After "PDA" and "Threat Level Midnight" aired I immediately wanted to watch them again. I just wish they'd done more with it, especially with the show on such a hot streak lately. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate the episode. And those who own the Season 6 DVDs may recognize the cold open of this episode, which was shot last year and included in the deleted scenes. I guess that's the problem when you take what was originally a two-minute scene and stretch it out over the course of a half-hour episode. Speaking of teamwork, I have enjoyed Pam and Andy's interactions in the past, but this time their little side story felt too much like padding. ![]() Yay for office teamwork, but boo that we may not see Koechner back at Dunder Mifflin again. I wish their final ruse had been a bit more original, but it served the purpose of getting rid of Packer, and was something Michael could go along with once he finally saw the guy for who he really is. Then they upped the ante by having them team up to bring down Packer (providing us with a great exchange in which Dwight mistakes "Justin Bieber" for "Justice Beaver"). It's nice to see Jim back in pranking form, getting the best of Dwight with his drawer trick, as it should be. I did like the way the main plot tied into the B story with Jim and Dwight, though. After that, it just became a waiting game, since you knew he'd show his true colors before the episode was over. I mean, I can understand why he was written this way for the episode – the audience would find it a lot harder to accept Michael's idolization if he make the kind of homophobic, violent and sexist remarks he used to – but we were given only the slightest excuse for his reformation (a couple of "love bumps" on his "ding dong"). And we kind of appreciated that about him, more for the reactions he inspired in others (how else would we know that Jim has two thumbs and hates Todd Packer?) than for the behavior in itself. Since we first heard him on speaker phone in the pilot, he's been nothing but an outrageous, politically incorrect ass. That said, I was a bit disappointed in they way they toned down the Pack-man for this episode. It may have been predictable (even if you haven't seen the original version), but it felt like an important step. I expect we'll see a lot more of that in the episodes to come. This is the second episode in a row that we've seen Michael grow as a person thanks to his relationship with Holly. That all ended, though, when he insulted Holly and belittled their relationship. ![]() In the past, Michael has been willing to put aside any offense in his desperation to be liked, even by a boorish lout. The impetus for this realization is also the same – Packer (recurring guest star David Koechner) makes an off-the-cuff remark about a girl he likes. ![]() First we saw David himself appear in the flesh, and now Michael has experienced a similar epiphany about his so-called friend. After years of branching out own its own to escape the shadow of its predecessor, it seems like NBC's Office is turning back to its roots for inspiration.
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