New Guys @ the Office Field Guide -- S9E1

I honestly love the ending of season 9 and I cannot wait to see how the field guides play out for season 9. Great job on the first one!

Honestly, I really liked the Philadelphia arc. It gave a conclusion to some of the longest running arcs in the series like Jim feeling unfilled at Dunder Mifflin. I think the issue is that when it comes to fiction, people tend to take one side of an argument without realizing that relationships are complicated.

Gotta be honest, the Kevin-Turtle cold opening really bothers me and I don't like it at all.

Great review, as always, though.

I didn't notice that Ryan and Kelly were gone in season 9 until now. I remember them being there in the finale.

Pam is Trash

hope you know this is such a comfort watch for me, NOT looking forward to field guides ending.

I love season 9. Thanks for persevering.

Great video! What would you give the cold open?

Love your takes on the show! The Office Ladies said that Comstock comes from Comstock Hall at Cornell and they speculate she got that cat when she was dating Andy in the show universe.

i think the problem a lot of us dealt with when first watching this season was it gets too real and too personal which was never the main plot of the show. We lose a lot of talking head and direct communication with the camera (us the audiance) in season 9. Just an observation but yeah I know the Jim and Pam almost getting divorce arc really didn't fit in with the show. You might end up going over this but it started to feel like a drama and not so much a sitcom anymore.

I think Jim was so invested with winning Pam, marrying Pam, having the kid, and now the old Jim who wants more than Scranton is emerging. I don't hate that they set up the tension but I do hate the nadir it reaches.

Comstock is named after Comstock Hall at Cornell. Did you know that Andy went to Cornell?

Worst thing a boss ever said (previous job, not current one): he told one coworker she was fat and that’s why her husband left, told me I’m dumb and called one of the teenagers that worked there sexy

Jenna Fischer in this episode is such an absolute bombshell. I am living vicariously through Jim so hard every time I watch this one 😂

"They're just props." I think you mean Plops.

also yogurt lids were used for the medals in the office Olympics, those were also the thing Pam put with the message she gave to Jim that caused him to go back to Scranton.

I think the best joke from Season 9 is that the rest of the staff unanimously agreed that they owed it to Andy to continue to call Pete "Plop" even after Andy left.

Great review! I can't believe you find the turtle bit funny though. Really don't like it or find it funny at all personally!

Season 8 >>> season 9 and i find it insane to think the opposite

Fun fact: Jake lacy who plays paul/plops/new Jim woukd go on to do the film "ode to joy" and his character is the brother of the main character played by Martin Freeman aka Tim from the UK office

I HATED the whole turtle thing... makes Kevin seem like a complete imbecile,

Clark certainly fell off after The Office and Hot Tub Time Machine, but i think Plop’s career is actively rising. White Lotus was HUGE and i think ive seen him in a trailer for something relatively big coming up (big enough that its marketing has reached me).

And he worked intimately with and portrayed the love interest of Alexandra Daddario, which is a greater achievement than almost any of his Office castmates will ever reach. Jon Krasinski marrying and starting a family with Emily Blunt tops it tho

I thought they said it was a month-long retreat? How was he only gone for 3 days?

Comstock is a Hall at Cornell, I think. Not sure what that references tho.

Comstock is maybe a reference to comstock hall at Cornell?

Always happy to see your ups. 👍🖨️👍

The turtle bit is my Scott’s tots. I didn’t even notice the Easter eggs because I always look away at that part. 😬

I think that The Office had a big drop in quality between Season 7 & 8 and then another big drop in quality between Season 8 & 9. I am really interested to watch this field guide and I'm wondering if it will cause me to view Season 9 in a more positive light.
A lot of Season 9 just felt off. You discussed the sudden introduction of the documentary crew and the Nard Dog's jarring switch from hero to villain. Additionally, up until this point, I don't think liking sports was a major part of Jim's personality. It seems really weird that all of a sudden working for a sports company has always been Jim's secret dream.

I don’t know what it is about this episode but I can’t stand it! One of the worst episodes in the series for me.

It’s just a paper company

I know the field guides aren't your most watched videos but they are my favorite videos you put out but I watch the others as well. I'm a two time completed Office watcher once on Netflix during 2020 and again when it went to Peacock. I think it would be cool to see you do a field guide for another show next even if it's not a show I've seen. I will watch those as well.

The Comstock Laws were anti-obscenity laws from the 1870s that were struck down by the Supreme Court in the ‘60s. Totally something Angela would be into.

Great video! Good analysis in particular of the PB&J situation.

