I was late due to an important business trip! Spoilers for “Money” below.

Things that happened

It’s the last of the hour-long episodes which is, weirdly, something I’m very excited about. It strikes me that there’s one conclusion we might be able to draw from this whole sordid hour-long-episode experiment, and that’s that it’s incredibly difficult, if not impossible, for a show to just switch formats. The occasional longer special, sure — that’s something you can plan for, work with, and ultimately make significant adjustments toward — but when you try to shift formats for a sustained period of time, like they did here, it’s not realistic to hope for seamlessness.

Because, hell, think of other, older, classic shows. Do you think you could have just taken The West Wing and done a bunch of 22-minute episodes? Or 2-hour episodes? Ignoring the fact that Aaron Sorkin is pretty much an insane hack at this point, you’d be hard pressed to argue that that show, as acclaimed and remarkably good as it was in its prime, could have made an easy transition to a full-length movie.

And look at other sitcoms: Seinfeld, The Cosby Show, Cheers, All in the Family — would anyone seriously make the argument that they would have been better if they’d been sixty minutes every week? Hell, aside from maybe M*A*S*H, I don’t think you could make the argument that ANY classic sitcom would have worked in the 44-minute box.

I realize that this sort of lead-in makes it seem like I thought this episode was really bad, which isn’t really my intent. This episode, “Money”, was both good and bad, with blindingly great moments interspersed with ridiculously inane ones. The whole thing would best be summarized by the word ‘frustrating’, which probably works as a descriptor for the whole run.

The plot: After learning that Dwight’s started taking bookings for overnight stays at Schrute Farm as part of a new Bed & Breakfast (or agritourism venture, as he calls it) run by him and Cousin Mose, Jim & Pam are eager to sign up for a stay of their own. The whole thing is a crazy mish-mash of bizarre events and sight gags and sends the episode spiraling down in all kinds of weird ways. Thankfully it only extends for the first twenty minutes or so. While all that is going on, we also learn that Michael is having some rather severe money problems, mostly because Jan is crazy and wants BMWs and couches that aren’t futons and other extravagances. He doesn’t want to let on that he’s not a loaded lothario, though, so he’s taken a second job at an all-night call centre selling medications just to try and make ends meet.

The second job goes pretty well, actually. It turns out that when Michael’s not in charge he’s pretty much just a genial guy who would rather make friends with everybody than focus on his work. It all leads to some really nice character moments for Michael Scott, but unfortunately it also makes him very, very tired, so much so that he forgets to prepare a presentation on PowerPoint presentations that Ryan asked him to do. When he’s confronted about this, Michael slips and reveals he does indeed have a second job, of which Ryan is none too happy about. He demands Michael quit his night job or else he’ll be fired from his day job.

Michael reluctantly goes to quit his other job — where people actually like him! It is kind of sad — while Jim & Pam return from the overnight all giggly and flabbergasted. Dwight, meanwhile, is still in a spiral of depression due to the Angela break-up. It doesn’t help that it looks like Andy might actually have a shot with her (he finds a cat outside the warehouse for her). We get way too many incredibly uncomfortable Dwight-in-tears scenes, until Jim finally sits down with his enemy in the stairwell and tells him the real reason he left Scranton at the end of season two — because he couldn’t take not being with Pam. It’s exactly the kind of sweet-yet-subtle, understated moment that this show has always excelled at. And it really does seem to take an effect on Dwight, as he’s seemingly right back to normal afterwards.

Also making us viewers all uncomfortable with sadness is Michael. After Oscar serves as his financial planner and tells him that, essentially, he’s pretty screwed, Michael decides his only course of action is to run away, board a freight train, and start a new life. But no trains are actually leaving the station, and so he just sits in a boxcar until Jan shows up all frantic and concerned. They’re filmed by no less than three camera guys from a variety of way-too-cinematic angles as Jan tells him that he’ll stick by him, always, because he stuck by her. It’s not quite the kind of sweet-yet-subtle, understated moment that this show has always excelled at, but it’s still pretty good.

Also: Jim kisses Pam. Kevin is in a new band called “Scrantonicty 2.” The gang has a hilarious debate over the difference in usage between ‘whomever’ and ‘whoever’ and Kelly and Darryl, apparently now in a relationship, have relationship issues. All the stuff in this paragraph is pretty awesome.

Things that were good

• Moments. Just moments. It’s so very frustrating. You know how some sitcoms are so successful that they have spin-offs? And the spin-offs take some of the popular main characters — often a wacky one (I’m thinking here like Joey or The Jeffersons) — and follows their antics? These episodes remind me of that. Because it’s like, somewhere over the summer, they decided to do a spin-off to The Office called Out of the Office but, instead of airing it as a separate show in its own timeslot, they just folded it back into the parent show and aired scenes from both. It’s disjointed, overlong, weirdly paced and often just not very fun.
• But that “whomever/whoever” conversation was absolutely amazing. A watershed moment in sitcom exchanges about grammar and syntax.
• Ditto the Kelly and Darryl subplot. Darryl is incredible.
• To reiterate what I said above: the scene with Jim & Dwight in the stairwell was really great. Kentala made a good point when he noticed that that stairwell has really become a place of sanctuary and emotional freedom for Dwight, too. Just a really nice scene all around.
• Same deal with the character building with Michael. I really like it when they dial down the ‘overbearing jerk’ side of his character and let us see why someone like him would actually get to the position he has in life.

Things that were not so good

• I think I already covered this, didn’t I?
• But let me add this: is anyone else still having trouble believing that Jim & Pam actually desire one another sexually? Like, to just throw all the cards out there, can you imagine Jim just totally wanting to touch her boobs? It just seems sort of uncomfortable and awkward for me.

Worth Watching If…

This one is worth watching for sure. It’s nowhere near bad. It’s just frustrating. But pay close attention to that great conference room scene with the grammatical discussion — it really shows that, when you get right down to it, nobody needs to be writing plots for this show. They just get in the way and overcomplicate things. Just put these characters in a room and let them talk. It’ll be funny. Trust me.

In Five Words

Whomever said bigger is better?

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