Recap of The Office: "Women's Appreciation"

Why does NBC have such uneven start and run times for its shows sometimes? It's like some disgruntled prankster broke into the scheduling computers and just messed with them to undermine the network. The Office started at 8:36 this time. Huh? It's just like the story about the angry guy who masturbated in the big vat of Oreo cream when he worked at the Nabisco factory, because he wanted revenge against everyone. Or maybe that's just an urban legend. Nevertheless, I find the story to be appropo.

But what was I saying, oh yeah, it's sweeps month, baby! And that means new episodes for a whole month! That's like four new episodes, in a row! Considering that this season of Lost seemed to have four new episodes total, this is no small thing. But it's cool when a season is about to end, and you see the storm clouds gathering for the final, apocalyptic cliff hangers. Michael actually broke up with Jan in this episode, which foreshadows some kind of huge confrontation. They seem to be building toward Jim and Karen split as well.

But as for this episode, a flasher gives Phyllis the bidness in the parking lot (again, I invoke the Oreo guy), and Michael holds some sort of sensitivity training, followed by Michael taking the girls out to the mall and spilling his guts to them about how he's not happy with Jan and that she makes him wear school girl outfits. Er, I don't know, but they may have taken this Jan-is-a-freak thing too far. It may be just a shade beyond believable now. Maybe not.

Back at the ranch, the guys are hanging out in the ladies' bathroom at Kevin's behest, with Kevin proclaiming that "we should do this A LOT more often," followed by Toby responding that "I think we spend an appropriate amount of time together" in that hilarious mumbling deadpan of his. Probably the funniest moment of the episode was when Jim mentioned his six-month anniversary with Karen, with Ryan commenting that "I thought you guys were just hookin up." Jim says, no, they're dating, to which Ryan replies that "you might hear something about an e-mail." Jim says "yeah, Karen mentioned that. She said she told you she didn't want an office relationship right now, but liked you as a friend." Ooh, busted, Ryan. Take that, asshole! I'm totally telling Kelly.

But overall, a lot of this episode was actually kind of sweet, with Michael showing his vulnerable side and so on. So generally a nice episode, but I'm not freaking out about it. I'll give it a Huzzah, but no exclamation points.

Hyperlinks:
- The Office [NBC]
- Previous recap of The Office [No One Appreciates Me]

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