double date

(S06E09) There was so much comedic potential in this week's episode, that I ended up coming away from this one unsatisfied. It played out as essentially two mini-episodes, and while the second one was better than the first, neither was particularly funny.

Michael Scott is always funnier when he produces cringe-worthy moments via his cluelessness. Cruelty just doesn't suit him well, and the only time it really works for him is when he's dressing down Dwight. What I was expecting to see during his and Helaine's double date with Pam and Jim was some blissful obliviousness on Michael's part and seething anger on Pam's part. What we got was a Michael that was about as cruel as he's been to anyone in quite some time.

(S05E02) If there was ever an episode that demonstrated how creative Bays and Thomas and their writing staff can be, it's this one. Not only did we bend time and space -- Ted even had an alternate universe-ish goatee -- but we got a doppelganger and an elaborate fantasy about hiccup disease thrown in for good measure.

What's interesting about it is, the bending-time-and-space A story, while fun to watch, turned out to be not much different than what we may have seen in the past. The B story was much more entertaining, and it gave us some insight to how the two currently active HIMYM relationships are going to run for the time being.