The Office - "Moving On" - Review

Well, that was … I don’t want to say a mess. But it was a lot of ideas that really didn't amount to much.

Shows should have some level of cohesion in each episode, no matter how many plots are thrown at us or how structurally unique it may be. Thus a show like The Walking Dead gets flack all the time for starting out with opening scenes that don’t feel like they logically lead us to the end scene of an episode (no matter how well those individual scenes may be executed). 

These plots don’t feel like they should be in one episode together, or really any episode at all for that matter. The backdoor pilot doesn’t make sense anymore because Dwight’s escapades on The Farm have been canceled and aren’t happening anymore. And so we get a storyline that is just plain weird. Dwight goes to take care of his ailing aunt, who we’ve never heard of before. He brings along Angela, and just flat out strange, unjustifiable things occur. The scene where he plans to hose his aunt feels like it’s coming out of a redneck caricature. If Dwight still had feelings for Angela, it should have been hinted at least a few times before this.

The most pointless plot of all: Toby’s misplaced affections for Nelly cause him to visit the man incarcerated for the Scranton Strangler murders. Toby goes to the prison and lets the man know that he now believes him to be innocent, despite the fact that his juror vote was “guilty.” And in fitting irony he ends up getting strangled by the man. At least, Nelly gives him a ride home (not that I care).

These subplots were each odder than the next, but we weren’t there enough for them to become completely grating. On the other hand, the Andy-Erin-Pete plot that dominated the episode is noticeably all over the place. The real problem is that Andy has become a plot device and not an actual character. Sure, Andy could be weird in the past, but the writers kept him just on the right side of crazy. Now though, he’s descending into a moustache twirling villain intent on nothing but seeing the pain and destruction of Erin and Pete for hurting him. 

The best plot in theory proved to be also very frustrating. Bob Odenkirk is usually comedic gold, and positioning him as an office manager who’s one step removed from Michael Scott sounds like one of the most inspired things the show has done in a long time. But few people apparently can control and capture the manic energy that made Michael Scott so joyous and oddly charming like Steve Carrel (even a seasoned comedian like the brilliant Odenkirk – who isn’t bad, but trapped by predictable and constraining material).

Worse still is that this was an hour long episode that had little right to be an hour long. Least of all not when this felt like four different series having their episode’s haphazardly cut together. Duct taping a number of plots together and hoping the mere charm of a cast will make it work is not a recipe for success, especially with plots as empty as these.

Any of these plots could have become something. May be not something spectacular but something where they felt like there was a point to them and that they mattered. Modern Family has been doing a good job about this lately. I never really laugh anymore at Modern Family, but I also rarely think to myself, "Oh my God what is that thing?" It's not a form of storytelling that will blow my mind or keep me a devout follower, but it puts a show one step above the mediocrity.

Stray Observations:

-Oddly enough the return of one of the series’ worst characters, Gabe, proves to be one of its best moments. “Yes, thank you for remembering,” he cheerfully says when Kevin points out that he and Erin used to “do it”

-Kevin’s miserable failed attempt to introduce himself to Pete’s ex is hilarious.

-Pam admits she wants to stay in Scranton. We’ve known this for a while so it’s really not surprising. 

Grade: C