The Office: Season 6 Episode 13: The Banker – TV Review

After an extended holiday hiatus, “The Office” returned with a new episode… kind of. This week’s 30 minutes had a new story arc that included great new moments with a banker sent to “fact check” the now bankrupt Dunder-Mifflin. However, the majority of the episode, consisted of various flashbacks from Michael (Steve Carell) and Toby’s (Paul Lieberstein) endearingly twisted points of view…

The Players:

• Director: Jefferey Blitz
• Writer: Jason Kessler
• Cast: Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, B.J. Novak, Ed Helms, Melora Hardin, David Denman, Leslie David Baker, Brian Baumgartner, Creed Bratton, Kate Flannery, Mindy Kaling, Ellie Kemper, Angela Kinsey, Paul Lieberstein, Oscar Nuñez, Craig Robinson, Phyllis Smith

The Shows Plot

“The Office” is a mockumentary following the mundane, yet hilarious, lives of employees of the paper company, Dunder-Mifflin, in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Title of this Week’s Episode: “The Banker” Season 6: Episode 13

When a potential buyer comes to Dunder-Mifflin, Michael (Golden Globe winner Steve Carell), Dwight (Rainn Wilson), Andy (Ed Helms) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) pull out all the stops in hopes of impressing him with their high profile contacts. And Michael and Toby reminisce about all the great times they have had in the office.

The Good:

• That’s What She Said Montage: It’s the joke that never gets old, especially when delivered with the golden comedic timing of Steve Carell’s Michael.
• Fake Stanley: The funniest “new” material in the episode was the brief yet ridiculous wave and smile of a younger, fitter, friendlier, blacker version of chronically-disgruntled Stanley.
• Scranton “The Electric City” Rap: This fantastic episode ending with a hilarious mock-rap by Michael and Dwight. It was stupid, nonsensical and perfectly silly.

The Bad:

• Not Enough Andy: We know that there were a lot of awesome clips to choose from, and not everything could make the cut, but one piece of the great paper company puzzle was missing: Andy. He is certainly one of the best characters on the show and it would have been nice to see a little more of him.

Overall:

Clip shows are often formulaic, redundant, far from interesting and simply forgettable. “The Office” proved the opposite by taking the tired formula and making it hysterical.  This was done by carefully selecting the most memorable, gut-wrenching  hysterical, smile-inducing “water-cooler” moments: those Dunder-Mifflin antics that make the show laugh out loud awesome and the Pam/Jim never-sappy-always-endearing snippets that give the show such heart. The audience, along with Toby and Michael, relived some of the most hilarious moments and the greatest part was that they were even funnier the second time around.

Rating: 9/10

“The Office” airs Thursdays at 9pm on NBC