MELISSA MARTINEZ
PRIDE STAFF WRITER
Many of us have been anticipating the return of NBC’s mockumentary that first stole our hearts in 2005. For those who have yet to become addicted to “The Office,” the scripted but much improvised show highlighted the many talents of actors such as Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson and John Krasinski. The return of the sitcom beginning their eighth season Thursday, Sept. 22 gave us the hope that the show can be equally as controversial and delightful with the absence of Michael Scott.
It wasn’t easy knowing that Michael Scott would no longer walk into the Dunder Mifflin-Sabre Scranton branch, but the season opened with a hilarious story line: planking. While some in the office awkwardly planked in inappropriate places (some expected, as Meredith was caught planking under the urinals in the men’s restroom), we braced ourselves for the surprise of new management. We learn in the beginning of the opening episode that Robert California (James Spader) talked Jo (Kathy Bates), the CEO of Dunder Mifflin out of her very own job but returned to work out of the meeting room. Pam (Jenna Fischer) was especially sensitive due to the fact that she and husband, Jim (John Krasinski) are expecting their second child, a son, as well as Angela (Angela) expecting her first child with her husband, the senator (whom we were led to believe was gay). The biggest surprise of the new season was finding out that Andrew Bernard (Ed Helms) was named branch manager by Robert. Regardless if anyone agrees whether he can successfully run a branch, we can all agree that he truly cares about the office and his heart is in the right place. Personally, I was confused why he would be named manager, since I figured the producers were planning to go in a different direction as far as personality. We both know that Michael Scott and Andy Bernard are both known to cause mishap around the office.
Last week’s episode was one that would bring a smile to anyone’s face—fan or not. As Andy handled the “manager expectations” nervously, not wanting to upset anyone or coming off as too strict but also wanting work to get done, he and very disinterested Darryl tried to hire a new team of warehouse workers to take over since the old ones quit after winning the lottery. Since Phyllis has a very important order to be filled by that night, Erin, Jim, Dwight and Kevin tried desperately to figure out how to load the reams of paper into the delivery truck through trial and error, though many ended in error. However, they finally ended with the process they named “Senor Loadenstein” because it was “muy rapido.” The buzz around the office consisted of the question “what would you do if you won the lottery?” As always, Jim and Pam (affectionately known as PB&J) stole our hearts with an argument of how they would spend their “fantasy” life after winning the lottery. Andy surprised us all when he took charge in getting Darryl back into the mood of actually working.
Though I am accustomed to the mayhem Michael Scott always seems to find himself in, I am excited for the future of “The Office” and Dunder Mifflin-Sabre and I am curious to see how Andy will hopefully prove my expectation of failing wrong. If you weren’t able to catch it, you can always watch it the day after airing on http://www.hulu.com. “The Office” airs on NBC every Thursday at 9 p.m.