“The Office” — Money
Melancholy.
For the past month The Office has been trying to figure out how to turn a thirty-minute comedy into an hour-long comedy with varying results. There have certainly been some laugh out loud moments over these last four episode, but structurally the series has had trouble filling the time… until this week. It turns out the key to extending a comedy to an hour is not to add more comedy, but to make it a drama. More after the jump…
With the exception of the “Pam and Jim go to Schrute Farms” story (which was funny and ultimately significant, but never struck me as something J&P would actually do or something Dwight would actually allow), “Money” might have been the best episode of The Office to date. As is often the case, “best” and “funniest” aren’t necessarily synonymous. The comedy was there, but the drama (a lot of which was comedically fueled) really sold it. If this is the route the series would have decided to take, I could see the hour working in their favor. Unfortunately, this was the last of the batch before The Office works its way back to a quaint thirty minutes.
If I had to pick between a riotously funny, half-hour episode of The Office and a moderately humorous, surprisingly dramatic full hour, I’d probably take the hour. Laughs are great but fleeting. I’d much rather have something that lingers. This week’s episode, written and directed by Paul Lieberstein (aka Toby) was a masterpiece of subtlety of character. The overall theme for the season seems to be the rapid, emotional breakdown of Michael Scott. Personally, I loved the moment when he drove his car into the lake as much for its symbolism as for its side-splitting and jaw-skewing visuals. Though this was the episode where his breakdown rung the truest.
Starting with his second job at a telemarketing company Michael was never denied humanity. There was something comforting about his simultaneous inability to impress his boss (or was it his boss’s complete disinterest in him) and the ease at which he befriended his co-workers. His explanation as to why Die Hard is better than Die Hard 4 was not only correct in his critical assessment but beautiful in how the high school (or maybe junior college) kids looked at him with both awe and envy. Too often the show plays Michael as the buffoon instead of the emotionally stunted adult he actually is.
This carried itself over beautifully into the second half with Jan’s involvement in Michael’s lack of money culminating in Michael’s decision to literally run away from his problems… and hop on a freight train. When Jan eventually found him and talked him off the ledge (of the train) we were able to see for the first time that there is some legitimacy in their relationship. He needs her because he needs someone, anyone. She needs him because she’s probably spend a good deal of her life surrounded by corporate jocks and enjoys the simplicity.
I love watching fictional characters have emotional breakdowns. There is something that is simultaneously funny and tragic about it, as well as frequently offering insights into human behavior. This of course is significantly different from watching real people have emotional breakdowns which tends to be (obviously) depressing and kind of creepy. Fictional seems far more real. Compare Michael Scott this episode to… well, Ellen and that dog — what exactly is the truth we learn there? That she has an unhealthy attachment to mutts?
The other side of the story was Dwight’s continued depression (and perhaps eventual acceptance) of his break-up with Angela. Dwight is an awesome character because so much of his life is spent as a didactic lunatic when something happens that causes him to drop the front the emotions ring especially true. The big scene at the end involving Dwight sobbing (or howling) and Jim doing his best to provide words of wisdom played a lot like a similar scene last year with Dwight and Pam. Both were achingly beautiful to watch and capped with a great comedic punchline — this time Dwight turning to reach for a Jim that was no longer there. Much has been made of PB&J’s relationship sucking the drama out of the show, but those assessments are short-sighted at best. The series has enough characters and enough possibilities for those characters to keep us invested. The Office doesn’t suck this year, it just took a while to find its way (of course, the return to 30-minutes next Thursday could wipe a lot of this from the slate).
March 30th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
[…] or whoever? Enjoy this awesome clip from perhaps my favorite episode of The Office ever, “Money,” courtesy of […]