Oh, sure, there's Erin and New Jim, and Angela and Oscar, and all the rest in between and they're great, but resolving the Dwight/Jim/Pam relationships is clearly the documentarian's goal. As someone who knows the early seasons to an obsessive point it is absolutely captivating and joyful to watch the pleasantly gradual denouement of these characters.
The Office's first Christmas episode was a classic in both the Michael-is-a-clueless-jerk and the Jim-and-Pam-are-tragically-in-love veins, with the Yankee Swap and the teapot and the shameless-but-apt iPod promotion and the Meredith's boobs. It set the stage for many, many more great Christmas episodes - the dueling margarita/nutcracker parties (which includes my favorite Creed line: "I don't care which party I go to. Once you've danced naked at a hash bonfire with the spirits of the dead, all parties seem pretty much the same"); the Morrocan Meredith Intervention Christmas (which I believe was also the Princess Unicorn episode - "My horn can pierce the sky!"); the one where Phyllis is Santa. The Christmas party is a time where the employees of Dunder Mifflin open up and get drunk and embrace the holiday spirit, and it's always a highlight of the season. Last year's Christmas episode was a bright spot in a dark, glum year.
This year's episode, "Dwight Christmas" was another great concept with a familiarly warm, sappy core. As Jim prepares to head off for his first day of his new fancy job, his wife and his work wife are both clearly dealing with some abandonment issues. But then we find out that Angela dropped the party planning ball and Dwight volunteers to create an authentic Pennsylvania Dutch Christmas. "Yes! That! That! That!" chants Jim. And so Pam talks the PPC (minus Angela) into Dwight Christmas as a gift for Jim, and it is everything that Jim (or I) could've hoped for.
Like all good episodes of The Office, everyone is given a chance to shine. Oscar and Angela's issue thankfully takes a backseat, Stanley gets to be sassy, Phyllis gets to be, in her words, "the hero", Creed is wonderful Creed, Toby gets macked on, Kevin is wonderful Kevin, and Meredith is, for once, not the drunkest person at the party as Darrell gets his ire up. The whole Die Hard storyline was...fine, it was whatever - and that is coming from a person who LOVES DIE HARD and believes it is the best action movie of all time in addition to the best Christmas movie. So. The problem was that it was all about Erin being trapped in a nothing relationship with The Monster Formerly Known As Andy and that the writers are just very obviously pushing her into New Jim's arms. It's a little awkward to watch simply because it's so un-subtle.
That's been the worst part of this mostly great season, hands down. After Andy started out as a horrible, totally hate-able character, they managed to build him up to be someone we might actually like and care for. That shit took years to accomplish! And then some idiot made the decision for him to first become The Worst again and then to disappear for forever so Erin can run into New Jim's arms and there will be this mirroring of the early seasons and just NO. YOU ARE RUINING IT. Just let Jim and Pam be Jim and Pam, and give the new characters their own story. Ugh. Anyway, I miss OG Andy.
So aside from all the rest of the nonsense we have Dwight and Jim and Pam. It's been going on all season, but the strength and respect in Dwight and Jim's relationship these days is so enjoyable to see, especially because it appears in the weirdest and most wonderful of ways. From the scene early on with the two of them on top of the bus, we now get this through-line of emotion coming from both men at the prospect of moving on. Jim is immediately enamored with Dwight's party idea, and Dwight is so jubilant at being able to being able to do things his way ("There are no rules"). It feels like a bit of a throwaway line at the time, but when Dwight mentions his brother not coming home anymore and then says to Jim, "But we were going to break the pig rib!", the connection is clear. They're brothers. That's why they can prank and bicker and compete the way they do. And once that connection - one I had never considered before - becomes clear, their separation anxiety is felt by the viewer as well.
Then there's Dwight and Pam, who became friends first, all the way back in "The Injury", consoling and supporting each other in the ways they know how ("Guess how much I care on a scale of 1-10?" "Zero." "Damnit!"). Dwight and Pam have always been a favorite combination of mine, and they're particularly good together here, as the left-behinds. Again, half the fun is just in knowing the path these characters have traveled to reach this point and watching their stories slowly wrap up in a satisfying way.
And that brings us to Jim and Pam, the dream team (yes, I know the dream team is Michael and Pam and Ryan and Sanjit, but whatever, you know what I mean.). Ok, fine. America's sweethearts. Whatever you want to call them it doesn't matter because we all love them and they're the best. Yeah, things have gotten a little stale the past couple years, but I think it's great that they've addressed that very issue from the beginning of this season. Things are not always perfect for them, but the ways they love each other and the structure of their relationship are both very unique but also very relatable and aspirational. I like that I don't know where exactly this season is taking them but am so excited to find out. They were particularly endearing in this episode, back to colluding on hijinx like in seasons past. It actually reminded me of the very early episode "Office Olympics" where they work together to break the rules and bring a little joy and fun to Dunder Mifflin. And it was a gold medal Pam saved from that that spurred Jim into action, bringing him back from New York to ask her out, FINALLY. So it seems very apt that similar antics in this episode with Belschnickel are what bring out some of that original spark in their relationship.
So, you know, maybe not a perfect episode...but not a bad one by any means. I've been pleasantly surprised by this whole season (excepting the Andy bits) and, unlike at the end of last season, I'm extremely hopeful that The Office will be resolved in an appropriate, emotionally satisfying manner...with lots of great jokes in between.
Notes & Quotes
"Tapas Swiss Miss."
"Who was it that suggested authentic Pennsylvania Dutch Christmas? I think it was someone really popular."
"You have never been cooler."
"Have you ever tasted a shepherd's crook?"
"Here's the thing about moonlight - it's NOT sunlight."
"So he's kind of like Santa, except dirty and worse."
"Now you believe in Dwight's tradition? When some Democrat looks it up on Wikipedia?"
Only the elevator in Die Hard dings like that.
Angela sitting on Kevin's lap was a nice touch.
"Where's the Belschnickel?"
And Dwight swoops in for the sneak hug. Very sweet.
"VERY impish."
Images via TVFanatic, NBC
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