Friday 11 November 2011

TV Review: The Office - "Doomsday"

Season 8 - Episode 6
NBC (US)

It's taken a while, but the post Michael Scott era of The Office finally seems to have found its feet. And its no surprise that Dwight is the one who gets the ball rolling! A special mention, however has to go to Stanley, for his opinion on Semisonic's "Closing Time". You'll need to see the episode to understand that, as there's no way my words can do it justice.

The episode essentially focuses on Robert California's insistance that productivity must increase and mistakes must decrease (a fair request to be completely honest). This leads Dwight to install a computer program that will send horrific reports and emails directly to California should the office make five mistakes in a day. The device would effectively see everyone sacked, and is termed a doomsday device by Jim and everyone else. Naturally, the workers manage to make five mistakes by lunchtime, and the damning report will be sent automatically at 5pm unless Dwight cancels it.

Dwight then promptly buggers off home to dig a horse grave, while the rest of the office think of ways to prevent California from receiving the message. This results in Jim playing squash (badly) with California; Pam, Erin, Oscar and Kevin heading to Schrute Farms to try and talk Dwight into cancelling the system, and the entire office attempting to hack Dwight's PC. At the end up, Dwight has an uncharacteristic change of heart, which is however explained by an excellent Dwight talking head.

In a strange little b-plot, Darryl and Gabe compete for the affection of a new warehouse worker, Val. And that's abot it.

This is by far the best episode of The Office's eighth season so far, possibly the first time this season that it's actually felt like The Office. A vast improvement which I really hope continues.

****

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