Universal brings the further adventures of the most dense office manager imaginable, Michael Scott, as a documentary crew roams around the offices of the Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company.
As most fans know, Dunder-Mifflin is a paper supply company and Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) is a regional manager of a branch in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He’s assisted by the assistant to the assistant manager Dwight (Rainn Wilson), who basically worships Michael. Pam (Jenna Fischer) is the office receptionist and Jim (John Krasinski) is a salesman that has a crush on her. The problem is that Pam is engaged (for about three years) to warehouse worker Roy (David Denman).
There’s also the temp Ryan (B. J. Novak), customer service rep Meredith (Kate Flannery), and Human Resources representative Toby (Paul Lieberstein). The salespeople include Phylliss (Phyllis Smith), Stan (Leslie David Baker), Kelly (Mindy Kaling), and Creed (Creed Bratton). The accounting staff consists of Angela (Angela Kinsey), Oscar (Oscar Nunez), and Kevin (Brian Baumgartner). The show is shot in the style of a documentary so we have the camera following around the players and times where the characters go into “confessional” mode and address the camera directly.
Episode 1: The Dundies: It’s that special time of the year – awards season – and everyone is placing their bets that this year’s “Dundies” will be the worst yet with Michael as the bumbling emcee.
The star of the show
Episode 2: Sexual Harassment: Michael is in an uproar because corporate is making them take a sexual harassment class and Michael’s crude friend Todd Packer (David Koechner) is hanging around the office.
Episode 3: Office Olympics: The pressure is on when Michael has a panic attack during his new real estate purchase, and the Dunder-Mifflin employees compete in an improvised Office Olympics while he and Dwight are away.
Episode 4: The Fire: A fire forces the employees to congregate in the parking lot, where Jim suggests a game of “Desert Island” to pass the time.
Episode 5: Halloween: Michael gets spooked when he has to fire someone in order to save on costs and Dwight is excited when his resume appears on an internet job site.
Episode 6: The Fight: Dwight karate chops Michael and Jim arranges for the two officemates to settle their differences at Dwight’s dojo.
Episode 7: The Client: It’s the performance of a lifetime when Michael stuns his boss, Jan (Melora Hardin), with some unexpected moves and the employees find a bizarre semi-autobiographical screenplay by Michael and decide to act it out in his absence.
Episode 8: Performance Review: Everyone’s nervously awaiting performance reviews from Michael, but his impending conversation with Jan has him raiding the employee suggestion box in order to show off his “brilliant” ideas.
Episode 9: Email Surveillance: Nothing is sacred when the staff that Michael has been reading their office emails.
Episode 10: Christmas Party: Holiday cheer is in sort supply when Michael insists on doing a last-minute Yankee swap of secret Santa gifts, and Jim becomes alarmed that that his sweet and sentimental gift for Pam will end up in Dwight’s hands.
An angry elf
Episode 11: Booze Cruise: There’s nothing that Michael won’t do to rock the boat when he takes the staff on a “motivational” cruise and finds himself upstaged by the party-hearty ship captain and a surprise wedding announcement.
Episode 12: The Injury: When Michael has a kitchen calamity and Dwight is involved in a minor car crash, and their work demeanors become even stranger than usual.
Episode 13: The Secret: Jim has told Michael his secret and he’s worried that it will become water cooler gossip.
Episode 14: The Carpet: When a mysterious stain appears in Michaels’ office, he temporarily takes over Jim’s desk.
Episode 15: Boys and Girls: When Jan initiates a “Woman in the Workplace” seminar, Michael responds by heading to the warehouse for some male bonding with his staff.
Episode 16: Valentine’s Day: Michael visits the Dunder-Mifflin corporate headquarters, and Jan, on Valentine’s Day. While the boss is away the staff will play – cupid.
Episode 17: Dwight’s Speech: Salesman of the Year Dwight revels in his new title, but he dreads giving a speech at the big convention.
Episode 18: Take Your Daughter to Work Day: Life at Dunder-Mifflin becomes even more childish when the staff brings their kids to work to learn about the exciting world of the paper business.
Episode 19: Michael’s Birthday: Michael throws himself a surprise party, but the staff is anything but celebratory as the staff worries about Kevin’s medical test results.
Episode 20: Drug Testing: When half a joint is found in the parking lot, Dwight puts on his volunteer sheriff’s uniform and demands that everyone take a urine test in order to find out the stoned culprit.
Episode 21: Conflict Resolution: Announcing his dissatisfaction with Human Resources’ passive style, Michael insists that he assume responsibility for addressing employee complaints.
What goes on while the boss is away
Episode 22: Casino Night: As the Dunder-Mifflin crew flirts with Lady Luck at casino night, Jim struggles with his uncertain future as Pam’s wedding day approaches.
The Office is a funny show and most of the humor comes from the dunderheaded boss played to perfection by Steve Carrell. He is also given ample assistance by Rainn Wilson as the over the top office nerd Dwight. We also get a sweet office romance between the perennially engaged Pam and Jim.
Jim is much more her type than her fiancé Roy, who is a lug. John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer plays these parts fabulously and their potential romance is the heart of the series. I really don’t have the space to go on about the rest of the cast, but they’re perfectly cast and each one has their moment to shine in the course of the series.
The Office is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include commentaries on The Dundies, Sexual Harassment, The Client, Performance Review, Christmas Party, Booze Cruise, The Secret, Valentine’s Day, Drug Testing, and Casino Night by the actors, writers, and producers. The list of participants is quite long, but you should not that Steve Carrell doesn’t appear on any of these commentaries.
The other nice feature is that every episode on the discs features deleted scenes, the whole shebang totaling over 2 hours of such scenes. Also included is the 2 minute “Faces of Scranton” video from the Valentine’s Day episode.
NBC decided to produce 10 webisodes that appeared on their website between Season 2 and 3 and feature the accounting staff. These 10 episodes are presented on this set. They also produced 19 fake public service announcements and they are also on this set. Finally there’s a 17 minute blooper reel, 4 Olympic promos, and 3 clips that Carrell did for an Office marathon (plugging his film The 40-Year-Old Virgin).
Will they get together?
The Office is a hilarious comedy show and there’s enough special features to keep fans of the show busy with their DVD players while the boss visits corporate headquarters and leaves them to do their “work” (snicker, snicker).
The Office – Season Two is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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