“Gossip” Review

The Office Returns With a “Gossip” Fest
By Just Jammy

Rumor has it that The Office is back and better than ever. Well, it’s definitely back. As for whether or not it’s better than ever … well, we can let “Gossip” determine that. After what was undoubtedly the longest summer ever (it wasn’t,) The Office debuted its 6th season with a premiere episode entitled “Gossip.” And the result? Fantasticalcism. If Michael hasn’t said that already, I’m pretty sure he some day will. Which reminds me, this seems like an opportune time to thank Uncle Pauly. That’s Paul Lieberstein, writer and director of the episode, to you. Well, to me, too. (He’s not really my uncle.) But I would like to thank him for quite obviously spending his summer reading my e-mails. Because, for the most part, the things that I wanted, and expected to see, came to fruition in “Gossip.” And how else do you explain that? Aside from my reputation for being a know-it-all. Not to suggest that I knew everything. I didn’t. I’m a fake psychic, not a real psychic. Wait … what? Oh, that’s not me. Nor is it The Office.

So getting back to the topic at hand … “Gossip.” Logically enough, the premiere then centered around the one common element endemic to all offices …rumors. It began simply enough with some lunch room chatter about an are they/aren’t they situation with two of the summer interns. But things are rarely simple when Michael Scott is around. Especially when he feels he’s been wronged. The big offense here? Leaving him out of the juicy gossip. As he said, he “hate, hate, hate[s] being left out.” Inadvertently expose one of Michael’s insecurities and bad things are sure to follow.

And therein lies the heart, and the comedic gold, of this episode. Michael will find a way to be involved, to be the center of attention, no matter what he has to do. Would we honestly expect anything less? Fortunately for Michael, and unfortunately for … everyone else, “the world’s best boss” happens to stumble upon a juicy rumor. Of course, in true bumbling idiot fashion, Michael has no idea what he’s discovered; he’s merely delighted to be the possessor of some exclusive information. In the course of wasting absolutely no time to blab what he knows, our obtuse leader somehow manages to realize that he had it all wrong – Stanley’s not having a mid-life crisis. Stanley is having an affair. In the space of a few short minutes we have the pleasure of watching Michael go from elation at learning something that he thinks no one else knows, to rage at thinking that the interns were messing with him, back to elation to finally be able to be a part of the gossip train. Sad, really. A grown man should not be so desperate to fit in. Mike, I think it’s time let go of the rejection you felt when the other 2nd graders wouldn’t let you play “Red Rover, Red Rover” with them. Or invited you to a game of poopball. Of course, if he could do that, he wouldn’t be Michael Scott. And we wouldn’t all be laughing at his utter buffoonery .

The real hilarity sets in once Michael, with a little help from Jim (of course,) comes to realize that he could, in fact, be ruining Stanley’s life. As Michael points out, “you can’t put words back in your mouth.” So he hatches a plan to undo the wrong he might have caused. His heart is (belatedly) in the right place, but as usual, his brain is nowhere near the right exit. Oh, Michael. So what’s a guy to do? Obviously spread false rumors, in an attempt to … well, not so much shock and awe as confuse and irritate. Or titillate, depending on who he was sharing his made-up rumors with. Not Angela, though … she hates to be titillated. That’s what she said. Actually, Angela did say that. Anyway, it’s these crazy rumors that were one of my favorite parts of the episode. Angela dating an octogenarian Quiznos billionaire? That’s funny. Kelly an anorexic? Not likely. (She always eats Erin’s lunch.) Oscar the voice of the Taco Bell dog? Oh, that totally explains why he spends his days as an accountant at a small, regional paper company that he knows all-to-well is practically bankrupt. Erin on the verge of being fired? Well, she’s not a very good worker, supposedly. Andy gay? Gayer than Oscar, anyway. Toby a virgin? Crazy. Pam pregnant? Ridiculous. Oh … wait.

Leave it to Michael, in his quest to spread a bunch of untrue rumors, to pull out of his butt, the one thing that happens to be true. And this is what I knew would happen. Frankly, I’m surprised Michael hasn’t mentioned it, or at least alluded to it in some bizarre fashion, before this. But on this episode, how could it not happen? You can’t possibly have an episode called “Gossip” when Jim and Pam are sitting on one of the biggest secrets that the Dunder Mifflin Scranton has seen, and not have that episode have something (everything) to do with revealing that big secret. Come on, now.

