"Wanted: Middle Aged Black Man with Sass": Branch Wars on "The Office"

I'll admit that while I've been unhappy with The Office this season, last night's episode ("Branch Wars"), while far from perfect, was at least a step in the right direction, thanks to a punchy script (if a little too unrealistic) from Mindy Kaling (writer of my all-time fave Office episode, "The Injury") and dynamic direction from Joss Whedon.

There were a few things that went a little too into the dark territory of the dubious: Michael's Ferris Bueller-inspired attempted cover-up of his truancy, which could have been more effective had someone discovered the dummy and audio cassette of Michael snoring in flagrante delicto as were; the overt sting of product placement in replacing Michael's oh-so fitting Sebring with a PT Cruiser, which is so vanilla and unspecific that it goes against everything the writers were attempting to do with his car in the first place; and the fact that Pam would organize and participate in an elitist club celebrating the Finer Things in Life (rather than, say, Angela, from whom this behavior would only be fitting); the mustaches and warehouse uniforms that Michael, Dwight, and Jim don as part of their pranking the Utica branch in retaliation for Karen poaching sassy black man Stanley.

It's the latter that I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt. After all, the visual reveal of this troika clad in over the top mustache-twirling villain-style, er, mustaches more than made up for my incredulity at seeing this in the first place. Pranks have always been an integral part of The Office since the UK original, but they've tended to be more of the stapler-in-Jello variety than an all-out assault on another branch, complete with Molotov cocktails and potential eye-gouging. It's a little too far out there but Kaling manages to ground what could have been an over the top paroxysm by having the action--in which Dwight and Michael slip into the Utica warehouse and attempt to steal their industrial copier, only to have it go horribly, horribly wrong--play out, not on-screen, but via walkie-talkies. The result is hysterical without being hammy.

It was wonderful to see Karen (Rashida Jones) again, though I am not totally sold on the fact that she would relocate to Utica rather than, say, getting a job at Dunder-Mifflin's corporate offices in Manhattan. But that's quibbling. I am happy that the writers decided to force Jim to confront what he did to Karen sooner rather than later by having the former lovers face one another in the most humiliating, awkward way possible. (Really, wouldn't it just be rewarding to find your ex outside your office building, in a fake mustache and women's warehouse uniform?) The scene between the two in which Jim callously mentioned how happy he and Pam were in their new relationship and Karen goes out of her way to make Jim feel as uncomfortable as possible was brilliant and squirm-inducing, things that The Office used to be in abundance.

I don't really buy the notion that Pam would start a club about the Finer Things in Life, but I did think that Andy attempting to worm his way into the most exclusive club at Dunder-Mifflin Scranton (with the Party Planning Committee a distant second and Kevin's band Scrantonicity II a safety) definitely fitting, considering the character. Having them wear silly hats and eat finger sandwiches in the break room pushed the level of disbelief a little too much. It's one thing to get together after work or off-site but dressing up (Toby in a bowtie? Pam in a headkerchief to discuss "Angela's Ashes"?) was a little too OTT for my liking.

Angela was conspicuously absent in this week's episode (except for a few shots of her as part of the room), but I'm okay with that after we've focused on her character for the last few weeks. It's always good to take a breather and have some of the other characters, like Stanley, come into sharp focus for a change.

Speaking of Stanley, I did love the scene in which Michael tearfully tried to compose a help wanted ad to literally replace Stanley with a virtual clone, in terms of body type and personality. Oh, Michael, will you never learn? And nice touch of continuity when Michael tried to steal Karen's best salesman only be asked if he was the guy who ran over the woman.

Not a perfect Office episode but a vast improvement over the dreaded one-hour installments. I'm hoping that the path back to creative solvency begins here and that before long we're on the road back to the stylistic and narrative virtues of this series. Let's just hope that the dreaded writers strike doesn't derail those plans.

Next week on The Office ("Survivor Man"), Michael goes into the woods for his own survival adventure when he's excluded from Ryan's mancation while Jim, left in charge of the office, attempts to transform the humble office birthday party, in this episode written by Steve Carell!