The Office: ‘The Target’

The complaint card tower story was Office at its finest. A character desperately attempting to have some fun at the dead end job he’s stuck at, some of the side characters getting involved in the action and allowing them to each have a good one-liner or two, and a little hint of romance. Erin smiling at Pete after he calms everyone down from yelling at Kevin was enough for me to immediately care more about their relationship than I have cumulatively for Erin/Andy over the four seasons they’ve been trying to develop it.

And speaking of Andy, it’s no surprise that these have been two of the best episodes of the season with the absence of Ed Helms who I presume was off filming Hangover Part 8: Drunker and Stupiderer. I still can’t explain why and how the character deteriorated so quickly but I actually think The Office would be best served if Andy’s boat sank or went missing in the Bermuda Triangle or something along those lines because the stories are simply much stronger when they don’t have to devote a main story the “star” of the show.

I certainly could have done without the Oscar/Angela/Senator love triangle storyline as always, but at least it’s finally over and for once it had a few funny bits throughout it. Also, I think that Oscar Nunez was doing some fine comedic acting during the duration of the last couple episodes; it’s just too bad that it couldn’t have been served elsewhere. Lost in the shuffle of this one was the fun little lunch Jim took Phyllis and Stanley to in order to try and sway them into covering for him while he’s off establishing his new sports marketing company. It was pretty amusing and had a sweet ending to it, can we ask for anything more at this point?

Other notable moments:

• Weird title sequence showing Jim and Pam kissing for the first time. Was that the first time this has happened or was I not paying attention before?
• Chris Gethard showing the receipts for all of his important purchases.
• Phyllis pulling off the glued down decorative bottle of wine was hilarious.
• Dwight making the first ever Office meta joke? It certainly caught me off guard when he said a documentary crew had been following him around for 9 years.
• “Ladies and gentlemen, we just lost a client! Yay!”

What did everyone else think? Comments are always welcome.

The new Fox Bloc: Ben and Kate, The Mindy Project

Ben and Kate Plus Eight

The new FOX sitcom about Ben and Kate fortunately (unfortunately?) does not also revolve around the lives of 6 toddlers and two self-entitled twin sisters.  Instead we have the brother and sister duo of Ben and Kate and Kate’s daughter (just the one child here).  The cast is really solid here; I’ve liked Dakota Johnson, Nat Faxon, and Lucy Punch in the movie roles I’ve seen them in so they definitely have the potential to be a good small screen ensemble.

I’m kind of having a hard time putting my finger on the show though. The storyline in this first episode was far from excellent and it just seemed like it’s been done elsewhere before, often more successfully, and I’ve never been a fan of the group “let’s all jump into the pool” thing. I do like the characters of Ben and Kate off the bat, their friends definitely did do it for me in the premiere though. But it’s only one episode, and recently we’ve seen it took New Girl and Happy Endings a little while to find their footing and now they’re consistently two of the funniest shows on television. So what I’m basically saying is Ben and Kate have bought themselves at least 4 or 5 episodes for me to watch no questions asked.

Also, what are the chances A-Ha’s “Take on Me” gets played in New Girl and this on the same premiere night?

The Mindy Project

I’d say Mindy Kaling was able to jump ship just in time on The Office, but Steve Carell was really the only one who truly got out while the getting was good. But at least she was able to get on the last lifeboat while she could and now Kelly Kapoor has got her very own show and is even on a different network than her stomping grounds over in Scranton, PA.

I really enjoyed the pilot and I can see why Fox picked it up as compliment to New Girl. It’s pretty rare that a show does such a good job of introducing its characters in the pilot episode, with the exception of Stephen Tobolowsky’s character, but he’s such a pro that it’s easy to accept him as a great addition to anything he’s cast in.

I got the sense that this is the show Mindy Kaling had kept in her writing journal for many a year and has had plenty of time to perfect all of the dialogue and story into what she deemed would be an excellent half hour of television. Not to mention the episode was aided from on screen guest stars Ed Helms and Bill Hader who clearly don’t have the time in their schedules to be recurring characters. So I’m hoping this isn’t one of those shows that used all of its best ideas early and then ends up stumbling after a fast start.

Also, was there must an order from the Fox executives that all new sitcoms are required to have at least one British character on their shows? Among the new comedies I’ve seen this far, Mindy had by far the best pilot and I can’t wait to see where she goes from here.

Comments are certainly welcome, whether they are for agreement, disagreement, or indifference.