Dwight Rages Against the Machine on "The Office"

I really do want to like The Office this season, but they are making it so bloody hard to do so with these drawn-out one-hour installments. I was firmly against the extended episodes when they were announced, depressed when it was clear that the first four episodes this season would be comprised of these one-hour chunks, and upset now that it's become difficult to sit through an entire episode.

Take last night's episode of The Office ("Launch Party"), which is the perfect example. I thought that the first half-hour of the installment--written by Office executive producer Jen Celotta--was absolutely brilliant. I loved Phyllis' attempt to deal with Angela's ever-increasing bouts of moodiness by searching the internet for tips on how to deal with difficult people and Jim and Pam's prank on Dwight by making him believe the Dunder-Mifflin website had become sentient and was programmed to destroy him... by selling more paper. Same with Michael's, er, misapprehension about the nature of the launch party: a hip NYC club called "Chat Room," complete with a password that's nothing more than password and and address that has "www" in it. (Loved how Jim subtly turned the car around without another word.)

What else worked? That little aside that had the now-single Kelly possibly flirting with Darryl. (Hmmm.) Meredith asking Jim to sign her cast... and lifting up her dress to reveal a cast covering her pelvis. The subtle way Dwight expressed his depression by not shaving for several days. Phyllis crumpling Angela's Post-Its and throwing them in her face. Basically, the little things.

I thought the opener--in which the Scranton gang watched the TV screen in the hopes that the bouncing DVD logo box would hit the corner of the screen while Michael made inane suggestions about how to make their quarterly reports more exciting--was not only hysterical but absolutely realistic and fitting with the series' mission statement. The fact that when the box did hit the target everyone got up to leave was the icing on the cake.

(One caveat about the episode. I do feel as though someone on the Office writing staff did perhaps confuse reams of paper with cases of paper. A ream is only 500 sheets of paper; a case contains maybe 10-20 reams. The computer and/or Dwight only selling 400 reams of paper or so in an entire day is a huge error in my book and would mean that Dunder-Mifflin Infinity's first day was a terrible, terrible launch: that's only roughly 40 cases of paper or so. I somehow doubt that businesses would only order a few reams of paper via a website, rather than cases.)

In any event, I feel lately that The Office has been prone with taking storylines a little too far, which endangers the entire mockumentary feel of the series. Sure, there have been moments perhaps where the series crossed a line but kept it realistic and humorous (Michael's George Forman Grill moment, for example), but last night's episode didn't stick to realism, instead creating a scenario that was so over-the-top and unbelievable that it made me squeamish.

I'm talking, of course, of the kidnapping of the pizza delivery boy. The fact that Michael would kidnap a minor and hold him in the Dunder-Mifflin offices--and that none of the staff would stop him from doing so or release the bratty kid--was completely unbelievable and stretched the series' credibility. I did not like this storyline, which strained to have any connection to the real themes and workplace issues at hand--Michael's feelings of dismissal by former golden boy Ryan, Jim and Pam's subtle romance, Angela and Dwight's awkward breakup, etc.--and seemed tacked on in an attempt to fill in the extra time. If anything, it undermined Michael's character by again making him seem less boorish and more completely out of touch with anything resembling reality.

I watch The Office for the crackling writing, the subtleties of the characterizations, and the humor found in the brutal reality of these workers' mundane existence. I don't want over-the-top inanity (such as in "Phyllis' Wedding") or plots that make it difficult to take the characters seriously anymore.

So, please, NBC, for the love of all things Scranton, learn from this one-hour debacle and get The Office back on track again: cut down the running time to its normal length (extended eps are okay every now and then when it comes from the story and not vice-versa), tone down the madcap plots, and get back to why we love this smart series. I promise I'll be watching.

Next week on the final consecutive one-hour installment of The Office ("Money"), Jan renovates Michael's condo, forcing him to ask his employees for a loan to cover the payments, while Pam and Jim spend the night at Dwight's farm, which has been converted into a B&B.