BJ Novack

Wow, this week's episode of The Office is a little more intense than usual! I found myself feeling sort of angry, in fact. Though of course, there are plenty of laughs to be found as well. I loved-loved-loved the Pam/Kelly ping-pong smackdown. And any time a stenographer reads off Michael Scott quotes in monotone is going to be hi-larious.

Check out some of my favorite parts from this week's last episode of The Office for... well, until the writers strike is over. Sad!

• Michael has Pam make up messages to bring him in meetings. She brings him a post-it note that says “Good Morning.”
  During a meeting with Ryan, she brings him one with a drawing of a dancing hot dog and the words, “Hiya, Buddy!”
• Jan and Michael practice what Michael’s going to say at the deposition so "we wouldn’t leave anything up to chance or Michael’s judgment."
• Kelly: “I don’t talk trash, I talk smack. They’re totally different. Trash talk is all hypothetical, like, 'Your mama’s so fat she could eat the internet.' But smack talk is happening like, right now, like, 'You’re ugly and I know it for a fact cuz I got the evidence right there.'"

More great moments if you read more

Karen's back! At least for this week's episode of The Office, Karen makes a return appearance, and she's clearly not over Jim yet. Also, she extends an offer to Stanley to join her sales team at the Utica office. When Stanley tells Michael about this, Michael, Dwight and Jim go on a mission to send the message to Karen that if she "poaches" Stanley, the will "burn Utica to the ground."

Yet another solid, classic half-hour of Office goodness. Check out the lines and moments I loved most this week:

• Michael rigs a Ferris Bueller’s Day Off-style dummy that activates a tape with a snoring sound to make it look like Michael's sleeping at his desk.
  Stanley: "I don’t understand why sleeping at your desk is better than you not being here."
• Michael: “You can’t take the funny black guy from the office! ... I don’t know how George Bush did it when Colin Powell left."

More highlights if you read more

In this week's episode of The Office we find Michael moonlighting as a telemarketer because of his money troubles. In other news, Dwight pines after Angela some more and struggles with the fact that Andy is actively pursuing her (by moonwalking past Accounting). For most of the hour-long episode, Pam and Jim act with uncommon compassion toward Dwight, taking pity on him in his distressed state. This doesn't stop them from going to his beet farm bed-and-breakfast out of sick curiosity, however.

I could have done with more of the beet farm agrotourism stuff and less of Michael's story. There was something off about this week's episode. It's never really a good thing when I'm checking the clock and feeling antsy at the 20-minute mark of an hour-long episode.

There were definitely some highlights, however, so to read about some of my favorite parts, read more

In this week's episode of "The Office," Ryan returns to the Scranton branch to explain that Dunder-Mifflin is becoming faster, younger and more efficient with a new website and new technologies, like BlackBerrys for every employee. Michael decides these ideas are ageist and opts for an old-fashioned way of making business connections. Meanwhile, there's trouble between Dwight and Angela, and Jim and Pam "come out." To see some of the things that I liked best about this week's episode, and to add your own thoughts, read more

• According to Cinematical, Mark Ruffalo is replacing Daniel Craig in the movie Blindness (which I told you about back when Craig was first cast and I was giddy over the news).
• Stereogum recounts the bizarre saga of the dude who thinks Arcade Fire stole his basketball when the band played at UC Berkeley. Arcade Fire denies the charges.
• According to PopCandy, BJ Novack (Ryan on "The Office") was a prankster in high school, recording fake audio tours for the Boston Museum of the Fine Arts.
• The Movie Blog thinks casting a magician to play a magician is a good idea, referring specifically to Criss "Mindfreak" Angel who has been cast in Mandrake the Magician, based on a Depression-era comic strip. Well, he's certainly comical.
• I Guess I'm Floating finds Wilco's explanation for selling its songs to a VW campaign.
• CHUD (Cinematic Happenings Under Development) has a source who heard something about a remake of Meatballs.
• TV With MeeVee reviews the "Heroes" 360 Experience.
• Earvolution says the Strokes' Albert Hammond Jr. is writing a play.

Source

This week on "The Office," Michael's safety lesson about the dangers of depression turns into a real examination of his life. Meanwhile, the other office employees start taking bets on anything and everything, and Andy (who now wants to be called "Drew") returns from his anger-management leave.

It was an amusing episode with some excellent moments, though I was bugged by how very quickly Michael's joke demonstration became a real thing. It just seemed strange.

Here are some of my favorite bits from this week's episodes. Tell me some of yours in the comments.

• Dwight has decided to shun Andy for three years. He says shunning, an Amish technique, is "like slapping someone with silence." Dwight is familiar with it because "I was shunned from the age 4 until my sixth birthday for not saving the oil from a can of tuna."
• Later in the episode anytime Dwight absolutely had to speak with Andy, he had to "unshun" and then "reshun" Andy, using his hand to indicate a screen opening and closing.
• Everyone takes bets on Kelly's explanation of how to use Netflix, with some people winning more money based on how often she said "awesome" and "romantic comedy."

Lots more if you read more