Episode 23 - Body Language
4 May 2010
Review
Synopsis: Donna comes in for a printer sales pitch from Jim and Pam. Michael of course pokes his nose in and tries to flirt with her. She seems interested but keeps resisting his advances. The whole office think he should give up but Pam holds out hope for love. Eventually Michael kisses her, though no one sees it. Meanwhile Gabe pitches Sabre's minority executive programme to Darryl and Dwight fears him gaining power. So he encourages Kelly to apply and Dwight soon regrets his choice.
The Good: There were plenty of moments throughout the episode to enjoy.
Donna inappropriately pointing out that maybe Jim and Pam have common ancestors with Angela chiming in "You should see their baby!" was amusing. Michael's various attempts at flirtation were bound to be fun (see Comic Highlight) and his irritation that no one believed he had kissed her was entirely believable.
Pam encouraging Michael to flirt was a fun change of tone for her. Back in the day she was always horrified by his behaviour but after years of interaction she has changed her feelings about him. He has dated her mother and Holly and she has seen him grow a little. Plus now she is married to the love of her life you can see why she might be more inclined to help Michael find the same happiness.
Dwight's machinations were fun to watch especially when he interacts with Kelly and the two are on such different wavelengths. Her ridiculous prejudice against guys wearing cell phones outside their pockets and his defence of that was a typically fun example. It was hard not to smile at her attempt to seem really Indian and listing her hobbies as "Yoga, belly dancing, snake charming, beds of nails..." The return of Hidetoshi kept going what could turn into a fun running gag. Gabe did a great job throughout of wriggling with discomfort at any suggestion of racism or being inadvertently racist. Darryl winding Dwight up is always fun too, especially when he plays it subtly as with his "Maybe one day I'll be sitting in Michael's chair. Wouldn't that be something?"
Erin reacting to Dwight's conversation with Stanley and Oscar was unexpectedly funny and it's been a while since we had a good Creed line as he points out "You ever notice you can only ooze two things? Sexuality and puss. Man I tell ya."
The Bad: Something has happened to The Office this season. Early on I complained about the over reliance on Michael who seemed to be dominating every episode like never before. Now I feel like the problem has become a lack of overall control. Almost every episode throws up some anomaly of plotting which suggests no one person is keeping their hand on the tiller and guiding the show toward a definite destination. This episode added to that feeling in my mind. The two plots were fine on paper but in execution there seemed to be details missing which undermined them.
Donna's behaviour seemed really odd. She made it clear she was interested in Michael when they met and here he tries to kiss her and she turns her head. It seemed like she could have told him discreetly to give her a call sometime instead of allowing the tension to drag on and on to the point where Michael awkwardly followed her to the elevator. The idea that she was flirting to get a better deal didn't seem very likely after the kiss attempt. That action crossed a line which surely would have made someone angling for cheaper printers too uncomfortable with. In the end her apologetic confession didn't really explain why she had behaved the way she did so the whole plot was left in a messy state.
Similarly the minority executive training programme story never quite took off. I suppose it's because Kelly's final warning words to Dwight that she won't forget his part in her victory didn't really work as a punch line. Kelly is so dappy and uninterested that it seems unlikely she would understand either why Dwight had pushed her into it in the first place or why he then tried to replace her with Hidetoshi. The story therefore didn't really end on a satisfying comeuppance for Dwight, it felt like a more forgettable conclusion.
In both cases it just feels like no one mapped out the plotlines of this season. Nothing seems to have built up to a memorable finale the way previous seasons have, the stories feel thrown together. That inorganic feeling means many of the jokes don't land the way they would if all the characters motives and intentions had been clear and well defined.
Comic Highlight: Michael barges in on Jim's sales pitch to use his own slides to flirt with Donna. He brings up amusing pictures of himself smiling and then intersperses it with pictures of male models and even Tom Selleck. "It's subtle" he hilariously begins his explanation for trying to get her turned on and associate those feelings with him. We cut back from this explanation to him showing her a picture of him alone somewhere being alone with his thoughts. "I've never taken anyone there" he confides, when she asks who took the picture, he responds "Ryan" without seeing the contradiction. The final slide simply says "SEX" briefly before clicking off. A typically inventive way to show Michael's ingenious lack of subtlety.
That's what I said: A fun busy episode in many ways but one which left me unsatisfied by its structure.
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