Quick Take: The Office, "Counseling"
“I talk a lot, so I've learned to just tune myself out.” – Kelly Kapoor
Review: The Office, "Counseling"
(S0702) It may be only into the second episode of the season, but “The Office” has yet to deliver that laugh out loud funny moment. “Counseling” no doubt had its good moments, but lacked the old “Office” charm.
“Counseling” mainly dealt with last week’s incident where Michael (Steve Carell) spanked his nephew, who was interning for the office, in front of the Dunder Mifflin/Sabre employees. Corporate handed him the punishment of having to endure six hours of counseling with Toby (Paul Lieberstein). For the past six seasons, Toby has been Michael’s mortal enemy, so it was hard for him to open up to his nemesis. Michael decided he didn’t want to give in to Toby so he told stories of being probed by aliens and how he was raised by wolves and didn’t see a human until he was 25.
Toby caught on to what Michael was doing so he decided to try some trickery of his own. He talked Michael into playing some games and as they played checkers Toby finally got Michael to start talking about his life, though Michael didn’t realize what he was doing. When he did catch on to what Toby was accomplishing, he decided to forge the paperwork without even paying attention to what he was marking off and had Toby send it off. After getting a call from corporate, Gabe (Zach Woods) asked Toby why he signed off of Michael’s counseling when the paperwork said Michael was unstable. Gabe tells him they have to do it over again, which then results in Michael transferring his frustrations from Toby to Gabe.
Elsewhere in the office, Pam (Jenna Fischer) and Dwight (Rainn Wilson) had problems of their own. Pam realized how bad at sales she was so she conspired to get her job title changed and attempted to convince people she had been promoted to “office administrator.” She had everybody fooled except for Gabe, who figured out there was no truth to the promotion since there was no paperwork, but he gave in as he didn't want to admit that Pam was a liar.
After being snubbed at a store at the Steamtown Mall, Dwight gets help from his office mates. Kelly (Mindy Kaling) suggests he needs to “Pretty Woman” himself (“Beautiful Girl” as Dwight called it), in order to get revenge on the store. Everyone gave Dwight suggestions on how to act and dress proper and he headed back to the mall with Jim (John Krasinski) and Andy (Ed Helms). The thing Dwight wanted to so desperately buy? A figurine of a wizard holding a crystal. Jim told Dwight he needed to stand up to the employee and that Jim would come back later and buy it for Dwight. After giving the guy his best Julia Roberts impersonation, Dwight was shown a picture of himself taken by security cameras with red stained hands. The employee explained to Dwight that they turned him away because they thought he was a security risk. Dwight tried to explain that it was beet juice and Jim tried to get Dwight to leave. Dwight gave in and bought the wizard anyways.
Overall the episode was decent. It is always fun to watch Michael and Toby interact because there isn’t a real reason why Michael hates him so much. The Dwight storyline was entertaining, especially his attempts at “Pretty Woman” where he shook his bags at the store employee and shouted “You made a big mistake, huge!” The Pam storyline seemed out of character and didn’t really fit. It is hard to believe that of all people Pam would lie her way to a promotion.
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Video: The Office, "Counseling"
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Great review Erin!
I feel like my expectations for The Office are considerably lower than where they were a few seasons ago. Therefore, I was able to appreciate the few big laughs that did come out of this episode -- mostly Kelly's great and occasional one-liners.
After an outstanding premiere, this one left me wanting more.