Ah, but getting to that reveal was a fun ride. The scene with Andy and Kevin and the tea … “Oh, I bet you like it … do you like it as much as you likes men’s butts? Because your gay.” Laugh out loud funny. And the start to a storyline that encompasses Andy revealing all the people in his life that at one time or another thought he was gay, asking for advice on how to determine his sexual preference, and finally just begging Michael to tell him whether or not he’s gay. Because that fact is solely determined by whether or not Michael made up the rumor in the first place. Sounds like Andy. And everyone else, revealing the rumor they heard about themselves, was also true to form. I loved Kevin sounding horribly offended by the suggestion that there’s someone inside him working him with controls. After all, Kev, that’s so likely to be true. And with rumors like that making the rounds, Michael’s house of cards was bound to crumble. And with a party to celebrate the last day for three interns, a cake, a conference room … there was no stopping it, really.

So we’ve arrived at that perfect conference room scene. There’s the usual going on – Dwight on his game, with the back-handed compliments to the departing interns, while Jim not-so-subtly mocks him – and then there’s Michael trying the quell the spread of rumors to no avail; he might as well just try to get pee out of the pool. And there seems to be one rumor that’s definitely making the rounds. Phyllis and Meredith are speculating about how far along Pam might be, and how that’s changing the wedding plans. Angela informs Pam of her tight-ass Christian chick view of ‘once a bastard, always a bastard.’ So judgmental, so hypocritical, so perfect. And Andy congratulates Jim on the little baby tuna. Ha! I knew it. I’ve been referring to Jim and Pam’s eventual offspring as Little Tuna(s) for years now, so thanks, Andy, for doing just what I always knew you would. And nice poker face, Jim. Until the words were out of Andy’s mouth, you could swear Jim had abso-fruit-ly no idea what Andy was talking about. Pretty confident in your secret-keeping ability, huh Jimmy?

Anyway, so now Jim and Pam realize that their secret is out … sort of. They also realize (because they’re not new, they’ve worked there long enough) that something fishy is going on. How funny … it seems that everyone has heard a crazy rumor about themselves. Genius. The scene, that is. I mean, it was the perfect culmination of what was brewing all day. Obviously everyone needed to gather together and compare notes in some way. And Jim and Pam needed to figure out what was going on. It had to be them because … well, the “crazy” rumor about them happened to be true. And they are the only two people there who could share a secret and have complete trust in the other to believe wholeheartedly when they say they didn’t tell anyone. So if Jim didn’t tell, and Pam didn’t tell … and yet everyone knows … someone had to tell them. And once Creed wanted to know if they were ones telling people that he has asthma (and no one can know, or he can’t SCUBA and then what’s the point?) … and they heard a few more unlikely rumors floating around the room, they somehow knew what was going on. And in spite of Michael’s resistance, they were determined to get to the bottom of it.

And cut to Michael, running off to the elevators like a little schoolyard pansy, not wanting to face up to the damage he’s done. It’s no surprise to anyone, that while Dwight is concerned only with the fact that Michael could be ruining his manure reputation, it falls to resident parents-to-be, Jim and Pam, who have long been parenting Michael, to lead the charge to reign Michael in. And then nobly try to cover for Stanley, and consequently Michael. Even though it means outing themselves and their little secret. Because it’s the right thing to do. Even though it’s not what they want. Sacrifice. See? They’ve got the whole “being a good parent” thing down already. And I love that, in true Jim and Pam fashion, they both knew what needed to be done. Pam was just about to say it herself, when Jim beat her to the punch. Yep, that’s exactly right.

Now, I read somewhere, before the fact, that this would be one of the most creative and funniest pregnancy reveals ever. I can’t say as I completely disagree. Of course, I doubt I’ve seen every pregnancy reveal on TV ever, but anyway … The moment of the actual reveal wasn’t terribly chuckle-worthy (more awwww-inspiring because wow, Jim and Pam really are that nice) but the storyline around it certainly was. And creative? Well, I did think of it, at least the basics, too. I’m not sure if that argue for or against its creativity, but I just like to flaunt my fake psychic abilities.

But seriously, there were so many things that I loved about the episode. While I’m not sure that I would call the cold-open Parkour scene the best cold-open they’ve ever done, it was certainly entertaining and energetic. Funny, of course. But not totally unlike the drunken shenanigans likely to be seen any random college kegger. Still, they fact that the three stooges (the regional manager, the assistant (to the) regional manager, and #4 Andy) were performing their stunts in the middle of the office, in the middle of the work day, with an absurd pride, of course upped the funny. Stanley and Michael’s scene in the car, while it went on a little longer than I personally needed it to, and left me wondering why on earth Stanley would ever admit to anything, ever, in front of Michael, was a great chance to see a serious interpersonal interaction between Michael and Stanley. The likes of which we haven’t seen since “Did I Stutter?” Unless, of course, you count Michael trying to kill/revive Stanley in “Stress Relief.” So a nice call back to their complicated relationship. And then there’s Jim and Pam being called to the carpet by Michael for not letting him share in their private life as an equal partner . Which was, of course, exactly what one would expect. He hate, hate, hates being left out, you know. But the look of complete betrayal on Michael’s face, the resigned-yet-mocking expression from Jim, and Pam wanting more than anything to just become invisible was another moment of awesome.

