TV Review: The Office 8.16, "After Hours"
“After Hours” was predominantly focused on potential romantic partnerships yet I was not nauseated by it, just kind of bored.
rating: 3
After Hours was predominantly focused on potential romantic partnerships yet I was not nauseated by it, just kind of bored. Although the episode benefits from the continued plot arc of having the office split between the staff members which are contributing to the Sabre retail store chain project and those left behind in Scranton, the stories here felt par for the course, things we saw coming from previous episodes that had to be followed through. Both locales late night activities focused on desperate attempts to hook up, all of which failed. From each botched effort to forge an immediate material connection, however, something intangibly genuine was revealed. Despite the consistency and admirable revelatory nature of the plots, little of After Hours really had me laughing except for Dwights brief recap of his familys history with time travel. The most obvious of the four doomed couplings was also the least surprising. Throughout the season the audience has seen Kathy quietly pining for Jim except for when she not so quietly told her friend on the phone explicitly that she was going to try and seduce Jim so if you didnt hate the character up to that point, you pretty much had to from then on. Not for one second though during Kathys stay at the office have I thought that Jim might actually succumb to her temptations. What was mildly interesting and equally amusing was watching how Jim would evade her advances. Cue the outrageous Dwight hunts bed bugs sequences, both of which unfortunately were the highlights of After Hours. I was happy to see Jim finally man up and just tell Kathy straight up to get out of his room once he saw her disrobe in his bed, but that thankfully didnt keep Dwight from barging in with a mysterious combination of chemical sprays which he did not hesitate to apply. When Dwight wasnt ridding the world of smug insects, he was busy competing with Packer for Nellies affections and favor for nomination for vice president of special projects for the company. The transformation of Dwight from ruthless competitor to honorable gentleman was rewarding to see and was executed well (who doesnt love seeing Packer vomit on Gabriel Susan Lewis?). Dwight really carried this episode as his story and his involvement in Jims, especially their shared coda of enjoying late night TV and desserts in bed, were the strongest elements. Coming in at a close second was the Scranton set triangle of Daryl, Val, and her boyfriend, Brandon (whom despite his many comedic performances in other projects, I will forever recognize as the plumber who tries to persuade Troy Barnes of Community to follow his noble profession). Given love triangles are such trite devices seldom executed well enough to deserve genuine attention or praise it would be especially a shame that this was pretty much all the Scranton branch had going for it this episode if not for the fact that Daryl finally stood up and declared his intentions to Val. Daryl handled the situation extremely well, keeping cool in front of Vals accusatory boyfriend and supporting Val in the face of Brandons indignations while still taking advantage of the opportunity to reveal his true feelings. The only problem with this quite commendable display is that it wasnt very funny and neither was anything happening around it. It was nice, however, to see Andy flexing his awkwardly overenthusiastic boss muscles on the peripheral as opposed to under the spotlight as he is much more effective that way. Finally we watched Ryan and Erin have a legitimately lovely evening, as corporately mandated as it was, romantically hiding in the hotel kitchen attempting to avoid being caught trying to make Erin pancakes that is until Ryan learns from Erin it would take at least six months before she would be ready to consider being intimate with Ryan and he suddenly remembers hes in love with Kelly. While this was a decent punch line to a sweet gag, it felt sort of tacked on. Even though this was clearly the episode to do an ill-fated before it even starts coupling, I think After Hours could have worked better had the other stories had more time to resonate with the audience. This brings me to what I think is one of the most pervasive flaws of The Office in its eighth season instead of trying to reinvent itself and pack a lot into its 22 minutes, Id rather see the show try to return to its roots in terms of pacing and tone by wallowing in the awkward situations it creates instead of just aiming for the sharpest punch lines. The Office episodes of recent years I enjoy the most have not only truly funny primary situations, but also hilarious commentary on them from its supporting cast. While After Hours wasnt a terrible episode, it just didnt succeed too well on either of those fronts.