The Office premiere: "Weight Loss"

A favorite show here at Urban&Rucker, The Office, premiered last night on NBC. The series kicked off its fifth season with an hour long episode entitled "Weight Loss," in which (among other things) all of the Dunder Mifflin branches' employees are attempting to lose weight for a company-wide contest.

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

Urban's Take: This episode was a great way to kick off the season. We got a lot of answers to questions leftover from last season but we also got a taste of what's in store for our favorite paper company. I really liked the way the episode was divided in weeks of the summer. Normally, the hour long episodes of The Office can get a little drawn out or just seem like two closely related episodes crammed together, but this felt like an appropriate amount of time to tell this particular narrative. The episode was written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, who have written some of the truly great episodes, including last season's "Dinner Party." They're currently at work writing a script for a proposed third "Ghostbusters" movie- which excites me to no end. (Go ahead. Make fun. I'm not embarrassed. Those movies are genius.)

Anyway, though I was thrown off by the absence of a cold open, I loved the organization of the episode and how it allowed us to jump back into the fray of the office. I guess the big news of the night was that Pam was leaving for New York to attend design school for three months, and even though Jim said he wasn't proposing until she returned, the two met at a halfway point in a rainstorm for a lunch and Jim finally popped the question. So everyone's favorite couple is engaged, but since it happened so early in the season, I'm betting we'll see some struggle before these two finally get hitched.

To replace Pam, Michael first hires "weird" Ronnie, an elderly blonde woman. Ronnie is soon replaced with none other than former DM temp-turned-corporate Ryan Howard. We last saw Ryan getting hauled off to jail for fraud- he is obviously no longer with corporate at Dunder Mifflin. (By the way, I'd love to see Karen, Jim's ex-girlfriend from Season Three, take over the corporate position. That would make for great tension.) So now he's running the reception desk in Scranton at the request of Michael, who grows a goatee just so he can match Ryan (who is obviously not diminished at all in Michael's eyes, even though Ryan treated him like crap last season). Ryan also seems to be showing an interest in Kelly again, which was definitely unexpected.

Speaking of Kelly, everyone's desperate attempts to lose weight in order to win the contest were hilarious- but none topped Kelly's swallowing what she believed to be a tapeworm bought from Creed. Stanley legitimately ate less and exercised, accomplishing his personal goal- but everyone else had trouble. This led to Michael holding a meeting as "Michael Klump," emphasizing that fat people should be respected in society. I'll say this: Michael Klump is nowhere NEAR as funny as Prison Mike from Season Three's "The Convict."

Michael, though still at Jan's beck and call (thanks to her sperm-donor baby), is continuing to pursue Holly, who obviously returns Michael's affections. I can't wait to see where this plot line goes- there are so many possibilities. And Holly finally discovering that Kevin is not mentally disabled was a highlight of the episode for me, as was Dwight and Angela's secret rendezvous in the warehouse, despite Angela continuing to plan a wedding with Andy.

Favorite quotes of the night?

• Jim: "I don't really know Ronnie. But I have a feeling I will get to know her very well over the next few years, and eventually declare my love for her."
  
• Kelly: "I am on the third day of my cleanse diet. All I have to do is drink maple syrup, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and water for all three meals. Um, I just bought some bikinis online, size 2. So ... gonna look amazing."
  
• Andy: "Ang. Ela. [sings] Ella, ella, ella. Under my Angerela. Ella, ella, ella. Ay, ay-"
  
• Michael: "What is wrong with these people? They have no willpower. I went -- I once went 28 years without having sex. And then again for seven years."
  
• Dwight: "Happy Birthday, Stanley!" [kicks cake onto Michael]
  

Urban's Rating: Sooo good

Rucker's Take: I definitely agree that the separation of the summer into segments of weeks was a good way to go with this hour-long episode. Like Sam said, the hour long episodes tend to feel like normal episodes with 20 extra minutes of should-be Deleted Scenes.

I was skeptical last season when they introduced Holly as the new HR person for the office, but she definitely grew a lot on me in this episode. Her thinking that Kevin was mentally challenged was something I would have liked to see go on longer, but it was hilarious while it lasted. Her whispering "Math is hard," to him on the scale was awesome.

Favorite Moments:

• The queso cheese fountain in the office's conference room for their "last meal" before the weight loss competition.
• Dwight removing all the snacks from the vending machine and replacing them with fruit and vegetables-- and the vending machine getting filled with flies and rotten food as time went by. Also, Dwight spraying everyone's food with roach spray when he felt that they should stop eating was pretty hilarious.
  
• Pam telling the camera "I'm in the wrong class..." when she sits down in what she believes to be her first class in design school.
• Ryan using "I never really processed 9/11," as an excuse as to why he was rude to Kelly in the past. (And just to be clear, I don't think that not-having-processed 9/11 is funny, but I do think that using it as an excuse for treating a girl badly is.)
  

Can't wait for next week's episode!

Rucker's Rating: Sooo Good

Remember: if you missed this week's Office premiere, you can catch for free on Hulu!

URBAN'S BLOG: Life on the Couch
RUCKER'S BLOG: Can I Please Just Say...

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