NBC’s ‘The Office’ review: Guess who’s back!
“The Office” is making the most of its final season, at least when it comes to trying to bring back some notable guest stars from the past.
Who was it this time? It was none other than Jan (Melora Hardin), who made a surprise appearance while running the local white pages chain that Dunder-Mifflin valued so much as a key client (and sent Dwight and Pam out to meet). There were subtle nods really throughout here when it comes to the history of her character, including the return of Serenity by Jan and some photos of her daughter Astrid.
The one thing that was missing? Let’s just say that it was giant, goofy elephant in the room known as Michael Scott. Despite the fact that the two dated for many years, it was never talked about or hinted at in any way … even though they did mention her being a cougar to other men. The lack of Michael mentions this season is a pretty major giveaway that Steve Carell probably has no plans to come back at the moment, if for no other reason than that he doesn’t need to since his story was wrapped up well back in season 7. With that being said, it is a little awkward that everyone in the office now acts like he was never there when he did have such a major impact on their lives.
Away from Jan, we also have to talk about the continuation of two other huge storylines. For one, Jim finally realized that he cannot do his startup sports company from Scranton anymore, and he is going to have to make a choice: either work in Philadelphia, or not be a part of it in the same capacity he wants to. Meanwhile, Angela has to figure out what she wants to do now that she knows Oscar and the Senator having something going on together. We like how the reveal of the affair was actually subtle; Oscar didn’t need to say it for her to know.
Even though there were problems, we found this episode of “The Office” to be the best of the whole season, thanks largely to both the return of Jan and some of the comedy surrounding Dwight learning how to talk to women.
What did you think?