The Office – The buffest dude Val Kilmer has ever seen

Once again, the far and away winner of last night’s The Office was Dwight K. Schrute. Once upon a time some of his best work (challenging Michael back in the day) resulted in his role being downsized, but Dwight is back … with a vengeance.

First the cold open — I loved his riff about standing. When he asked us to picture someone doing something heroic, did your mind race to think of someone who did it from a chair? Mine did, and I came up with Officer Joe Swanson (Family Guy). Anyone think of anyone else other than FDR?

Meanwhile, there were three great moments back out in the office. 1) When Dwight referred to everyone sitting as a suicide cult, and Creed quickly told him that “you’re way off on that one” … I don’t even want to know (okay, I do, because I love Creed). 2) Jim finding the loophole and declaring that “Dwight’s better than us” and “he’s never going to go back on it.” How well Jim both knows Dwight and knows how to play him. And 3) After Jim discovered that Dwight had rigged a hidden chair (was that a crutch?), and threw his money on the floor, Jim put a hand on Dwight’s shoulder and said, “You know I have to do this.” Dwight’s soft “I know” right before Jim pushed him over was awesome.

But Dwight wasn’t done there. The episode itself found him trying to get his gym, Dwight Schrute’s Gym for Muscles, off the ground. I think the first gym was actually awesome: a gravel bucket squat yoke area, a dedicated phone book-ripping station, and a tin cutting station where you can sell any tin you cut back to Dwight. How great! Darryl, however, had to be the naysayer: “This is not a gym; this is like a scene out of Saw V.”

The real gym, however, did come with Dwight as some kind of psychotic trainer, which is amazing too. I loved the pelvic bowl stretch — nice and deep! — and Dwight’s confusion over who Val was was so awesome that I had to use it for my title. I love when Dwight is scoring all night long.

The rest of the episode wasn’t quite as fun. it was nice seeing Maura Tierney, as Susan California, again, although I’d much rather she be on a successful show that would prevent her from doing this kind of guest spot. Setting her up on some of Kevin’s desk space was funny, and Kevin was great being mean to her. “Just sit here and be quiet … If you have a question raise your hand … The answer is I don’t know.” So that was all good.

But here’s where the rest of it lost me, and it actually depends on how you perceived it. If you saw it as how inscrutable and crazy Robert California can be, okay; then it was just dull. But if you saw it as Andy flailing about … well, the question becomes, was he doing anything unique to his character?

Meaning this: you could have closed your eyes and imagined Michael Scott doing exactly the same as Andy did, almost word-for-word and action-for-action. And probably somewhat better. Which is fine, but the point of Andy becoming Regional Manager instead of an outsider was to bring his very own Andy-ness to the role, not to become a mini Michael Scott. And I’ve actually been thinking for a few episodes now that he’s becoming more of the latter (think Gettysburg, for one). Even scoring the boss’ wife at the end, and not understanding what she was saying … classic Michael. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see the writers writing any differently for Andy than they once did for Michael. And that’s just silly.

Even the Gam Gam call … “We promised we’d never say goodbye.” Sweet, but Michael would have made up the same. I’m just not seeing the individuality that we should be able to expect. Are you?

“That’s okay; I know how to build a business. You gotta get the black people to do it to get the white people to do it. Then you gotta get the black people to stop doing it. One step at a time.” – Dwight, on getting his gym off the ground

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Dec 02, 2011 @ 13:21 EST5EDT