The Office: Season Five

At this point, The Office hardly requires fanfare. Quite a contrast to the traditional sitcom model, its uncomfortably natural design has created more serious parasocial relationships within its audience than perhaps any other show of its genre. And as such, it’s also become a master of dramatic irony and—less often—sweet catharsis, leveraging the stark realism of its nature for every last drop of its worth. Between Michael Scott (Steve Carell), Jim Halpert (John Krasinski), Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), and the rest of the gang, we know these people, and watching them in all their colorful blandness provides some of the most authentic scripted comedy in modern television. And to think—all this from a comedy based on a humdrum paper sales corporation.

As we welcome back today’s best cast comedy for a fifth season, no one seems surprised that the candid, deadpan formula hasn’t begun to stale yet. This round of episodes features an even greater number of clever (unexpected) twists and complications in the story arcs, and the relationships between the characters have begun to flourish in ways both logical and unexpected. That’s not to mention that this Blu-ray set also contains a mind-blowing amount of added content (most in HD), three hours of which is comprised of deleted scenes alone—scenes which are often so good they could have easily made the final production cut if this were an hour-long show.

So skip the introduction already

Indeed; let’s get right down to business. The Office: Season Five is arguably the most entertaining yet, with wittier humor, more colorful characters, and sharper dialogue than any other season to date. Michael Scott and his half-hearted, often half-witted team of paper salespeople are pricelessly entertaining as they tackle such issues as heart attacks, financial surpluses (gasp!), and corporate romance (though they’re hardly new to that last one)… oh, and fruit flies, whose inclusion in the show for a short few seconds apparently cost the production team a good “thousands of dollars” (a morsel of information derived from one of the episode commentaries).

Here are a few favorite episodes from this season (along with a commemorative quote from each episode). Of course, if you haven’t already seen them, as always, some spoilers apply.

Weight Loss

Michael: “Did you see Holly’s butt?”
Jim: “I didn’t. You know why? Because most of the time, friends don’t talk about other friends’ butts.”
Michael: “I know.”
Jim: “But what have you learned about her?”
Michael: “I learned that she broke her left leg twice in one year. I learned that she’s allergic to sesame seeds. I learned that she has read Lonesome Dove three times. And that her butt REFUSES TO QUIT.”

In this double-length season premiere episode, we finally get to see some of the events that transpired “over the summer”. Meanwhile, when Dunder Mifflin rolls out a health-minded program to coax employees to lose weight—offering the most-improved branch a prize—things get serious. Too bad Pam (Jenna Fischer) isn’t there to contribute her own one or two pounds; she’s up at art school in New York, and loving it a bit too much (“Pam 6.0” indeed). As the distance begins to strain Jim and Pam’s relationship ever so slightly (a common theme throughout this season), the writers never pull a Friends on us and let the underlying dramatic elements of the various story arcs get in the way of what truly matters in the series: the comedy.

Broke

Michael: “Did I ever tell you about the day that Steve Martin died?”
Pam: “Steve Martin’s not dead, Michael.”

The Michael Scott Paper Company sure does a great job undercutting Dunder Mifflin on price, but unfortunately, they don’t so as well at actually making money. As a result, the small, troubled upstart (which includes Ryan—B.J. Novak—and Pam) sees troubled seas ahead as they end up going broke. (Extremely) fortunately, in all his stupid luck, Michael ends up making some ridiculous decisions that somehow end up playing in his favor. Go figure.

Customer Survey

Michael: “Mom, I’m getting married!”
Mom: “No you’re not!”
Michael: “Why do you do that? Whenever I’m getting married you don’t believe me.”
Mom: “Are you getting married?”
Michael: “…No. I’m not.”

Though their individual approaches to their jobs couldn’t be more different (for starters, honest sales versus threats and badgering), Jim and Dwight both seem quite certain that their work performances are generally positive. Imagine their surprise, then, when they discover that they’ve received shockingly negative marks on their most recent Customer Survey—with the rest of the office misfits ranking much more favorably (if you smell foul play, you aren’t the only one). Perhaps Jim might find it easier to focus on matters, however, if he wasn’t walking around with Pam hanging from his ear all the time… no, literally—turns out, Pam and Jim have discovered the world’s smallest Bluetooth receiver. Elsewhere, in an entirely unrelated subplot, Kelly’s upset about two particular jerks not showing up to her America’s Got Talent party. Totally unrelated.

