The Office 11/20/08 - "Frame Toby" (9:00/8:00c)
 

THE OFFICE - 11/20/08
"FRAME TOBY"
(9:00/8:00c)

Episode preview on NBC.com looks a little vague..."A mysterious person in the office has made a huge mess in the microwave and will not clean in up"....but it looks like Toby is returning for this episode. I love Toby and all, but it's getting a little irritating as of late to see characters make an exit and then come back (Ryan, probably Holly at some point). Still, let's see what happens.

As usual, cannot wait.

These types of plot premises in The Office are usually the most promising to me - some small everyday "controversy" that could happen in a real workplace setting serving as a jumping off point for exploring the characters' interrelationships (and by extension, general human foibles as they manifest within the work environment). Much better in my opinion, than the more contrived comedic setups that the show comes up with on occasion, many of which end up falling flat.

That's not to say that every one of the simplified plot premises has yielded gold, but generally the best Office episodes come out of them. So I'm looking forward to this one.

Sounds kind of like "The Fire."

I wonder if Fire Guy is the one framing Toby.

Ryaaaaaan started the fire!

yikes. one of my least favorite episodes in a long time. couldn't tell if pam was being sincere when she said she loved the house. this episode really did nothing for me.

Yeah, something definitely seemed off tonight, IMO.

Michael's reaction to seeing Toby was funny, the rest was ok

I thought it was going to be revealed that Jim left the mess in the microwave, especially the way the scene played out when Pam thought he was inching away. And I also agree that her reaction to the house had confused me. At first I thought she didn't like the idea.

another meh episode this week...

Wow, that was really mediocre. A few chuckles...

Another? if anything this was the first "weak" episode this season. Still had its moments. This show never entirely disappoints me.

Summed it up nicely. This is the first episode of the season that hasn't been one of the best of the show, and it seemed to just sort of run through and end, but I still laughed. Creed's reaction when the cops announce they're looking for drugs had me rolling.

"Just sit in here pretending to talk until the cops leave, alright?"

Once again, Creed wins:

"We should hang out by the quarry and throw things down there!" Between that and his reaction to the cops showing up -- comedy gold!

i agree, even though this wasnt as good as other episodes it was still good, really liked the stuff with pam and the Microwave, jim trying to get the painting down, Creeds reaction the to cops, I thought the scene between Jim and Pam, where Jim was inching away was fantastic.

weakest episode of this season but with every other episode being fantastic not a bad thing considering that this was still a solid episode.

Thailand?

I was hoping for a better way to write off Ryan (BJ Novak is off a while to film a Tarantino movie)

I'm slowly losing interest in this show. They have made Michael so over the top -- he's just annoying now.

what? this show has been fanastic since it season 1, and this season has been fantastic, First time in such a long time that Micheal somewhat over the top.

I love this show.

last weeks episode was a floater, but both of these recent episodes are comedy fucking cavalcades compared to that absolute shitpile that was the episode with Jim's brothers. oyyyy vey. I've gotten more laughs telling a patient they have terminal cancer.

I actually thought this episode had some fairly funny moments, especially when Dwight and Michael were formulating the plan to frame Toby. Dwight's comment - "I like to catch people in the act. That's why I always whip doors open." - was damn funny. Overall, I thought it was pretty on par with the rest of the season so far.

The whole microwave sub-plot never really had any resolution (I'm assuming they left that for the deleted scenes), which is kind of weird when they seemed to feature that as the main plot point in the preview. Also, I wish something more interesting would happen with Jim and Pam, other than just the weekly Hallmark moments that we seem to be getting to define their characters lately.

I noticed that she said you bought this house for me. Rather than you bought it for us. That seemed a little odd. Perhaps there are some problems in the relationship that they aren't wanting to admit yet.

Yeah, all the episodes up until tonight have been awesome. I thought the beginning was funny but the rest of it was so-so.

I don't care how unrealistic or over the top people think Michael was tonight, it pales in comparison with him driving that car into the lake. That was just downright absurd. Plus he had Dwight pushing him into schemes tonight too, unlike trying to tell him no with the car.

That being said, decent episode. I wanted closure on who did in fact make the infamous microwave mess. They've made Pam's opinion on the house quite ambiguous, as she was clearly disappointed until the end.

I could see people thinking this episode is a drug testing meets the fire, but it was a bit different. Dwight & Creed saved the episode yet again.

Solid episode, not great, but solid.

I guess I'm still trusting that the writers are NOT going to give us some typical sitcom "problem" between Jim and Pam.

I think Pam was truly overwhelmed. Roy would NEVER have bought a house, nor would he have gone out of his way to create a space for her hobby. She is understandably a little hesitant until they can turn it into their house instead of Jim's parents, but I think people are looking for controversy where there isn't any.

I bought my wife a laptop with some money I made doing some work on the side. I had told her that money was going to be used for something for me. She has had trouble using our Macs to connect to her antiquated work email system, so I wanted to get her a Windows machine. And since I am the one who buys all the tech, I wanted it to be for her and her alone.

For the first 10 minutes or so after I gave it to her, she didn't say anything. She was just completely overwhelmed that I had given it so much thought and used the money that I had worked hard for to get her a gift like that. We don't give each other big gifts typically. Now...she loves it. But she told me it took her awhile to get over the shock. This scene reminded me of that...me trying to talk up the features, her just sitting there trying to process. And my gift was FAR different than the purchase of a house.

Long story short, I think it was perfectly natural and predict that it will not lead to a conflict.