Just Another Day At The Office 05.03.08: Did I Stutter Review

Posted by Seth Roy on 05.03.2008

Stanley snaps at Michael. Jim's performance is lacking, and Dwight dupes Andy.

Welcome to Just Another Day at th- th- th- the Office. Sorry I'm a couple days late. No excuse, except for two things: Grand Theft Auto IV and a friend's wedding. Here are my thoughts on "Did I Stutter?"

ast:
Steve Carell ... Michael Scott
Rainn Wilson ... Dwight Schrute
John Krasinski ... Jim Halpert
Jenna Fischer ... Pam Beesly
B.J. Novak ... Ryan Howard
Brian Baumgartner ... Kevin Malone
Angela Kinsey ... Angela Martin
Phyllis Smith ... Phyllis Vance
Leslie David Baker ... Stanley Hudson
Kate Flannery ... Meredith Palmer
Paul Lieberstein ... Toby Flenderson
Mindy Kaling ... Kelly Kapoor
Creed Bratton ... Creed
Oscar Nuñez ... Oscar Martinez
Ed Helms ... Andy Bernard

At the beginning, Michael rushes in and asks for ideas for what to do with the wet cement outside. Kevin suggests putting his initials in, which is declined. Phyllis talks about when she was a little girl...and is nervous. Kelly talks about Will Smith. Jim talks him into putting his face in the wet cement. And he does. When Michael's face is going in, Dwight says: "Force it in as deep as you can." Michael: "That's what she said." Good stuff.

After the opening video, Andy and Angela are doing Mad Libs, with Angela supplying the words. Andy, reading the Mad Lib: "The tall man entered the nice building to visit a very nice man. Sit down Mr. Smith, could I interest you in any good cat food?" Angela thinks this is funny. In a talking head, Dwight wishes them no ill will. You know, because he isn't insanely jealous and hateful of Andy.

Next: Pam is wearing glasses because she slept over at Jim's and forgot her contact solution. Michael says she looks ugly. :-(. The staff has a meeting. Jim threatens to propose to Pam during the meeting, which she doesn't take kindly to. Michael wants to energize the office. "I mean, I haven't done anything since Christmas. Pam has clearly given up trying." Andy suggests changing the answering machine message. Jim suggests the same thing in different words, and Michael likes the idea even more, drawing the ire of Andy. Michael comes up with wanting to do a rap...you know, something urban. So he asks Stanley, who wants no part of it. He keeps bugging the Stan-man, until Stanley says, "Did I stutter?" And we have awkward moment number 1... Toby enters Michael's office to tell him he should discipline Stanley for insubordination. Michael is afraid of Stanley, and feigns sickness. Michael accuses Toby of being too white and not having any friends.

Andy is selling his Xterra, which Dwight is interested in buying. Dwight points out a scratch on the vehicle, which Andy says it is a scratch (originally made by Angela when she was mad at Andy for chasing Dwight out of the office, or something of that sort.) Dwight works the price down by about $1,500 by pressuring Andy into it.

In the Office, Michael tries to make good with Stanley, who tells him that he has no intention of apologizing to Michael. Stanley, in a talking-head interview: "It's like I use to tell my wife. I don't apologize unless I think I'm wrong. And if you don't like it, you can leave. And I say the same thing to my current wife, and I'll say it to my next one, too."

Dwight tells Michael how it is possible to discipline Stanley. Dwight tries, sith-like, to get Michael to give him full authority. Michael doesn't do it.

Back from break, we find out that all of Kevin's girlfriends have worn glasses, and he digs Pam's glasses. In fact, he's turned on by them. Pam removes her glasses. She can barely even see the phone to answer it. Creed muses about putting a piano in front of Pam because a lot of good musicians are blind. Also, he would like to see her topless.

Michael goes to Darrell to ask his advice about confronting a "gang member." Darrell tells him to solve the problem with Fluffy Fingers. Michael leaves thinking he should tickle Stanley. I waited the rest of the episode to see Michael tickle Stanley...

Next, Ryan shows up at the office, and calls Jim into a meeting with Toby. Ryan gives Jim a warning about his job performance because Jim cares about his job very little. This catches Jim off-guard. Toby thinks Jim talks to Pam a bit much...

Dwight washes his new Xterra and decides to sell it for $3,000 more than he bought it for. Andy is angered. Dwight: "Seller beware." Angela raises her eyebrows at this, and Dwight reads his own Mad Lib: "A stupid idiotic numskull named Andy Bernard sold his Xterra to a smart and capable man named Dwight. This is shaping up to be an awesome day for Dwight."

Michael finally decides to confront Stanley. His plan is to fake-fire Stanley, and asks the office to be in on the "joke" with him. He wants to teach humility to Stanley. Michael "fires" Stanley. Stanley: "Are you serious? ... You're firing me over 3 words? I'm not going to let you do this to me. I've watched you screw up this office for over 10 years, and I'm filing a lawsuit." Michael tells him the firing isn't real. Stanley: "What is wrong with you? Do you have an sense at all? Do you have any idea how to run an office? ... You are a professional idiot." Michael clears everyone else out of the office and has a conversation with Stanley. I SO thought he was going to tickle Stanley here. Sadly, that doesn't happen. Kevin compares Michael vs. Stanley as the "Clash of the Titans," based on the fact that both are mad.

Stanley tells Michael he doesn't respect him. "Everything you would do, I would do it the opposite way. ... The more I've gotten to know you, the less I've come to respect you." Michael accepts the non-respect, but in a rare moment of maturity, Michael tells Stanley he can't talk to him that way because he's the boss. Stanley agrees to be reasonable from now on. Michael does a Rodney Dangerfield impression. It's really not funny at all...and lasts too long.

The last tidbit: Another staff meeting. Michael wants to go caroling in the middle of summer for customers. He calls on Stanley, who says, "Has potential to be your best idea yet," and gets back to his crossword. Then Phyllis says, "That's the dumbest thing I ever heard." Michael clears the office except for Phyllis.

Roll credits.

Thoughts: Boy. After a very good episode last week, I just couldn't get into this one. The opening, which is usually funny, seemed a bit forced and didn't fit in with the rest of the episode. The Mad Libs scenes were funny. The Dwight/Andy/Angela interactions were the best parts of the episode, especially since you can see some of Angela's satisfaction in seeing Dwight get the better of Andy.

The Pam-wearing-glasses "story" is kind of pointless, except for the Kevin interaction, and Creed's comments, which made me laugh out loud.

As for the main storyline? It just didn't work for me. Yeah, we've seen Stanley not like Michael for a long time. But is it leading to anything? Did it really matter? Outside of learning that Darrell is still alive, the story didn't have much of a purpose, unless something happens latter on. Also, I would pay money to see Michael try to tickle Stanley.

In all, this episode didn't do a good job at all of following up on the last episode. Where's the evidence of Ryan's drug problem? Yeah, the Ryan/Jim situation got a little more tense. Is that leading somewhere? What about Toby? We didn't hear any more about his plans to go to Costa Rica.

The episode was fine. But we've come to expect more from The Office.

The 411: The worst episode since the strike. Nothing was BAD, exactly, but there just wasn't a whole lot of good-ness. The main story of the episode kind of lacked, and nothing else made much progress. But it's the Office, so it's pretty good anyway.

Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]