Casual Friday

Creed: “So hey. I wanna… set you up with my daughter.”
Jim: “Oh, I’m engaged to Pam.”
Creed: “I thought you were gay.”
Jim: “Then why would you want to set me up with your daughter?”
Creed: “I don’t know.”

Generally, when you think of Casual Friday, you don’t think of sandals which reveal the toes of your coworkers, do you (the horror!)? How about a full-frontal flash from Meredith (Kate Flannery)? Frightening… but that’s beside the point. Of paramount concern is what’s happened in the sales office following Michael’s return to management at Dunder Mifflin: he’s given all the leads he stole to Pam and Ryan thanks to having promised them jobs in his office—even though those leads, of course, belonged to other salespeople. In response, the entire office—minus Pam, Michael, and Ryan—form a mutiny with Dwight at the helm (heh). With skills like reckless negotiation and urine-writing, he’s sure to lead them to success.

It only gets better

With the Michael Scott Paper Company and the two major office romances leading the way, season five’s got plenty of drama backing up the comedy as well. It’s amazing how well the writers are able to merge these two angles into a show that seems so authentic in its portrayal. The presentation is as raw as ever, but the material’s only getting more sophisticated. This is some truly great television.

Extras

The show’s as good as ever, but the special features on this set are the best yet. The deleted scenes alone clock in at over three hours, and to be perfectly honest, the vast majority of them are so good that they probably could have made the final cut to begin with if the show were longer.

All in all, here’s what you get:

• Audio Commentaries – Ten of these in total, with a number of major cast members contributing (as usual, sans Steve Carell and John Krasinski). Most of these are pretty active (with three or four participants and plenty of chatter), but they’re also quite entertaining and frequently amusing. There are a couple of tracks which aren’t quite as engaging, but for the most part, it’s well worth watching all of the associated episodes an additional time to experience what the cast has to say about them.

• Deleted Scenes (over 3 hours total, HD) – A massive number of deleted scenes—lasting over three hours in total—accompanies the episodes on the season five Blu-ray set. As mentioned previously, these are extremely entertaining—good enough to be part of the actual episodes themselves. The option to view them all back-to-back (with episode title interstitials) is included as well, and it’s a great way to experience the segments. Honestly, in some ways, it’s almost like watching an entirely new set of episodes. It’s undoubtedly the best extra on this set.

• Webisodes (20 min, HD) – Just like it sounds. There’s two of these included on this set, both in HD. They’re interesting, though predictably not quite up to the standards of the regular episodes, of course.

• • Kevin’s Loan – Kevin wants to get a bank loan to pay off some gambling debts… bad idea.

  • The Outburst – Oscar flies off the handle on the phone and the entire office agrees to a bounty, payable to the first person to discover what it was all about.

• Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Presents The Office (30 min, SD) – The cast and writers share a 30-minute exchange with Andy Richter, where each and every major character’s role is investigated, along with the psychology that underlies the portrayal of each. Entirely in spite of its VHS audiovisual quality, this is a richly entertaining feature that provides a pricelessly candid look at each cast member’s take on the unique evolution of such a brilliant series. This thirty minutes of unscripted dialogue alone reveals so much about the rare talent of the group behind The Office.

• 100 Episodes, 100 Moments (10 min, HD) – A montage of seconds-long clips showcasing some of the more impacting moments from the first 100 episodes of The Office, all in chronological order. Each clip is annotated to indicate from which episode number it came.

• Gag Reel (15 min, HD) – As you’d probably expect, this is a hilarious collection of outtakes. The chemistry behind the scenes is truly evident throughout this feature and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences segment. Everyone’s always cutting up it seems; it’s obvious the production of the show is generally a lot of fun.

• Promos (5 min, HD) – Six promo segments that NBC ran last year during the Beijing Olympics and the Super Bowl.

As with every Universal Blu-ray, of course, you also get the usual My Scenes bookmark function (where you can tag your favorite segments for subsequent easy-access viewing) and the BD-Live features.