The Office - "Weight Loss"

Now somewhat of a phenomenon in its fifth season, The Office has become the show to watch if you're under the age of 35 and hate sad doctors. Tonight's season premiere was one that was certainly aimed at pleasing the numerous fans of the show, not necessarily one to draw new people in. Old jokes were brought back, such as Michael's constant desire to emulate Ryan, Angela's love of "Little Drummer Boy," and Holly's perception that Kevin is mentally disabled. Though all of these jokes were thrown in to appease fans, they also were there as a punch-line for jokes set up ages ago, a craft that Arrested Development practically invented.

Let's start by talking about what was going on in the office, the weight loss competition. This seems like a really stupid idea, but the writers really used it and made it not only believable, but hilarious. The Office has the best ensemble cast on TV (no offense 30 Rock, yes offense Heroes), and they shined tonight. It was great to see Ryan back and not a total tool, and it was pretty nice to see Oscar again. Kelly was by far my favorite, with her ridiculous weight loss ploys and her goofy confessionals when she's totally out of it. My two favorite workers, Stanley and Creed were oddly disappointing tonight. They had their moments, but for an hour long episode, they've been funnier. Toby's brief appearance at the end was pretty great, but I surprisingly didn't miss him.

All this aside, let's look at what was going on. First of all, we had Michael and his myriad of relationship issues. Jan popped up for a second, just to show that Michael is still hopelessly falling after her, despite Holly's obvious interest in him. It was definitely cringe inducing when Michael tore up the Counting Crows tickets that Holly was obviously hoping to use with him. His misguided sweetness has always made him more human, but usually at the expense of an awkward moment. The thing about tonight though was that this was the first time he did so selflessly, not in a selfish manner, such as when he proposed to Carol.

Dwight and Angela and Andy sure created a nice bit of romantic tension, and honestly, I'm not sure what to make of all of it. Angela, fed up with Andy's obsession over the wedding she doesn't seem to want, keeps paging Dwight for a booty call in the warehouse, only to finally come around to Andy when he shows his sweet side. When he insists on having his Cornell acapella group at the wedding though, she goes right back to Dwight. This seemed to be more of a story of Angela and Andy as opposed to Dwight, who did little more but wander in and out of the back room of the warehouse. Dwight's attachment to Angela and his heartbreak at losing her last season really made me care about his character more than when he was just the office weirdo, so I hope that as Angela and Andy get closer to their wedding, he becomes more of a factor again.

That leaves us with the big couple, Jim and Pam. When we last saw them, Jim had had his thunder stolen by Andy's proposal and Pam was disappointed that he didn't propose to her. Trouble seemed afoot in the relationship we'd all been waiting for, and it didn't seem to much better throughout most of the episode as Pam was in New York and Jim was in Scranton. Jim laid off the goofy likeable guy act for an episode to be upset about Pam's absence while Pam was making friends and getting used to college life (Oh college kids and their soy milk!). The moment we wanted last season finally changed all of this as Jim proposed to her at a rainy gas station, causing all the women in American not watching the sad doctors to squeal and sigh in delight. I liked how the American version broke from the British by getting the Pam and Jim characters together, and I'll be very intrigued to see what they do now that the will-they-won't-they couple is engaged. Could this be the beginning of the end?

A pretty decent start for the Office. They've been consistently funny and different each season, so I expect a lot from this one. If Amy Ryan stays as Holly and the Jim and Pam plot doesn't weigh things down, The Office could really take fans on a ride this season.

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