Episode 15 - Tallahassee
7 March 2012
Synopsis: Dwight leads his taskforce into their meetings despite suffering from appendicitis. The leader of special projects Nellie Bertrum organises the meetings while Dwight is wheeled off to hospital. Back in Scranton Andy has to cover the receptionist's desk. Â
The Good: Andy's enthusiasm for a simple job very much fit the character he was and sort of still is.
The Bad: What story were the writers telling with Andy? What were we meant to feel? What was the takeaway from his time on reception?
The writers have never spent much time actually exploring the happiness or suitability of the workers for their jobs. Since Pam failed to finish her art course we have just had to accept that these characters are all stuck at Dunder Mifflin for life with no interest in improving their lot. The problem with seeing Andy so happy and fulfilled at the reception desk is that it raises the question of whether he would be better off in another profession. That issue was not addressed of course and instead Pam and Darryl talk him out of sitting there with no real explanation. They didn't argue that he was needed to run the office nor did they suggest who should take over. Instead the plot wrapped up on the never ending Andy-Erin relationship saga. I just don't think the writing team are fit to construct a sit com anymore.
The trip to Tallahassee was a horror show. It was just one character after another descending into this SNL world where no reality is left and each exaggeration means less than the next.
Catherine Tate (Nellie Bertrum) made her name playing various excruciating characters on a British sketch show. But the thing about those sketches is that there was always a straight character playing opposite her. Here (as she was in "Search Committee", 525) she is playing a woman with no self awareness, terrible communication skills and little business knowledge. Aside from Jim and Cathy no one reacts to her as if she is abnormal. If this person really existed in a business meeting there would be a reaction. She is grating and her constant mock-negative phrasing of everything ("probably gonna be rubbish right?") is deeply irritating. She is also just another variation on the Michael-Jan-DeAngelo crazy person character who claims she bought eleven pianos on a depressed shopping spree.
It's hard for the Dunder Mifflin group to react appropriately of course because they are being run by Dwight. His appendicitis was such a counterproductive storyline. For a start it totally clashes with Bertrum's poor leadership routine meaning that neither stands out in a funny way. It also made the rest of the characters look either callous or not real by doing nothing to stop him. Dwight was clearly in pain and yet no one made a fuss to stop him from moving around either before or after his surgery.
Then once he comes back the Dunder Mifflin team actually let him lead a presentation that he hadn't worked on. Why? Why would they do that? If it was a simple case of them not caring, fine. But instead they were all leaning forward in their chairs willing him to get it right and trying to help. If you want to help, stop him! It was all so fake and maddening.
Comedy cannot function in an environment where there is no reality. Erin randomly asks a sick Dwight to do jumping jacks and then when he throws it back at her she does them. Why? Is she mindlessly compliant, is that the joke? Dwight refers to Ryan taking his morning ecstasy. Is that a euphemism for meditation or are we just throwing around jokes about drug addiction as if it that's not a big deal?
Then you have Jim claiming that Stanley is some kind of role model. For a start which Stanley is he supposed to be modelling. I could see Jim admiring the old Stanley. The one who took no part in Michael's nonsense and clocked out on the dot of 5.30pm. That would fit a Jim who wanted to be at home with his family. But Stanley is now an adulterous old layabout who cares about nothing. He actually says his motto is to "leave behind a sexy corpse." Not only is this a departure from the Stanley who once said he drank in moderation but it's also nothing like the person Jim should be aspiring to. Â But maybe that is Jim's character now? Maybe the office life has beaten him down and all he has left is to goof off and drink at work.
Comic Highlight: The ludicrous "Three Pillars of Retail" gag (where Dwight misheard each one as Erin whispered them) was pretty dumb. It was still structured in a genuinely comic way that got a grudging smile out of me.
That's what I said: I've said it so many times now but I will go to my grave believing it to be true: you can't have every character be silly. You just can't. Comedy works on contrasts and timing. If everyone is being funny then no one is. The Office seems to have no editor at the moment. Every joke that gets thought of is being jammed in and damn the consequences for the characters who bare no resemblance to real people anymore.
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