romantic

(S05E03) You know, I hammered The Office pretty hard last year about its use of Michael. I was worried that Michael Scott was going the way of late-period Homer Simpson: from buffoonish but believable head bee guy, to too-stupid-to-function lesser bee guy.

This season seems to be committed to undoing last year's damage. The Michael/Holly storyline has been sweet, surprising, and funny. Further, it's allowed for Michael's character to have some breathing room; giving him his "own" Pam seems to have freed the writers from making Michael so ridiculous that you feel he's less like a mid-manager from Scranton as much as he is a well-meaning sprite from the dimension Ergo.

Now, let's just hope that they don't ruin all that progress by giving Dwight something unbelievable to do like spending the episode destroying a $1200 stroller. Oh, wait...

Michael Scott, Regional Manager for Dunder-Mifflin Paper, Inc. has his own playlist on iTunes. It makes sense, since The Office is huge for NBC on iTunes. His playlist is called, Michael Scott's Valentine's Day Romantic Playlist. It's creepy and stuck in the '80s. Just like Michael. The songs are what you'd expect Michael to play on his stereo as he pours you a Zima and hands you one of those kissing teddy bears from Hallmark. Songs include Take My Breath Away, In Your Eyes, Mambo No. 5, and Baby Got Back, which he calls "old skool hip-hop". My favorite, though, is Take On Me where he writes, "I love pretty much everything A-Ha ever did. But this is their best." Get it? Because A-Ha was a one-hit-wonder a long, long time ago. Check it out.

You can also send The Office valentines from NBC's website.