TV Reviews: The Office 8.18, "Last Day in Florida"

And so we find the only decent storyline of The Office’s eighth season come to a close. I will miss Florida Stanley the most.

By Joseph Kratzer /

rating: 3.5

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It€™s funny, earlier today I was watching an episode of FX€™s Archer in which the title character is waiting to hear news from his doctor regarding his recent brush with breast cancer. Now in that series it makes sense that a gag from Arrested Development, in which a doctor€™s poor choice of words miscommunicates crucial information, would be used because several Arrested alums constitute the cast of Archer. In the opening scene of this episode of The Office, however, the same gag felt less like an homage and more like a rip off. I€™m not necessarily complaining mind you, for as the great Abed Nadir once said, €œI€™m not knocking it, it works.€ It€™s a funny gag no matter what, I just couldn€™t help but point out how coincidental it was that I€™d see two other series mimic the modern classic in the same day. I much preferred the second half of the opener when Creed, the only one crazy enough to do so, opened Dwight€™s treasure box. It was much more original and indicative of Dwight€™s feelings toward his coworkers €“ genuine sentiment in the form of a group photo punctuated by a poison dart. Sounds like Creed deserved it. As I mentioned previously, I€™m not disappointed when the opener has nothing to do with the rest of the episode, but I€™m glad this one did as the focal point of the main story was Dwight€™s feelings toward his Scranton coworkers, his career there, even his beet farm and cousin Mose €“ basically everything that makes him who he is. Dwight is, as Jim puts it, €œSuper Dwight€ as he basks in his victory as the newly appointed vice president of special projects at Sabre headquarters in Florida. Dwight sends both golf balls and congratulatory gifts alike back to hell on the tip of his club, ridicules his former contender for the tile, Todd Packer, whose presence I€™ve oddly welcomed (though apparently no longer as after 20 years of employment Packer has now been terminated for taking on Dwight€™s position €“ I€™m kind of put off by how haphazardly that was handled, though I guess it€™s fitting considering what a first rate douche Packer has always been), and refuses to let Jim get a word in edgewise when he repeatedly attempts to inform Dwight and Nelly of Robert California€™s intention to kill the Sabre retail store line proposal Dwight is to present that day, much like an Amish return stick. Dwight is so drunk on his own sense of accomplishment and abandon for his roots that he can€™t stop pointing out Jim€™s use of beauty products long enough to heed (heeded, headed?) his warning. After all, he does possess unstopability. This was potentially a pretty substantial episode for The Office as recent news of Dwight€™s spin-off, the cast€™s expiring contracts, and, let€™s face it, the poor performance of the eighth season have all put the series€™ continued longevity in question and although I don€™t doubt NBC will continue to try milking this series for all it€™s worth, I genuinely wondered whether Dwight was to remain in Florida. The conclusion was bittersweet as Jim maintained his and Dwight€™s reluctant friendship by distracting everyone from his return to the branch. By the way, Stanley is very upset he had to leave Florida. One character I have very little interest in seeing is Kathy who was nonetheless noticeably absent from the return to Scranton. I guess we€™ll never hear about her attempt to seduce Jim? The episode€™s B-plot followed Daryl and Toby€™s competitive courtship for Kevin€™s Girl Scout cookie allegiance. Though this was a total fluff companion piece to the rest of the episode, it nonetheless had some decent gags, most noticeably Toby€™s rebuttal to Daryl, €œNo, you hit the road, Jack,€ which reminded me of Donald Glover€™s joke about Michael Cera playing Shaft and Kevin€™s insistence of Toby€™s €œindescribable quality that makes a star.€ Then again, I kind of hated some of the Kevin gags like his cookie song (which might€™ve been a reference to something I€™m just unfamiliar with?) and his desire to be €œwined, dined and 69€™d,€ metaphorically of course. Turns out the Scranton side of the €œLast Day in Florida€ equation was supposed to have some heart to it in Andy€™s last minute decision to retrieve Erin from Florida €“ except I still can€™t genuinely move myself to care about their relationship. The show€™s treatment of this ongoing romance (if it can really be called that at this point) has just been too inconsistent and thinly spread to earn my sympathy. Like I€™ve said before, I like Andy, I like Erin (especially when she boils Gatorade for tea and needs a senior citizen she€™s moved in with to help her figure out how to videochat), I even like the two of them together, but not enough to be on the edge of my seat. And isn€™t Andy still supposedly happily dating his girlfriend, what€™shername? Whatever. And so we find the only decent storyline of The Office€™s eighth season come to a close. I will miss Florida Stanley the most, but it was of course inevitable. Hopefully Jim and Dwight can bring the emotional resonance they demonstrated back with them to Scranton as the branch has been virtually worthless without them.