My brother was home from college for spring break a couple of weeks ago,
which gave us the chance to watch the last of the four seasons of the
NBC muckumentary sit-com The Office, which he got on DVD for
Christmas. While it was considerably longer than the teensy first
season, thanks to the strike, the fourth season spanned a mere 14
episodes, making it pretty easy to get through in a week.
The Office
spent three seasons getting salesman Jim (John Krasinski) and
receptionist Pam (Jenna Fischer) together. After all that romantic
tension, the season four premiere finds them a couple. Thus, season four
marks a fundamental change in the show, much like season eight of Frasier, in which Niles and Daphne finally get together. While Frasier's
lovebirds still must clear several hurdles at that point, over the
course of the season, nothing really comes along to threaten Jim and
Pam's relationship. For them, it's a season of bliss.
Not so
much for their office mates, however. Toby (Paul Lieberstein), the human
resources representative so reviled by off-his-rocker boss Michael
(Steve Carell), always got along well with Jim before, but now he
bitterly views him as a romantic rival. Jan (Melora Hardin), Michael's
former boss, moves in with him, but their relationship continues to
deteriorate as she displays increasingly erratic behavior. Eccentric
farm boy Dwight (Rainn Wilson) repulses Angela (Angela Kinsey) when he
mercy-kills her cat instead of administering her complex treatments;
dorky Andy (Ed Helms) wins her over with a dramatic romantic gesture,
but she finds she can't stop thinking about Dwight.
Kelly
(Mindy Kaling) is miserable because her boyfriend Ryan (B. J. Novak)
dumped her and ran off to be a corporate bigwig. While he loves being
able to lord his power over his old officemates, Ryan soon discovers
that life in the fast lane has its downsides. Grumpy Stanley (Leslie
David Baker) flirts with the idea of transferring to Utica and befuddles
Michael with an aggressive show of insubordination. Meredith (Kate
Flannery) starts off the season in traction when Michael accidentally
runs her down with his car, and lethargic Kevin (Brian Baumgartner)
finishes the season flattered by the considerate attention of Holly (Amy
Ryan), a new addition to the office, not realizing that she thinks he
is mentally challenged.
Although the season is abbreviated,
there is still plenty of fun packed into it. Highlights include a fierce
salesmanship battle between Dwight and Dunder Mifflin Infinity, the
company's just-set-up website; the employees' creative efforts to put
together a more interesting television commercial than the one proposed
by corporate; Michael's attempt to prove that he can survive in the
wild; Ryan's hyperactive antics when Michael and Dwight visit him in New
York; Kevin and Andy confronting the other office park bosses about one
company's encroachment into Dunder Mifflin's parking lot; and Phyllis
(Phyllis Smith) finally getting her big break as head of the party
planning committee, leading to the most spectacular going away party the
branch has ever seen. Of course, some of the funniest moments still
stem from the characters' straight-into-the-camera confessionals.
Obviously, the writers' strike affected the course of this season, but
I'm not sure to what extent. The only plot development that feels really
rushed is Andy's courtship of Angela, and that seems to be largely a
reflection of his overbearing personality. Ironically enough, the
season's biggest weakness is probably the unfettered happiness of Jim
and Pam; though it's what most viewers were rooting for and it's
wonderful to see them so content, that tension drove a lot of the show's
comedic conflict. Still, season four is a solidly entertaining chapter
in Dunder Mifflin's ongoing saga of silliness.
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