Episode 17 - The Delivery
8 March 2010
Review
Synopsis: Jim and Pam's HMO will only cover them for two nights stay in the hospital and so she is determined not to arrive until after midnight. But as the working day wears on her contractions get closer together and Jim wants to take her in. She refuses and Michael rallies everyone to distract her. Once at the hospital she ends up in labour for over a day as Jim goes spare and Michael anxiously waits outside. Once the baby arrives she has trouble latching and Pam and Jim fret about that. Michael is bathing in the afterglow and tries to set Kevin up with Erin. Fortunately Andy finally asks her out instead. Meanwhile Dwight decides that he too wants a child and asks Angela to be the mother. He then heads to Jim and Pam's house to pick up her ipod but ends up staying to remove mould he finds in the kitchen.
Just a note to say normally I would review episodes separately. However I was unaware that "Niagara" was two episodes. I thought it was a continuation of the show's double length episodes from previous seasons. So for simplicity and continuities sake I am reviewing this as one episode.
The Good: TV comedies have approached the birth of new babies in a multitude of ways. Credit to The Office for trying something very different. Instead of the saccharine moments and warm shots of happy parents we get stress, madness, misery, discomfort and awkwardness. In some ways this was a startlingly real look at the process.
The focus on the lack of adequate insurance cover and the way that almost puts the baby in danger of being born in an office is a daring choice. As was the very real need at the hospital to kick Jim and Pam out when the time was up to free up space for new patients. Then we have Jim's very real feelings of anger and frustration at Pam's refusal to go to the hospital when she clearly needs to. He acted them well and the arguments the two got into once the baby arrived seemed believable too. As they are both ignorant of how best to look after a newborn, tetchy moments were absolutely going to happen. The montage of Jim practising how to put diapers on was a nice touch to show the preparation he had put in.
Dwight's desire to have a child too was a nice understandable consequence of seeing what Jim and Pam went through. Angela was clearly happy to consider getting back together while Dwight has apparently moved on and wishes he was doing this with someone he actually loved. That would be a very interesting story to explore further.
The odd joke hit the mark with Andy saying "speaking as a former baby" or Michael asking "what are the odds?" when he runs into Pam's mum at the hospital. Jim giving the camera a look after Pam claimed she hadn't had caffeine for nine months was perhaps the most subtle.
The Bad: The downside to this focus on real life problems or just the darker side of pregnancy is that the comedy suffers. Jim's very real distress and Pam's real fear leads to the first fifteen minutes feeling more uncomfortable than funny. It culminated with what should be a heartfelt moment as Jim reassures her that everything will be ok. But he has Michael (and Kevin) slobbering all over them trying to be a part of the moment. While it entirely fits Michael's character it stomps all over what should have been one of the big touching moments.
Later on we have the entirely plausible and somewhat horrifying situation where Pam breast feeds the wrong baby. Pam is presented as a real character and so we know her horror is genuine and therefore this isn't a fun moment. I guess the writers knew that bringing up the realities of a having a baby might well make their audience reflect on those realities rather than lose themselves in the comedy.
As the episode went on it became more and more like a sketch show which was the same issue with "Niagra" (604-05). Now I'm not saying that is a bad thing and often great sit coms are built around that idea. But what happened here was the very straightforward story of the baby being born was constantly contrasted with little gags and for me they failed far more often than they worked. The best example of this was Jim being uncomfortable with a male doctor helping Pam breast feed. It seemed like such a juvenile reaction for him to have when someone had finally come to help Pam with her distress. The tone seemed all wrong and I felt the joke had been put before the logical reaction of the character.
But that is not the only example. Michael and Dwight get into a frenzy of activity to help get Pam to the hospital in a hurry. Then the others realise it is five o'clock and Stanley insensitively insists on making them wait as he clambers into the elevator. Once outside Dwight pauses to point out where he saw a deer and tells Michael all about it causing further delay. Neither joke was bad in itself but it added to the sense that the jokes were hindering the serious plot and calling characters behaviour into question rather than enhancing the story.
Many jokes fell flat for other reasons. Andy was once more made to look completely pathetic by telling stories of childhood rejection by both his parents and his class mates. Kevin had an awful episode. His suggestion that they should shove spicy food up Pam's butt and "You will learn to love me" claim to Erin pushed him into completely implausible territory. To add to that Michael ends up crapping all over him by claiming he should have known he couldn't attract someone like Erin. Those kind of moments make the show unpleasant to watch.
Dwight throwing multiple weapons out of his car felt like an exaggeration too far. Throwing one out would have been a nice gag. Similarly Michael throwing the car keys out of the hospital grounds just seemed so irresponsible rather than a hilarious misunderstanding.
Finally we have Dwight deciding to remodel Jim and Pam's kitchen because he found mould. Now this in itself is not entirely implausible because we know Dwight is fascinated by property maintenance and is unafraid to cross social boundaries. But quite why he would personally go to all this expense makes no sense. He may end up charging Jim and Pam for the work but he should be miserly enough to know they won't. If he had only remodelled their sink the whole thing would have been possible instead of bringing in other workmen to help him take the whole room apart. It didn't help either to see a quick shot of him limply swinging a sledgehammer in a manner which would break nothing.
Seeing Andy and Erin together was a relief after the endless wait. Not the emotion the writers were shooting for I would guess.
Comic Highlight: Michael is glowing in his self appropriated glory after seeing Jim and Pam have a baby. He looks round the office for other single people he can fix up. He sees Meredith and says "You're obviously single." With no shame she announces to the office "You know it. I am never getting married." Then in interview set she adds with even greater pride "Like Clooney!"
That's what I said: The Office has lost control of its format and that is sad to see. The show has never had a good track record with its double length episodes but this suffered greatly from the serious scene-joke-serious scene-joke format.
But usually the writers get their touching moments spot on and what was missing here were the genuinely heart warming scenes. There were times when I wanted Jim to tell Michael and company to f*ck off and get out of his personal business. It seemed throughout that the comedy had the wrong tone or the wrong timing for this plot.
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