The Office: Season 6 Episode 16 and 17: The Delivery – TV Review

“The Office” goes where no previous episode has gone before…the delivery room (Jan doesn’t count because…well, she just doesn’t) as Pam goes into labor and hilarity ensues. Last night we got a two parter entitled, “The Delivery,” and the big question is did it deliver on the laughs? In some instances more than others, the Dunder-Mifflin antics easily transferred from the cubicle to the hospital, while others fell completely flat.

The Players:

• Director: Seth Gordon (Part 1), Harold Ramis (Part 2)
• Writer: Daniel Chun  (Part 1), Charlie Grandy (Part 2), Greg Daniels (Developer), Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant (Creators)
• 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 Delivery” Season 6: Episode 16 & 17

The first half finds Pam (Jenna Fischer) refusing to go to the hospital before midnight to try and exploit an HMO loophole that will allow them to stay an extra night, despite her quickening pre-labor contractions. Jim, (John Krasinski) playing the part of the nervous, first-time father well, looks like he’s about to enter cardiac arrest at any moment. To try and delay labor as long as possible, Michael (Steve Carell) organizes a series of distractions to keep Pam’s mind off of the baby.

The second half consist of Michael trying to play office cupid because he believes Jim and Pam are together because of him and wants to extend the favor of love to his other employees. Also during the second half, over-anxious newly-parents Jim and Pam spend their first night with the baby.

The Good:

• Dwight: Throughout the first half of the hour-long special, Dwight completely steals the show with his over the top antics including luring Angela into bearing his child, impersonating a cop and breaking into Jim and Pam’s home in order to retrieve her iPod but instead, stays the night and begins to completely destroy their house because of mold.
• The Distraction Meeting: In order to delay Pam’s delivery, Michael calls everyone into the conference room for a “distraction meeting.” Andy’s evolution of dance dance and Ryan’s absurd hipster poetry reading were both LOL moments.
• The Nurse: Trying to deal with over-paranoid Jim and Pam might not be an easy feat but the nurse delivers great quips and hilariously timed eye-rolls making the situation “Office” appropriate.

The Bad:

• Michael Playing Love Doctor: This bit, taking place in the second half of the show had all of the right ingredients to be ridiculously funny but instead, it was simply ridiculous. It’s unfortunate that the whole thing fell flat, likely because of a very rare lapse in the usually fantastic writing

Overall:

“The Office” baby special certainly delivered (pun intended) in more ways than one. It was great to see one of TV’s most consistent ensemble casts get back into their groove. It certainly helped that Kathy Bates was missing and the focus returned to the characters we actually love. The first half had nearly every cast member at their best and worst behavior and seemed to pull on the strength of the actors for one hysterical half-hour. The second part fell completely flat. The ideas behind the episode were strong but the execution, especially in the writing, was not the quality to which “The Office” viewers are accustomed.

Ratings:

Part 1: 9/10

Part 2: 4/10

“The Office” airs Thursdays at 9pm on NBC

Was The Office one-hour special, special enough? Let us know!