Of course, my favorite scenes of the whole episode, and admittedly I am biased because I think everything they do is adorable, but my favorite scenes were the Jim and Pam scenes. So sue me. But that double talking head? So awesome. And not just because I’ve been joking about shotgun weddings since “Weight Loss.” Actually, since before “Weight Loss” … they just picked up a lot of steam thanks to Dwight thinking that shotgun weddings are a leading cause of death, and Jim, the voice of … common knowledge, in this case, informing him that “that’s not what that means.” And now here’s Jim talking about Pam getting herself knocked up by some guy … and their shotgun wedding that he is totally not attending if not compelled by force. Yep, sounds like every Office-related conversation I had all summer. Because, much like Jim (and sometimes Pam,) my true medium is sarcasm. But I can’t help it, I just love it when those two banter. The teasing that could seriously upset many, just seems to amuse them. Even now that she’s pregnant (OH MYGOD, PAM’S PREGNANT!! Oops, sorry,) Pam doesn’t seem overly sensitive to Jim’s goofing around. Nope, she just gives it back. I love that. They’re so fun. I can’t wait for that shotgun wedding. Because you know it will be a shotgun wedding. And not just in colloquialism only … I’m pretty sure Dwight will bring a shotgun. You can never be too careful about bears, after all. And then there’s Pam “going all Lion King” (to quote my friend Caitlyn *waves*) with the sonogram picture of Little Tuna. Proof. But why was everyone so confused about what she was going to produce for proof, TEMP? Wasn’t that obvious? So cute, though! And Jim taping it to his picture frame. Awwww. A-dor-able. I’m still confused about why he didn’t just put it in the frame, but I’ll just let that go, because his obvious pride and Pam’s joy in him being so anxious to display that first baby picture was just too perfect. There’s that word again. Get used to it. The only complaint I have, even though I knew it would happen, is that that sonogram picture was conveniently from the waist up …so we’re not gonna find out the sex of the Jambino until it pops out. I knew that would happen, but still … Uncle Pauly, you’re killin’ me here. I don’t deal well with suspense. I mean, it certainly seems like Jim and Pam to want to be surprised. And to not really care whether it’s a girl or a boy. I can see that with them. Like Jenna, they just want a healthy fake baby. Only it won’t be fake to them. And I can see them getting all excited about being surprised. But I don’t want to be surprised. Because I do care whether it’s a boy or a girl. Either way, the baby will be adorable, and they will be adorable with the baby. But I have this overwhelming desire to see the supreme cuteness that would be Jim holding his Daddy’s little girl. Sorry if it seems wrong to have a preference, even for TV babies, but I do. So yep, Paul Lieberstein, executive producer, I do have a request. A girl please. With flippy red hair … and green eyes (although that’s a given.) Hey, he asked.

So … is The Office better than ever? Well, I can’t really say because it’s always been pretty damn awesome. But I would say we are off to a good start with “Gossip,” an episode that managed to show all of the characters in pretty much their true essence, and have a lot of fun doing it. Oh sure, I could have actually done with a little less time devoted to Michael’s jackassary and a little more time devoted to Jim and Pam and their impending bundle of joy, but we’ve got plenty of time for that. As well as plenty of time to see a little awkward flirting between Dwight and Angela and to learn more about our new receptionist or to get a glimpse of the temp doing … whatever borderline creepy thing he’s going to be up to this year. So if I had one main complaint to make about “Gossip,” it would be that it was too short. It should have been an hour. But we’re just starting, and so we’ll have lots of opportunities to see anything they couldn’t show us in “Gossip.” And what we got was pretty much the kind of Office episode that we all love – funny, uncomfortable, absurd, and with that dose of reality that makes it so believable. Oh, and the little dashes of sweet and adorable, with a splash of bitchy thrown in, don’t hurt. So if the rest of this season that already promises a wedding and a baby, along with all of the usual hilarity and hijinks, lives up to the standard set by the premiere, I’ll be very happy indeed. I think that season six has the potential to be the best season yet … so who knows? Maybe The Office really is better than ever. Then again, you can’t believe everything you hear. Right, Michael?

1. “Gossip” Summary and Thoughts
2. “Did I Stutter?” Review
3. “Night Out” Review
4. “Business Trip” Review
5. Season 4 Wrap Up- Review by Carla