TV Review: The Office 5.1 – Weight Loss

Posted by Adam Sweeney (adam@filmschoolrejects.com) on September 26, 2008

The Office: Weight Loss

The Office, NBC, Airs Thursday 9/8c

Episode: ‘Weight Loss” (Season 5, Episode 1)

Spoiler Warning: If you have not seen this week’s episode of The Office, this recap does contain some spoilers.

Synopsis: The Scranton gang competes in a company weight loss contest with hopes of winning three days vacation. Andy (Ed Helms) plans his wedding with Angela (Angela Kinsey), meanwhile Angela and Dwight (Rainn Wilson) do the dirty in the warehouse. Pam (Jenna Fischer) leaves for a three month design program in New York, prompting Jim (John Krasinski) to finally propose to her.

Review: Now THIS is what the premiere of last season should have been more like. Following a wave of success that came with a countless amount of Emmy nominations, season four felt a little flat. A lot of this, in my opinion, can be attributed to the writers’ decision to make Jim and Pam an item. The term jump the shark came out of my mouth more than once and I wondered if anybody on the writing staff had watched the nosedive Frasier did after they hooked Niles and Daphne up. It’s a simple formula. No conflict = no real reason to watch. But the season 4 finale introduced potential love interest for Michael and a renewed secret relationship between Dwight and Angela.

The season five premiere is a case of The Office getting their groove back. The beauty of the show lies in the awkward moments, many obviously improvised, and there was plenty of awkwardness to go around. Ryan (B.J. Novak) has come crawling back after his embarrassing drug scandal to find Kelly (Mindy Kaling) dating Darryl (Craig Robinson). Now if only we can get Creed and Phyllis to hook up!

Now that Jim and Pam are engaged it will be interesting to see whether the show can find the resolve to keep our interest. I havde always been a person that believes the build up is the best part of a story, not the climax. Watch any great horror film and you’ll know what I am talking about. Michael’s seemingly non-stop revolving love triangle is always good for laughs, so look for The Office to amp that up.

Steve Carell and Rainn Wilson have stepped away from film projects and come back to the platform they are best in. And as much as I love John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer on the big screen as well, there’s no matching the chemistry they have between each other on the show. Let’s be real, this cast is a million times more talented than the one America fell in love, Friends, but none have made the box-office splash they had probably intended. It will happen but until then, as University of Texas football coach once said, dance with the one who brung ya. Yay, Austin bias.

Up Next Week: The NBC site doesn’t have a bio up for next week, so we are going to take a guess that relationship issues will grow for Michael and pretty much everyone on the show.

For more coverage of your favorite shows, check out the Control Freaks Archive.

Did you see the season premiere of The Office? What did you think?


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  • Great episode, and the return of Toby at the very end was a wonderfully depressing surprise.
  • This was a fantastic episode. I was worried they were going to complicate things by having Pam flirt with that guy at school, but that would have really ruined the complete-pure-totally-in-love vibe from Jim and Pam. And that ending with Jim proposing was perfect.

    Is it weird at all that one of the enduring love icons of our generation is going to be from one of the most awkward shows? I hope not.
  • david
    good review, but phyllis might be a little too wholesome of a girl to cheat on her husband no?
  • Jad
    What was wrong with merideth's face for the first couple of weeks? I could not figure that out! I was trying to remember if she got burned with fireworks in the season finale or something, but I came to the conclusion that some scene must have been cut for time or something ... anybody have any ideas?
  • debra ginsberg
    THANK YOU to you'll at The Office!!!!!!!! The season premiere was so satisfying and as Luny as ever. Thank you for continuing to be great quality TV. You'll are comically talented. Loved it.
  • jared
    the reason there's no bio up is because there is no new episode next week. episode 2 is october 9th.
  • Carlos
    Jad,
    Dwight tossed her in a car with a racoon at the end of last season.
  • Drew
    Fantastic first episode. Can't wait for the next one. We are going to be getting over 4
    episodes that are 40 minutes long.
    Ryan didn't have a drug scandal. He was arrested for fraud. For making the stock holders
    beleive that the website he built was bringing in more money.

    The article above did have some spelling mistakes: "have!"

    Otherwise, good.
  • TL
    Great episode. So glad the show is back. Ryan's return was a real shocker! I loved it.
  • Are you kidding about the "jumping the shark" thing? It sounds like you are totally missing the point. Everyone is rooting for Jim and Pam. The fact that the engagement didn't happen in the season finale last season made us all want it more this season. The Office is not on its way out now because Jim and Pam are finally engaged. The engagement itself is a testament to the very nature of Jim and Pam's relationship anyway. And I am looking forward to the wedding at the end of this season, even though they will probably get married in secret without the rest of the cast like Jim and Pam seem to do with everything in their relationship. Frasier was on its way out anyway when Frasier and Daphne got together, and if I recall, Friends lasted a long time after Ross and Rachel got together. And thank goodness Jim and Pam are such a better couple than Ross and Rachel so we don't have to sit through them constantly breaking up and getting back together. As for conflict, just wait until Andy finds out the Dwight and Angela are hooking up under his nose or when Michael finally dumps Jan and then subsequently screws it up with Holly. Seriously? You really think the show "jumped the shark?" That is ludicrous. Stop reviewing The Office.
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