Those crazy cubicle dwellers at Dunder Mifflin Paper Company of Scranton, Pennsylvania are back for another quarter of comedy. Hapless manager Michael Scott even gets fed up with the system and tries to form his own paper distribution company.
Paper company Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch has been the subject of a documentary fro some time. The staff is headed by the “genius in his own mind” Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) who thinks he’s better liked that he really is.
Michael is romancing the new HR representative Holly (Amy Ryan) who has replaced Toby (Paul Liberstein), Michael’s perceived enemy and who was nursing a crush on Pam, when he left for Costa Rica. Perennial office romancers Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) are moving ahead with their romance. They’re not the only ones as Andy (Ed Helms) is preparing for his impending wedding to chilly, cat lover Angela (Angela Kinsey).
However cats are not the only thing that Angela continues to love on since she’s continued to carry on her affair with the high strung Dwight (Rainn Wilson). Disgraced employee Ryan (B.J. Novak) also returns to the branch in his old temp position and begins his romance with the bubbly, pop culture obsessed Kelly (Mindy Kaling).
The rest of the office, Oscar (Oscar Nunez), Kevin (Brian Baumgartner), Phyllis (Phyllis Smith), Stanley (Leslie David Baker), Meredith (Kate Flannery), Darryl (Craig Robinson), and Creed (Creed Bratton), also have moments to shine. Even Michael’s ex Jan (Melora Hardin) shows up, with a bun that has just come out of her oven.
The Office is consistently one of the funniest shows on television today. It has a lot to do with its ensemble cast of office crazies. Most of them do tend to do things in the extreme, but we all recognize various traits and situations from having worked in offices with people just like these (even some of those extreme moments are taken from real life experience sadly).
I guess I’m not the only one since season five is up for ten Emmy nominations. This season does seem to mix comedy and drama more than others, but the results are still hilarious. The romantic entanglements seem to get the most airtime, but there are wonderful character moments mixed in there too (Creed as the Joker!). I still laughed like silly at the situations and found this season a fun time.
The Office is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.78:1). Special features include commentaries on ten of the episodes. Most of the cast is heard from, including the catering staff, but not from Carrell or Krasinski. All special features are in high definition unless otherwise noted.
First up every disc features a selection of deleted scenes and these total over three hours of material. Disc one has the feature to create a “one liner” playlist. Disc four has the 30 minute Q&A with Office cast members from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences hosted by Andy Richter (standard definition), the 9 minute “100 Episodes, 100 Moments” montage of memorable moments, a 15 minute gag reel, 20 minutes of Webisodes featuring Kevin and Oscar, and 5 minutes of promos. The disc is also BD-Live enhanced.
The Office continues to deliver the laughter. There are some fine bits of comedy here, mixed in with some of the drama. What would an office be without drama? The sharp writing and fine performances only continue to make this office grow on you.
The Office: Season Five [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
Your Talkback on this Story