Episode 6 - Doomsday
4 November 2011
Synopsis: Robert tells Andy to cut out the mistakes the branch keep making. Dwight comes up with a method of holding the whole office to account which everyone sees as a "Doomsday Device." When five errors trigger it Dwight leaves the office condemning them all to potentially be fired. Jim is dispatched to distract Robert while Pam leads a team to the Schrute Farm to talk Dwight down. Meanwhile Gabe and Darryl are both attracted to Val from the Warehouse.
The Good: I do like work based stories but this wasn't executed well. In theory I do like the idea of Dwight using actual work place productivity to prove why he should be in charge. I also like Robert as the boss pushing for efficiency and Andy as the boss who is too nice to be tough. Those broad strokes work fine. It's just that what follows from this set up isn't well thought through.
A couple of moments approached decent comedy during the main story. Dwight appearing like a Bond villain is a gag that worked ok. I did like that he could only think of Doctor's Frankenstein and Jekyll as examples of people he was similar to. Similarly I smiled when Andy starts a meeting by telling everyone how well they are doing and then follows it up by pointing out how sloppy they all are.
Darryl was closer to the character he used to be during the Val-Gabe story. He seemed professional and relaxed. Perhaps he will slowly regain his mojo.
The Bad: The writers just don't think through the details of their stories. Ultimately the most important thing is the emotions you are trying to elicit from your audience. In this case it was a very weak sense that Dwight is a nice guy. It wasn't as if he was won over by anything special. Pam and the others were polite to him and he buckled. Instead of making me like Dwight that actually makes me think that he is pretty spineless. After years of incompetence from this office I actually liked the sound of someone holding them responsible for silly mistakes. I know that isn't what I was supposed to take from the story.
The "Doomsday Device" itself wasn't well thought through. Surely Robert California is such a weird guy that there was no telling how he would react to reading a few mocking emails? For all they know he already reads their emails or would claim to know exactly what they thought of him. In a real world wouldn't he come to Andy, ask what had happened and then hold either him or Dwight responsible rather than firing everyone? I wish the writers could focus on an idea that we can all relate to and just present it as a straightforward plot. Convoluted ideas like this don't engage emotions they just come across as nonsense.
Some of those questions about Robert California surely occurred to Jim. I didn't buy him going to all the trouble of trying to intercept the emails. He should be above such silliness. It didn't do much for California to go along with the plan to play squash. He still isn't defined in a way that is funny. Right now it seems like he could react unpredictably to any event.
Kevin remains a running sore of implausibility. It undermines the whole show to make it clear that he is incapable of doing his job.
Meanwhile Gabe is just unpleasant to watch. With a character like Dwight I don't mind laughing at him because he is clearly happy with who he is. Whereas I get no pleasure seeing Gabe, a character designed to be useless and creepy, fail at everything he does. Gabe seems like a character created for the purpose of being a punching bag. He doesn't have any redeeming qualities and so his unrealistic expectations of success are just a drag to sit through.
Comic Highlight: Andy's optimistic agreeableness can still make me smile. "Sometimes I don't think you know me at all" Robert California says disappointedly. "I would agree" says Andy with a genuine smile.
That's what I said: It is tough to fear for anyone's job on a show where no one gets fired for anything. Dwight's jovial conclusion was that he would be working with these people for ever. It was a sad conclusion because the fact that nothing ever changes is one of the reasons the show is so poor.
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