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Time is tight this morning, so I’m going to skip the usual NBC Thursday-comedies Watch and invite you to tell us what you thought of Community, Parks & Recreation and 30 Rock.
Instead, I’ll just focus on the one question that I’m sure is on all of our minds: what the hell was that thing they aired in The Office‘s time slot last night?
Of course, the sitcom clip-show episode is a time-honored tradition that still lives on, and bidness is bidness, I understand. But it’s still strange to see an inventive sitcom like The Office use this kind of hoary filler device from the dark history of television. It was as if they’d done a special episode introducing a lovable wisecracking alien as Michael Scott’s new assistant manager.
At least, I guess, the episode decided to forego the traditional device, by which the characters get locked in a walk-in freezer / held hostage at gunpoint and reminisce about all the times they had together in the face of their looming death; the framing device did slightly advance the sale of Dunder-Mifflin. And I will admit: I can watch Meredith getting trapped inside a garbage bag with a bat as many times as you want to show it to me. Or Meredith getting hit by a car. Or Meredith wearing a too-revealing outfit on Casual Day (above). But still: would a rerun have done that much worse?
I’ll be back with a full Thursday Comedy Watch next week. Unless I get trapped in a meat locker, in which case watch this space for clips from some of my favorite Office reviews! Do you remember the time when…
[Update: This came to me after I posted. The perfect way to do an Office clip show would have been: have the documentary crew in an editing bay, bored, eating junk food, and finally slogging through five freaking years of documentary footage. “Hey, do you want to use the time when they…” “Remember when you were driving with Michael and…”
Bonus—you don’t need to use original footage of any of the regular cast members. You save major bank! I’ll take a 10% cut when you use this idea next time out, NBC.]