Tonight's Office

As most of you know, I'm not a huge fan of The Office this season. The sheer genius of the original British series and the first (and most of the second) American season was the way the lack of laugh track forced the viewer to decide for herself whether or not it was ok to laugh. And there was some stuff that you really wanted to laugh at, but weren't sure you could without your friends/family thinking you were a sexist/racist/pervert/whatever.

This season, however, has been noticeably lacking in these moments. There could be any number of reasons for this, which have been discussed to death on the official Office forums, including Jim's move to the Stamford branch. The prevailing thought in my household is that the longer a show goes on, the more it has to focus on relationships between characters, rather than just the awkward moments between them. And as a result, the show becomes more like Friends or Grey's Anatomy, and less a show that forces you to think about what is ok to laugh at.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a Jim and Pam fan (or JAM, as they call it on the NBC forums) as much as anyone else, and I would like them to end up together. But the longer the show goes on, the more it draws out the inevitable will-they-or-won't-they, Ross-and-Rachel type drama, which then makes such drama the focus of the show, rather than the humor that's the true genius.

The episode "The Convict" returned to these humorous roots, which I think was in large part because Ricky Gervais wrote the episode. Tonight's episode--"Back from Vacation"--also was promising. I really enjoyed the opening scene, with Jim making fun of Dwight recording everything. Dwight in general was great this episode. Peeking through the blinds, tying his coat around his waist, telling Pam her PMS must be really bad--very nice. Perhaps my favorite scene was Dwight and Michael racing down the hall after seeing the enlargement of the Michael/Jan photo down in the warehouse. And while the Jim/Pam element was certainly present, it was not the focus of the episode by any means.

Let's hope the writers continue on this trend.