The Office: Stress Relief

SPOILERS

Season 5 Episode 13: "Stress Relief"

Writer: Paul Lieberstein

Director: Jeffrey Blitz

Plot:

Dwight causes the folks at Dunder Mifflin to panic after he creates an extremely realistic and terror filled fire safety demonstration ultimately resulting in Stanley having a heart attack. Dwight's reprimanded by the corporate headquarters, but somehow manages to keep his job. After the situation with Stanley's heart attack, Michael decides it would be wise for everybody in the office to learn CPR. Dwight once more "screws the pooch" by cutting up the rather expensive CPR training dummy. The focus switches to stress relief. Michael shortly realizes that he is a source of stress for the people in the office. His solution? A comedy style roasting of himself to let out all of the things people want to say to him but hold in for obvious reasons. The roast becomes a little much for Mr. Scott, so he takes a personal day to mull over the roast. In the end, Michael Scott returns to his confident self and 'roasts' each member of the office, repairing the damage.

Meanwhile, Pam's parents are having marital problems as they discuss separation. Pam's father is staying with Jim and Pam during the ordeal. Pam feels a little in the dark about the whole thing as her father won't discuss his marriage difficulties with her. After discovering that her father had a friendly conversation with Jim over breakfast, Pam requests that Jim try to get her father to open up to him. Shortly after Jim's talk, Pam finds that her father is going to look for an apartment. Pam worries about what sort of advice Jim offered that would result in a more permanent separation only to find that it was because of the way Jim talked of his love for her that her father realized that he didn't have that same relationship with her mother. In the midst of all of this, is the Jack Black, Jessica Alba, and Cloris Leachmen cameo which is contained within a Harold and Maude-esque movie that Andy, Pam, and Jim all watch together illegally on Andy's laptop.

Thoughts:

There was a lot of hype behind this episode, a full hour long episode airing right after the Super Bowl with celebrity guest stars to boot. Originally, I was a little worried about The Office having celebrity guest stars as it's really not the kind of shows where celebrities can come and go as they please. After seeing how they handled the guest stars in the episode, I'm quite relieved. It's still a little weird since I don't think the appearances contribute anything significant to the episode outside of itself with the exception of Andy's fantastic thoughts on what a good/bad critic is. Still, I feel like including them amongst the characters might have been a bit of a "Jump the Shark" moment for the show, so crisis averted.

The Office is one of my favorite shows for its subtle comedy, but it can also dominate the more broad as well. In the first five minutes of this episode, we get to see The Office at it's most broad, but genius, self. It might be borderline uncharacteristic of the show, but I find myself on the side of acceptance. After all, the Joss Whedon guest directed episode "Business School" also featured a rather broad comedic plot. I also appreciated the whole scene with the CPR dummy which ended with one of the creepiest/funniest things I've seen in a good long while.

The Pam and Jim conflict in this episode annoyed me a little bit. Look, I love Pam and Jim together, but this whole "let's keep teasing the viewer into thinking they'll break-up" scheme is irritating. I hope this is the last one they pull for a while. That being said, I did appreciate the dramatic aspects of Pam trying to cope with her parents' separation, and the way Jim, as her future husband, tries to help her through it. Those aspects of the episode were sweet and a good reminder of why they're one of the best couples on television. Let's not let them be the best couple because of the near misses though. Let's see them survive the real trials and tribulations if that's what's needed for dramatic tension.

The roast of Michael Scott was very entertaining to watch. Seeing characters like Angela lighten up was extremely pleasing. I thought Pam's comment about Michael's naked body were a little inappropriate if not cruel, but it's nothing Michael wouldn't say himself about one of his employees in a similar situation. That argument is probably best illustrated when Michael comes back with his own set of roasts for each member of the office. The office actually behaves like a family here. It's endearing to watch as Stanley laughter infects others around the office during Michael's insults. Really, a fine moment in the history of the show.

All things considered, the items that I've criticized don't take down this fantastic specimen of an episode.

Final Score (out of four Dundies):







Deleted Scenes:

Great deleted setup involving Michael's purchase of a portable defribillator for Stanley, which he then tries to use as a hand buzzer on Toby.

The other one just involves Dwight's various methods for gathering signatures from his co-workers. Its highlight is Jim teaching Dwight how to smile.

And the Dundie goes to...
Best Moment: What goes up, must come down. Angela's cat Bandit is no exception.

Best Quote: "I'm not insightful enough to be a movie critic. Maybe I could be a food critic: 'These muffins taste bad.' Or an art critic: 'That painting is bad.'" -Andy Bernard

Chalk (2006)

Movies like Mr. Holland's Opus and Stand and Deliver present us with educators that are, in a word, inspirational. They lead us into believing that the teacher's job is a reward in and of itself, and even the most disruptive student just needs the right teaching style to get them back on track. Chalk, a mock-umentary about a handful of high school teachers at Harrison High, gives us a slightly more complex message when it reveals that 50% of teachers quit at some point during their first three years. So who are the teachers under observation?

First, there's Mr. Lowry, the distressed man on the film's poster. A history teacher in his first year of teaching, Mr. Lowry is unsure of himself in front of the class. He can't get them to participate in the simplest of exercises. Their lack of respect for him becomes clear as they steal and hide his chalk, neglect to turn off their cellphones, and leave in the middle of class.

There's also Coach Webb. The P.E. coach begins her second year optimistic, knowing that her best friend, a former teacher, is now the assistant principal, allowing her a direct line to having her requests acknowledged. Coach Webb struggles to inspire her students to believe in their athletic abilities even if she's not so sure. As the school year progresses, Coach Webb discovers that having a friend as an assistant principal doesn't work out so well.

The assistant principal, Mrs. Reddell, becomes more discouraged as the school year moves on. Her marriage suffers from the long hours, and she has no time to relax with her friends. We quickly learn how unhappy she is to be constantly dealing with kids who misbehave and don't want to be at school because she got into teaching for the kids that did want to be there. She's also having trouble balancing her former teacher friends' requests with the responsibilities of assistant principal.

Then, there's Mr. Stroope, a third-year teacher who's out to be named "Teacher of the Year" at Harrison High at some point in his first five years. Ironically enough, Mr. Stroope is the worst teacher surveyed in this film. He pulls students aside and asks them not to use advanced language that he can't understand, and makes a scene over the drama of his "Teacher of the Year" election.

For a comedy, Chalk is quite bleak. The teacher who we want to see succeed is the one who seems most bent on becoming another statistic for that 50%, while the horrible Mr. Stroope, will probably continue to teach until retirement. Most of the jokes are also a little dark, dealing with lowered expectations or extremely awkward confrontations. The only really uplifting storyline involves Mr. Lowry and the connection he's able to make with a handful of students in his class.

If you're looking for a seemingly realistic interpretation of the average American school teacher, I would definitely recommend Chalk. The movie is dedicated to the 50% that stay after all. In that way, it's a nice tribute to our educators, as it acknowledges the difficulties they experience. If you have any further questions, you can see me after class.

The Office: Prince Family Paper

SPOILERS

Season 5 Episode 12: "Prince Family Paper"

Writer: B.J. Novak

Director: Asaad Kelada

Plot:

Dunder Mifflin C.F.O appoints Michael Scott to investigate a small paper business to take over their business. Michael takes Dwight along to find the small company to be Prince Paper, a mom and pop style business where every employee seems to be a family member of the owner. Finding the information they need proves to be quite easy, and the trust with wich the Prince family bestow upon Michael produces much guilt. With great reluctance, he submits their client list and pricing information to David Wallace.

Meanwhile, the folks at the Scranton branch spend their day aggressively arguing over the hotness of actress Hilary Swank, only to have Michael break the tie vote in her favor upon his return.

Thoughts:

I was really disappointed in this episode. I found the entire Hilary Swank debate to be extremely uninteresting. For the first time maybe ever in this show's history, I couldn't find a single joke to make me laugh. In regards to the Swank debate, it's the sort of thing that might be entertaining in a short 30 second discussion. It doesn't need to take up an entire subplot for an episode.

I also found the Michael Scott plot to be a little disappointing, but it's not without some redemption. It's worth noting that Michael has always wanted his office to be like a family, and he's always had to face criticism from people saying an office cannot operate that way. Here, however, we see a world where the office is literally a family, and Michael's come to destroy them. It's a tricky setup. I have a hard time accepting the ending where Michael submits the names to David Wallace because I was hoping so hard for Michael to do this really noble thing, but I know that if he didn't submit that information, he might have to face some sort of demotion or job loss in the future. Neither outcome would fully satisfy me, so it's hard to enjoy it.

Final Score (out of four Dundies):








Deleted Scenes:

Even the deleted scenes this week aren't terribly interesting. There's a somewhat funny talking head where we realize that Michael thinks it's a "doggie dog world."

And the Dundie goes to...
Best Moment: While I didn't particularly like the Swank debates, I thought that Jim Halpert talking about the way we view celebrities as mythical creatures rather than real people was probably the best part of the episode.

Best Quote: "Oh, math. That's not so hard. There are four of these... Ignore the paranthesis, right. Why is this little two so small? It's- weird... Just go by the X. The X means times, so that means four times X2. What is double four?" -Michael Scott, trying to help a little girl do her mathematics (as a mathematician, I just found this painful to watch in a fun way)

Adding to the Noise: 24

There are a handful of quotes in 24's first season that made Jack Bauer one of my all time favorite fiction characters. Sometimes it's about the nature of what it means to be a virtuous person; there's one in the very first episode where Bauer remarks on what just one compromise can do to a man. Other times, it's just to show how intimidating Bauer can be. For this edition of Adding to the Noise, I'll be going for the former.

Jack Bauer
Part of getting a second chance is taking responsibility for the mess you made in the first place.