TV-Reviewed

Let’s get right into it. This week we find out that Jim is still seeing Pam’s mother.  It was nice of Michael to tell Jim, and Jim’s immediate reaction was to keep it from Pam. You have to love the set-up of Pam coming to give Michael a gift and then wanting to know whose mother Michael is sleeping with and it turning out to be her own mom. Pam’s reaction is one of those priceless moments that I think we’ll be talking about when The Office goes finally finishes its run.

I think we all knew that Pam wouldn’t have a good reaction, but it really surprised me that she was so upset about it. This episode actually made Pam look like the bad guy, she truly looked like a little brat the way she was treating Michael. At the same time, this episode made us feel sorry for Michael, and I have to say the scene where the two are arguing during the middle of the meeting was very tense. It was great seeing Michael stand up for himself.  This whole story is interesting. I think it’ll divide fans – I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a team Pam and a team Michael shirt being made, so I kind of hope that they keep this going for a couple of episodes.

Aside from that storyline, everything else wasn’t that funny. Actually some of the jokes weren’t very funny or they just totally went over my head, like when Erin asked Michael to display Pam’s Puerto Rican candy. Pam seemed to be disturbed by it, so I didn’t get it. Dwight putting the Mallard in Jim’s office seemed like a good idea, but Jim didn’t take it far enough.  Jim putting it in Kelly’s office would have been funny, but Kelly didn’t talk long enough for it to be funny. I also didn’t necessarily get the comedy of talking to Andy in with the music loud. It just seemed like an off day for Jim.

So the comedy was flat this episode, but I really thought Michael and Pam’s story carried the episode enough for it to be a generally good episode and it was, because of Steve Carell’s and Jenna Fischer’s great interaction. I think it’s going to very interesting to see how this turns out; this could be the end of Pam and Michael’s “friendship” as we know it.

Rating: 7.5