I find the Trouble in Halpert Paradise stuff in this season very hard to watch, harder than almost any of the golden age mega-cringe, but I don't think it's that much of a stretch character-wise for them. The stage of life they're in - married for a while, two small kids, stuck in a bit of a rut, middle age looming (in-universe they're meant to be, what, mid-30s now?) - is one that a lot of people will have experienced or at least be able to empathise with. It would have easy to give them some cheap drama like an affair, but that would have been dumb (our host was totally right that the tension in After Hours is not "will Jim Halpert cheat?" but "how will easygoing no-drama nice guy Jim Halpert get out of this?"").

Couple of additional points to those mentioned in the video:

Jim's strong aversion to open conflict - an important and established characteristic throughout the show - feeds into his communication problems with Pam.

Pam is not being unreasonable, for the reasons you mention. She has her soulmate, her children and her steady job and her nice house in the suburbs. It is significant imo that (SPOILERS) at the conclusion of the Philly arc, in "Livin' The Dream", she sorta kinda suggests that part of her discomfort with Jim going to Athlead was that she fears he is outgrowing her, and transcending the relatively circumscribed world of DM and Scranton, where she feels happy and secure, and where her and Jim formed such a strong bond.

Both could plausibly be criticised, and as you say in the video you have to squint a bit to get to the Philly arc from their general trajectory in the show. But fundamentally it's a pretty good storyline: this is a situation where neither of them is doing anything awful or unjustifiable. It’s a serious, good faith clash of preferences exacerbated by communication barriers and the pressures of raising children, which is to say it’s the kind of disagreement that most long-term couples face at some point. It’s a genuinely difficult impasse.

I'm glad the writers found something to do with them tbh, they've basically just chugged along very happily ever since Pam came back from art school way back in season 5.

Wasn't Andy's trip a month long according to Erin?

Honestly, "new guys" should have carried the show. Clark and Plop along with Erin should've been the reason for season 10 and beyond. But the writers chose a different approach ...

Worse thing I ever heard was a supervisor who told a woman in the warehouse. "The only way you'll ever get laid is a F*****ng dare". 3 guys in the office hit him for that and the floor was cleared. She quit that day. Also, Andy assaulting Nellie? I wanted to hit her half the time too but c'mon. Sympathetic character my butt.

I feel like I remember Comstock Hall being referenced in the ep where Dwight applies to Cornell.

I feel like the cat is named comstock because she’s an accountant.
Comm. Stock, as in the form stockholders equity on the balance sheet.
Just always what I figured

Ugh 😫 you like all the stuff I hate from this episode! 😭 The turtle cold open makes me queasy. It’s gross, cruel, and makes Kevin look like a complete idiot. It crosses the Tropic Thunder rule.

And just how can you actually like the contrived Jim and Pam drama? How does that seem like a good direction for the season to you? I realize Jim and Pam are getting boring as a couple going into this season, but there were better approaches than what we got. The last two episodes are the only saving grace we got from an otherwise lackluster final season.

A Community Field guide would be ao awesome after The Office is finished!

I think the way Jim made this huge decision without telling Pam is perfect writing. It's totally something Jim would do. Didn't he buy a house without telling her?

One part of this episode really sticks in my mind, it's when Jim says something to the effect of "my friend wants me on board, but Pam and I had a conversation and we said no." Did they really have a conversation about it? Like a real one? Did Jim actually lay it on the line and tell her that the start-up is something he wanted to do?

Jim probably mentioned the start-up in a casual, jokey tone like "haha wouldn't that be crazy" and Pam was probably like "haha yeah imagine moving Philadelphia lmao" and then Jim never brought up the topic again. He still wanted to do it but he was afraid to tell her, and the longer he waited the more nervous he got. It's just like the run-down.

Didn’t it say the retreat was a month?

Clark looking like he gearing up to play a Ron Jeremy role or smt 😅

"That's why your wife cheated on you because you're a lazy bum. Maybe now you'll learn!"
That's the worst thing I've heard a Boss say to a coworker. And the warehouse was full. 🫠

I use to work for an electrician in chicago, he was greek, born in greece. Early 60s, out of the blue says in a heavy accent" want to know best bj...baby goat." Than just leaves.

They also broke the 4th wall in goodbye Micheal when he takes off his mic pack at the end

As others have said, marriage is complicated and sometimes even if you're Jim & Pam, you aren't always on the same page. Pam's happy with life because, after trying her luck with being an artist (and failing), she married her best friend and they have 2 beautiful kids. She's content with the "boring" life she has. But now's Jim's feeling like he wants to try pursuing his dream, since the only time he left Scranton was to get away after having been shot down by Pam when he made his feelings known.

I have to agree that the Jim & Pam arc for this season was well executed in this episode. Yeah, it seems a bit odd that Jim wouldn't have communicated that he longs to pursue his dreams in Philly. The way it's framed you'd think Philly was on the other side of the world.