Sorry for the double-post.

deleted double post

Another disappointment.

"I just wished he cared more about what people thought of him."
I agree, and you made me realize something.  The only time Jim really cares is when he's threatened in some way (e.g., by Charles Minor, by Ryan when Ryan was VP, and by Roy in "The Alliance").  But mostly he doesn't care, ostensibly because he has always…

If the critic's work is reduced to asking whether the piece in question is entertaining, then we should abandon criticism and simply publish viewing statistics.  That's obviously absurd.

I have four wishes:

Like most long running TV shows eventually do, The Office has fallen into the hole of relying too much on its viewers' memories of past episodes to flesh out the current episodes.  So we get annoying lines like: "I get pranky when I drink" (Jim), or "There was talk of oatmeal" (Kevin).  Caricature replaces…

Let's just hope it's not Jan.

Best show of the season.  They're still overusing caricature (e.g., Dwight initially populating the gym entirely with farm implements; the cold open: "You know I have to do this.")  But this episode had it right in several ways:

OK. Can anyone think of a story direction that could resuscitate this series? I'll offer one possibility that might change the dynamic enough to create a foundation for great writing again:

The episode was poor.  This whole season has been poor.  There are a lot of problems with the writing which have already been covered, but I'll add what I see as the worst problem— the Andy Bernard character is currently a big negative overall, for at least two reasons: