TV Review: The Office 9.17, "The Farm"
rating: 2.5
After a short hiatus The Office returned with what would have been its spin-offs back-door pilot, The Farm, had that show not been ultimately dropped before it ever even saw the light of day, which was a good move. Its not that The Farm was so terrible an episode, it just didnt hit nearly as hard as long-time fans of The Office would ideally want it to. Instead there was mostly a lot of awkwardness resulting from watching the square peg that is a clan as delightfully shrouded in bizarre absurdity for so many years as the Schrutes get hammered into the round hole that is your standard sitcom pilot format. I wonder how this idea would have fared if it was floated around seasons three or four, but as this is the series ninth and final season, despite some gems, it just felt desperate. If theres one general highlight I can award the titular plot of The Farm its that when it wasnt trying to sell us on the idea of this being a series with legs, it nailed down a pretty sweet tone (and by sweet I mean just the right amount of hilarity combined with the uncomfortably unsettling). I loved moments like Dwight getting on the elevator with Creed in full-on Schrute mourning garb and Creed only noticing Dwights new glasses, which Im sure werent new at all, just before the doors closed. I felt another excellent editing choice came when the credits started rolling just as Dwight let out his primordial scream as he pelted Jim with a wet dirt ball, for grieving. Seeing neither Dwight nor Zeke riding in the side cart of Zekes motor bike was also a particularly inspired sight after cutting from them arguing as to who would end up riding in it. And when Oscar finally gave up being the audience surrogate during what Ill just go ahead and refer to as the Schrute family shotgun salute (as opposed to anti-zombie precautionary measures), his exclamation of, Thats it for me! definitely got a chuckle out of me. Unfortunately though, Im a big fan of The Weird, The Other, The Abnormal, and Im pretty sure that shotgun salute was about as weird as it got on Aunt Shirleys farm, which is disappointing. I understand not wanting to scare audiences away the first time out of the gate, but if were going to have a Dwight Schrute spin-off, go big or go home. Its not like this is a new character; we know Dwight all too well at this point and if audiences were going to show up for The Farm then they presumably would be hungry for as much of The Strange as possible. Speaking of disturbingly normal, at first I did not approve of Fanny, Dwights sister, not because Im adverse to the idea of watching a normal Schrute trying to cope with her humble roots, but because at first glance she seemed far too cookie-cutter. Then thankfully she showed her humanity in bragging about her online poetry, which immediately won me over. Similarly, as obvious as Dwight and his nephews bonding was, it had just enough Dwight-roughness to also keep me from rolling my eyes too hard. Back at the good ol Scranton branch, I was happy to watch a silly plot unfold which didnt strain to include the entire supporting cast. In fact, perhaps because of the painfully self-aware Farm plot, the Todd Packer gets revenge via cupcakes story totally felt effortless, if not a bit lazy. At first I groaned when I realized Packers amends would stretch out for and serve as the basis of the entire episode, but coming to find this was actually an elaborate ruse made even more sense than Packer doing step work, which seemed pretty fitting to begin with. One common thread of both plots was that they each felt rushed, like there were too many scenes cut that really couldve made this more worthwhile you know Creed handled his cupcakes like a champ. Not so much the Packer revenge story, although I would have really loved to see Erin and Clarks nights in the same vein as the Andy and Kevin flashback (and where was Pete? I feel like we either get him or Clark more often than both characters, not that Im complaining), but certainly the Farm plot was hurried to say the least. Instead of forcing a completely empty love interest for Dwight, why not work harder on fleshing out the brother weve never heard of before? I liked the idea of Jeb being a sort of lazier, failed Dwight-light, an appropriate middle-ground between Fanny and Dwight. The Farm was bittersweet as it made the kind of moves which are beneath the glory days of the series, like Dwights beyond hokey conclusion, but at least they picked a great song to underscore it. Neither stories were fully what I wanted, but since this isnt season eight, I know it could be worse.