'Grey's' Isn't Going Anywhere
The Will They/Won't They WILL Continue!
The Office: Mafia
by Joel Keller, posted Oct 16th 2009 12:04AM
(S06E06) After the fantastic wedding episode, there was a pretty good chance that the follow-up would be a letdown. But when Greg Daniels and Paul Lieberstein described this episode to reporters during press tour time, it sounded interesting. Michael mistakenly thinks he's talking to the Mafia. Sounds good, right?Well, it wasn't. It was more than just a post-wedding letdown; it was one of the worst episodes in a couple of years. Why? Mainly because the entire episode was built around a silly misunderstanding that could have been cleared up in a few minutes. And this time, it wasn't even Michael's fault!
Michael, for once, seemed to have his wits about him, dismissing Grotti the insurance guy as just a pushy salesman. It was Andy and Dwight, teaming up in their stupidity, that took the usual Italian-American stereotypes to the hilt and interpreted "insurance" as "mafia protection." What's ironic is, after the silly lunch meeting where Andy pretends to be a mechanic --destroying a stranger's car in the process -- if they had just done what they pretended to do to make Michael more confident, this would have been all over. Have the guy checked out, Dwight! Use your contacts, Andy! Of course, they may not have those contacts, but a quick Google search would have at least brought up Grotti's profile on his insurance company's website.
So we spend twenty minutes seeing Michael be convinced that he's dealing with the Mafia. Fine. But the payoff wasn't even that satisfying. He cancels the insurance and tells off Grotti in the process. Oh, well. Grotti doesn't seem to be that put off by it (he's a salesman, after all). And all Michael gets is the false confidence borne from a made-up confrontation with a non-Mafioso. The big point is probably that Michael the master salesman ("A great salesman having to listen to a bad salesman is like a great basketball player having to listen to a bad basketball player") got manipulated by someone he thought was a hack; the Mafia story sounds a lot better than that.
Oscar's interview, where he says that the "coalition of reason" has weakened with Pam and Jim on their honeymoon and Toby "checked out since June," was the highlight of the episode. Without those folks around,something like this was bound to happen. Loved Pam rushing Oscar off the phone, and I really loved Jim pretending that the connection with Michael was breaking up, then going "Bermuda Triangle... don't call again."
More fun stuff:
- The description of the episode on my cable box's guide said that Erin was going to inadvertently ruin Pam's painting of the office. But that plot never materialized. Will it be online under the deleted scenes?
- Instead we got Kevin squatting in Jim's office, which was fun, mainly because Kevin is such a fun character in those small doses. The best part was that he initially used the office merely "as a place to fart," but eventually managed to move in his nameplate and get Jim's credit card cancelled.
- Speaking of that, I can understand Capital One's dogged pursuit of fraud. I ordered some credits and a phone number from Skype today and got my credit card frozen. Twice. One time, I got a phone call about 20 minutes after my second Skype order. Those folks are on the case; Kevin -- and Jim's account -- never stood a chance.
- Kevin to Oscar: "I wouldn't last in jail. I'm not you. You would love jail." Wow. Kevin goes from a possible teabagging joke a few weeks ago to prison sex. His ideas about gay people must have come from Opie and Anthony or some of the more misinformed henchmen on Howard Stern's show.
- "I'll have the gabbagool."
- Michael's calendar includes "creative space" and "free play." He might have the best job in the country.
- I don't ever want to hear about Meredith's son doing "upper deckers" ever again.
[You can see clips and free episodes from our friends at SlashControl.]
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