I hated the last ten minutes or so... not even because of the lake incident but because I thought for a moment that Michael realized at that last office that he could use the website to his advantage and still use his personality-driven approach.

A better story move would have been if he changed course midway through his spiel and actually sold the guy on the website features, then went back and lied about it, telling everyone that he got the customer back because of the gift basket. That's truer to the character AND fulfills the same basic objective storywise.

I am posting this without reading the entire thread, so, yeah.

Those of you that didn't like him driving into the lake, did you not like it because you saw it as Michael being so stupid that he would listen to the machine and make the turn even though the lake was obviously there?

If that's why you didn't like it, then I don't think you totally got the point of the scene.

One of the worst 5 episodes in the history of the show. Last week was probably one of the 10 worst. But its still my favorite comedy on tv by far.
Creed listing the over 40 people who might be leaving, mentions "Sammy"
Garbage was good stuff
Jim and Pam have yet to be funny this season
Hard to have a good episode without a 1 liner from Stanley

I didnt think the lake scene was bad, definitely a WTF but when Dwight mentioned something about the car rental insurance was good stuff.

Just started this show on suggestion of my brother, haven't seen anything of it, but the first two episodes of this season, any recommendations of what seasons are good to pick up on dvd or is it just a good "start from the beginning" type of thing?

Seasons 1-3

Creed & Toby were awesome

The rest were kinda blah for me.

Once they go back to 30 minutes the show will be golden once again.

Check this thread for some good suggestions on which shows to watch to get a feel for the show...

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=511892

Record it, watch the first half one day then the second half the next.

I'm surprised by all the hate. This show is hilarious.

WHERE ARE THE TURTLES???????!!!!!!!!!!

After reading all these negative reviews of last night's show, which was top 5 all time IMO, I have a theory.

I think that people are expecting the brilliance to end. That there is now way that a show could sustain this level of hilarity for so long, and they are picking the episodes apart.

If you're a legitimate fan of The Office and you didn't laugh out loud for nearly the full 40 minutes last night, you might as well stop watching, because nothing will be funny to you ever again. You had to have lost your sense of humor.

http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/video/#mea=163852



deleted Scene.





I watched this episode again while getting ready this morning and I find this show is always better the second time. Last weeks was the same way. I think this was a pretty good episode.

Wow people are bitter about this show.

I rarely laugh out loud at this show, but I still love it. I tune in each week to see the characters, not to laugh. They could make it a drama and I'd still watch.

Driving the car into the lake was dumb, but it's not that big of a deal.

I agree with this, but hey, meet the internets.

Wow people are bitter about this show.

I rarely laugh out loud at this show, but I still love it. I tune in each week to see the characters, not to laugh. They could make it a drama and I'd still watch.

Driving the car into the lake was dumb, but it's not that big of a deal.

Loved it, but was expecting Mike to get some type of win. I was disapointed in the lake crash, because I figured that was the end of them trying to "win".

I don't think it's bitterness. It's that they're stretching a half hour concept into an hour worth of show, formatting with enough of a break in the middle that they can break the episodes up later. Compare it with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, a show that is also airing an hour worth of episodes right now. IASiP's episodes are strong and have nothing to do with one another. The episodes of The Office are clearly on the same themes (last week: running over the lush; this week: Ryan's new website) and have too much filler. It's just not as good.

I do have a parting of the ways with some in that while I think they screwed up the lake scene, I don't think they're trying to turn Michael into Homer Michael. I can't support the idea that they're trying to turn him into psychopath Michael, either. That's what he would be if he actually knew he was driving into a lake with his rental car and 2 passengers and willfully did it anyway. I think Jim and Pam have been as perfect as always, and I think Creed and Kevin lit last night's episode up with funny.

This might have been one of those moments where something sounded a lot funnier on paper than it turned out in execution. And after drowning a car, they may not have had the budget to reshoot another scene.

At any rate, I think Chew had it right in that this is Michael's chance to show that technology is not always the answer, but that the way the scene was written (or performed) clouded the message and it just came off like stupid pratfall humour.

Do you mean "Al Bundy Syndrome"? Kelly Bundy was always an air-headed idiot on the show, whereas Al went from beaten down husband to outright idiot over the course of a couple of seasons.

ryan should have secretly slipped a card in the gift basket with the new website address. while michael was driving into the lake, the lawyer checked out the website. then when michael came back - the lawyer announced he would come back to dunder mifflin. michael and dwight could have another "we did it... what did we do" moment. they win, ryan wins.

win win win

It's exactly the same in the Heroes thread -- two episodes into the new season, and people are saying it's jumped the shark. In actuality, both the Office and Heroes are pretty similar in terms of quality as they were last season.

That's exactly where I thought the story was going in the first place. It was obvious the gift basket thing wasn't going to pan out and I was expecting the effort to turn to pitching the new website. Driving into a lake (when he knows he didn't get the rental insurance) and then taking the gift basket back from the one company they might have gotten back just doesn't make any sense whatsoever. I feel like they're trying to set up some running gag abuot Michael being a terrible driver, but it's being done very poorly.

Anyway, I know I'm in the minority, but I've always liked Ryan. It was obvious he was a douche before, but now that he's got the ego to back it up, he's hilariously douchier. Should be fun to see where that leads. It's also a refreshing touch of reality that he plans to do something about all the wasted time at the Scranton branch.

A couple other things:

1. Ryan told Kelly that Karen asked him out, but he confessed to Jim that he'd sent Karen an e-mail asking her out, right?

2. Did nobody else notice the look Jan gave the camera when Michael was talking about having kids? It looked to me like they were hinting that she's pregnant and (obviously) hasn't told Michael yet.

Everything outside of the Michael/Dwight storyline was great. I don't see any noticeable difference in Pam/Jim interactions, and all the Ryan/Kelly stuff was hilarious.

Actually, there is a lot less of that in the Heroes threads than I expected. While I think everyone has something to say about the slow pace, I don't think I have seen a shark jump comment in either thread so far.

I was a little miffed when I realized there was another 30 minutes to the episode because I also felt like they were stretching 22 minutes of material into 44 minutes to fill up the hour slot.

the last 2 episodes i havent felt this at all. tons of good stuff in these 2 last episodes. I still think the 30 minute format is the best for this show because usually evertything is gold then, but still the hour episodes are still extremely strong.

CBS got a 12.8/19 from "CSI" at 9 p.m. "Grey's Anatomy," 12.3/19, kept ABC in second (and was the night's top show among adults 18-49). "The Office" posted a 5.0/8 for NBC, topping "Kitchen Nightmares" on FOX. The season premiere of "Supernatural" earned a 2.0/3 for The CW.

Hmmm, those ratings don't look so great.