I'm back! Time to get some major blogging done. The first two weeks of the season had Weekend Update Thursday in place of 30 Rock. I'm therefore combining the two for a four episodes post. Last year I said I was done with The Office, and I meant it at the time, but then they had to go and announce that it was going to be the final season. I've been watching for eight years, might as well finish it out. I don't have particularly high hopes, though.
The Office
"New Guys"
Not a very promising start. I like both of the new actors in the office and I was amused by the way they wrote out Kelly and Ryan so they can be on other projects. On the whole though, it was just blah. Andy is still a cartoon of a boss and seems to have Michael's worst tendencies, but none of the heart. Nellie is still around for some reason, and completely hated by Andy, making his character seem even worse. I actively dislike the idea of Oscar being Angela's husband's gay mistress. Oscar is supposed to be the level headed normal guy and not screw around with his colleague's spouse. There is a glimmer of hope, Jim and Pam. Last year I wrote that they had become pretty unlikable but their storyline may be the only thing I find interesting this year. The idea of Jim being offered an entrepreneurial job has a lot of possibilities story-wise and I'm very keen to see where that whole thing goes.
"Roy's Wedding"
A return of Roy for pretty much no purpose at all. I guess he's suppose to represent the past and what Jim might be able to accomplish if the new venture works out. The other two plots of the week were way over the top stupid. The only thing I liked about either one was how Pete (New Jim) kept thwarting Clark's (Dwight, Jr.'s) attempts to hit on Erin. That whole plot hinged on Erin being stupid, which can work, and Andy being colossally stupid, which pushes things to far. Both can be stupid at times, but you can't just pile all the stupid on so high in one plot. The Dwight-Nellie story about Taliban law was just all kinds of bad, I don't even what to write about it. Once again, the Jim and Pam stuff is the only good part of the episode.
Parks and Recreation
"Ms. Knope Goes to Washington"
Ahh, a good show to wash the taste of The Office out of my mouth. Ben and April have been in DC for a while and Leslie and Andy have gone to visit them. Andy's idiotic earnestness and Leslie's love of government make them a good match for palling around DC monuments. Being surrounded by powerful beautiful women, and more importantly realizing that Ben is around them all the time, gives Leslie a little bit of a self esteem issue. We all know that won't last because Ben and Leslie are a great couple, and it forces her to be more pro-active about her governing back home. Speaking of home, in Pawnee, Ron is put in charge of the annual Parks Department cookout. Having the hyper-competent Ron not being able to do something is a good way to mine comedy. Meanwhile, Tom and Ann pretending to be a couple to win a bet is the best way that relationship has ever been used.
"Soda Tax"
This episode did a really good job of integrating Leslie's new job into the overall story, and shows that while the show has changed, the core of it is still very much intact. It's also a nice lesson to Leslie that things in the government are almost never black and white. No matter what she does, someone is going to get hurt. The lawyer describing the different, comically overlarge, sizes was the highlight of that story (it's called Child because it's about the size of a liquefied 2 year old). At this point, everything that Chris Pratt does as Andy is just golden. I can already see that him trying to get into the police academy is going to yield some good stories. Here it's Chris trying to get Andy into shape, with some help from Tom in a golf cart. The DC story was pretty weak this episode, and it has April reverting back to being very childish, can't win them all I suppose.
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