The Office - "Special Project"

Season 8, Episode 14 

As you may recall, I always said that my coverage of The Office's eighth season was going to be sporadic, and I would drop in and out of the show as my interest warated, based on whether there was anything interesting new and different for me to discuss. And so it was that not long into this season, I simply stopped writing about it, even as I watched every episode (and tried on some occasion to produce even the slightest post), so formulaic had the show becomes. However, thanks to having the next few weeks from class off, I'll have the opportunity to talk about the next few episode, which based on this latest offering will really peak my interest.

There's really only one development that I'm interested in, and that's the fact that the next three weeks will see Dwight, Jim, Erin, Stanely, Ryan and Cathy off in Florida, while the rest of the characters will remain back in Scranton. And to be clear, I'm not even all that excited about any individual plotline, and I especially fear about the quality of the Srancton stories with some of the main characters and dynamics missing. But I do think that this is the sort of narrative punch in the arm that the show needs at this point, something to break up the stale monotony of episodes that take place almost solely within the office.

I'm not even going to pretend that I liked the episode as a whole – The Office is at the point where's it worn out just about every joke in it's arsenal through the sheer fact of the show's longevity, and even then some of those jokes have been beaten to death. And the show trying to create some drama between Jim, Pam, and Cathy (or anything with Jim and Pam at this point, really), feels a bit contrived, even as I acknowledge that there was some setup to this back in the awful “Pool Party.” Nor do I particularly care if Erin comes back from Tallahassee, and I found the Andy/Erin pairing to be one of the few bright spots of season six.

But the idea is there, and as the closing minutes of the episode proper serve to remind us, the Florida group has a lot of unexplored dynamics that I think will be interesting, and that attitude could maybe possibly spill over into the Scranton storylines. So join me for the next few weeks as I analyze what could possibly be a major turning point in the show's probably penultimate season. (Because you guys heard about that Dwight Schrute spin-off, right? And that Mindy Kalling will probably have her own show?)

Next Week: I can barely hold my excitement, as Catherine Fuckin' Tate returns!