"The Office" Recap & Review - "Dunder-Mifflin" Infinity

The Office
“Dunder-Mifflin Infinity”

Original Air Date: October 4, 2007

Laura Ann - TwoCents Staff Writer

The premise of this was very direct. Ryan returns as the boss of everyone at Dunder-Mifflin Scranton & the whole office is confronted with blackberries & an entirely new software program to work by. Michael goes back to the mentality of “Business School” where he tells Ryan that “people will never go out of business” & decides to go & deliver gift baskets to win back their old clients. “Gift baskets are AMAZING, Phyllis. They are the essence of fanciness & classiness.” As far as the other employees go…Jim & Pam have now been made public much to Toby’s chagrin. Angela broke up with Dwight. Kevin & Andy appear to be friends now. Kelly pretended to be pregnant in order to get a date with Ryan. Oh…& Creed dyed his hair black using printer ink in order to look younger so that he wouldn’t lose his job. As the episode goes on Michael ends up paying attention to the GPS system in the car & drives it into a lake when it tells him to take a right turn.

I’ve heard a lot of mixed reviews on the episode so far. A lot of people thought it was too dark & hearkened back to season 1 too much. Yes, this episode definitely had a somber tone to it but I don’t think the fault was in the tone or the content..it was the length. Let’s face it. “The Office” does dark really well. It does fast paced & clever even better. The problem with this episode was the pacing & the length. I am all for hour long episodes of the show. But IF they are going to make hour long episodes & have them be successful then they need to make sure they’re like “The Job” or “A Benihana Christmas.” These episodes were brilliant & essentially the best of the best. This episode could have easily been cut in half & would have come across as funnier & probably less morose. I attribute this to the fact that NBC is promoting the hell out of the show it really has hit the big time now. TV Guide actually did a “that’s what she said” joke in one of its regular commercials tonight. Weird. Who knew that TV Guide even knew “The Office” existed?

There WERE however quite a few gems in tonight’s episode…
-Pam & Jim were a lot better this week than last week. There was a lot more realistic chemistry & not an overload of cuteness. The high-five at the end of the episode was adorable. Jim getting all ‘protective boyfriend’ over Pam when Ryan asked her out was fantastic.
-I love that Andy & Kevin are friends now. They are two peas in a pod. I love it.
-Kelly Kapoor? I love Kelly. I always have. One of the hardest times I laughed during the episode was when she told Ryan that she was pregnant & then it cut to her pursing her lips & shaking her head ‘no.’ AHHAhAahahahahah it was so great.
-Michael driving into the lake? Priceless.
-There’s also nothing I love more than “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” the Michael Scott version. Anytime Steve Carell acts mentally deranged it’s just too funny.
-The little catty exchange between Ryan & Jan was wonderfully written as well.
-I also thought that since Pam had her breakthrough & now that she & Jim are dating I would have no reason to cheer for my favorite tv heroine…but then tonight when Ryan basically GAVE her the job of designing the “Dunder Mifflin Infinity” logo I had a crazed applause & squeeeee moment!

Ultimately, I thought it was a good episode. I didn’t think it was right for an hour long episode…but it still had some great moments in it & a very necessary introduction to the new phase of Dunder-Mifflin & all the employees therein.

Also…who wants to bet $20 that Angela & Andy (Andela) are next??