The Office came back for one week to give us Michael and Holly's engagement, and the news that Michael is leaving for Colorado. Then, it took a couple more weeks off, but it has returned once again with "Training Day" and with the return of The Office comes the addition of Will Ferrell to the show as Deangelo Vickers, the new boss in town.
Obviously, having a movie star the calibre of Ferrell on the show is a big get, and clearly the show is pulling out all the stops for Steve Carell's farewell episodes. The show is already NBC's biggest ratings getter on Thursday night, and having folks like Ferrell stop by certainly won't hurt. The question will be whether or not the show maintains its popularity once Carell, and Michael Scott, are gone. However, that is a question for another day.
Things begin in a hotel bar, where Michael is waiting to meet Deangelo. Conversely, Deangelo is there to meet Michael. The two get the talking and enjoy their conversation without realizing who one another is for just long enough for it to be both humorous and plausible. Michael later says he finds the hijinx he gets into amusing, and so do I. The fact that Carell and Ferell have a nice rapport doesn't hurt, and their conversation is humorous as well. Then, it is off to the office where Michael shows Deangelo around in a scene that felt vaguely reminiscent of Step Brothers, but only thoroughly less crass.
The next day, it is time for Deangelo to meet everybody, and unsurprisingly pretty much everybody starts trying to suck up to him. It's kind of like when Charles showed up, only the women are less attracted to him, though Kelly seems to try and put her moves on him. We learn that Deangelo, like Bender, is a fan of the American Southwest, and also that he has a peanut allergy. Both facts are relevant to later action. Also, Kevin wears a toupee.
There are a few funny moments that come out of folks trying to get in good with Deangelo. Darryl really works the southwestern angle, even going as far as to get a cowboy hat and cowboy boots. In your face, other culture of the American Southwest. Peddle your adobe wares elsewhere! Still, it was funny to see Darryl, who is usually casual and laidback, going to these efforts to impress somebody. Jim and Pam, like all good parents do, use their baby as a tool to try and get in Deangelo's good graces. It works at first, further proving that unplanned pregnancies are always a positive for a couple. However, they push things too far and even Deangelo, who doesn't seem all that bright but brighter than Michael, sees what they are doing and he is not a fan. Still, in the tag of the episode, they bring Cece in for the hard sell, and while it appears to work, Deangelo was just humoring them. Well, at least Jim and Pam had something to do.
All that said, it is the tragicomic plight of one Andrew Bernard that steals the show. Trying to impress Deangelo with the fact he always carries around name tags just in case, Deangelo accidentally mistakes it for a joke and labels Andy the "funny guy." Andy is desperate to live up to the moniker, but struggles when Deangelo prompts him for a joke. However, later he falls and knocks over a table, and Deangelo laughs once again. Thus, Andy goes for some mime based physical humor, but it also falls flat. So, Andy reluctantly turns to buffonery yet again, spilling things, pouring hot coffee on himself and, at the behest of Deangelo, eating soap. Then, it hits him. He has become a clown, an office clown, and it sickens him. Andy is very much what I call a Milhouse-ian character (a concept I wrote about for another website) and that is a style of comedy I tend to enjoy. I imagine this is going to go somewhere. Who knows how low Andy will sink.
Meanwhile, Michael's opinion of Deangelo starts to wane once Deangelo starts making some of his own decisions. Michael is in the presence of the man who will replace him, and seeing things done somebody else's way bothers him. It all begins when Deangelo tells Erin not to use her name when she answers the phone. First, Erin humorously things he means to say, "Dunder-Mifflin, this is," and likes it. Soon after, unable to decide whether to listen to Michael or Deangelo, she picks up the phone, pauses, and then sadly says, "I'm so sorry," before hanging out. It was a tremendous Erin moment.
However, it wasn't even the best Erin moment of the episode. Later, Deangelo brings in a barber to give him a shave in his office like it's the 1930s. Undeterred, Michael recruits Erin to shave him, but she does a much worse job of if, even proclaiming that she intended to shave his lips. I've become a big fan of Erin. I even found the way she pushed a large box into Deangelo's office humorous. I'm just a fan of Ellie Kemper in general. I've liked her in other things. She seems like a nice, interesting person in interviews, though admittedly that isn't the greatest way to judge somebody's character. I guess what I'm trying to say is; Way to be, Ellie Kemper! May your enemies fall before you.
As for Michael and Deangelo, fed up with the way he's been treated and the way Deangelo is doing things, Michael brings in sandwiches. Ah, but they aren't any sandwiches. They have peanut butter in them. As you may recall, Deangelo has a peanut allergy, though it is mentioned that it isn't a severe peanut allergy, a fact perhaps snuck in there to keep Michael from seeming utterly reprehensible. This was Michael at his worst: Petulant and acting like a huge jerk. After the show had done so much to soften his edges as they gave him his big romantic moment with Holly, they go and pull a move like this. I was not a fan.
Deangelo calls a meeting, but before starting it he goes to Michael to asks for a bit of advice. The two have a moment together than involves spooning and making up after Michael's awful behavior. Michael realizes it is time to turn things over to Deangelo and to kick back and relax.
Overall, I felt this was a good episode. I think Ferrell fit into the show well, though thus far his character doesn't have much depth to it. He was mostly there to be the catalyst for everybody else's actions. It will be interesting to see what the show does with him for the rest of his run, and what the show does with Michael until Carell leaves. Hopefully, we get no more unpleasant Michael moments, or at the very least that they having something funny to them. Let the man go out on a positive note, not chucking people's allergens at them. However, there were plenty of funny moments in this episode, including some hilarious stuff from Erin and Andy, so I was able to still enjoy it quite a bit. I look forward to watching things play themselves out.
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