The Day-After Thoughts on “Chair Model”

Last night’s new episode of The Office was certainly a marked improvement over their return episode, “The Dinner Party.” This latest episode, “Chair Model,” had a nice balance of classic Office humor alongside some new romantic developments.

In last night’s episode, Michael Scott is trying to recover from breaking up with Jan. Wasting little time, he instructs everyone in the office to hook him up with a new girlfriend. Meanwhile, the construction business located in another suite in the building is taking up some of Dunder Mifflin’s parking spots, causing everyone to have to walk an extra 10 minutes from an auxiliary parking lot.

While the relationship stuff is funny (Michael meeting Pam’s landlady for coffee and telling her she looks like the old lady on the bus was classic), I found true joy in watching Andy and Kevin deal with the parking situation. Their montage of the five bosses within the building was hysterical, and Kevin’s overreacting to the walk was great. The only thing that stood out as sort of sudden and a little rushed was Jim’s engagement message. Without knowing much about the spinoff show NBC is planning, I can’t help but think it’s being set up for these two love birds.

Last night felt like a much-needed return to form for the show. This was further evidenced by the ending singing in the graveyard. Great stuff.

[As a side now, I don’t know if others experienced this, but NBC showed The Office last night in a weird full screen mode, despite filming the show in widescreen. This resulted in a lot of chopped off faces and weird cropping issues. Why aren’t they just sticking with widescreen for standard def TVs?]