photo: nbc
The Office
The Promotion
Original Air Date: Oct 1, 2009
Shannon – Associate Editor
shannon@thetwocentscorp.com
The gist of this episode is that hiring Jim as a co-manager to make the branch run more efficiently has the drawback of making things more a mess than they already were. Michael and Jim have to figure out how to distribute what little allowance they were given as raises between the staff.
The obvious way, giving everyone a 1.5% raise, is suggested by Michael and dismissed by Jim, which is my first problem with the episode. Jim’s a smart guy, why in the world did the writers dumb him down? Jim wants to give the money to the sales staff and leave everyone else high and dry. So when Michael and Jim can’t decide, Jim makes a pros and cons list and it’s useless because he’s collaborating with Michael and conventional methods are lost on him.
The next plan of action is the merit raise so they use Boston Baked Beans candy and photos of the staff to decide who’s getting a raise. Come on, this is so not Jim. I mean, really. Dwight sneaks in the conference room when Jim and Michael step out and the rest of the office finds out the deal. Rioting ensues.
Jim says he just wants to go out on the floor and tell everyone about his plan to give only the sales staff raises and Michael gloats in the background because he knows exactly how this is going to go down. Obviously, the group is highly ticked, as you would imagine.
Jim and Michael hide out in Jim’s new office drinking gin out of matching World’s Best Boss mugs. And that’s that. Oh, and we can’t forget the side story of the wedding registry. Pam would like to register for cash if that’s alright with everyone. Tacky. I really can’t see Pam doing that normally. Also, Pam buying into the scheme at the end with Ryan and the algorithm for determining the winner of college basketball games was completely contrived and not at all funny. Pam is smart enough not to fall for that. What have they done to her? She just got pregnant, she didn’t have a lobotomy.
Overall, I think this is the worst episode of this show I’ve ever seen. It’s like it was just a placeholder for next week’s wedding episode. I feel the writers put very little thought into any of it. I found most of the characters doing things they wouldn’t normally do and saying things that they wouldn’t say. I really didn’t enjoy this episode at all and I’ve never said that before about this show. Leave a comment and let me know what you thought.
TheTwoCents 
It wasn’t the greatest episode, but I’m not sure I’d call it the worst! Well… it was close. A couple of moments made me not COMPLETELY hate it… like the visual of the group talking head, or Kevin giving Pam that check “To love’s eternal glory,” or that short two-line conversation between Creed and Meridith…
I do agree that it was in a sort-of throw away position… everybody is looking towards the wedding episode, anyway.
I don’t mind the overall theme of Jim learning how difficult it is to be a manager…but that episode wasn’t very good. I didn’t like when Jim walked out of the conference room and blurting out how the raises were going to be distributed – that’s classic Michael Scott…not something you expect from Cool Guy Halpert. Very out of character for him. And I agree with you about Pam, she was also not herself. They have just seemed to turn the entire office into a bunch of idiots. It used to only be a few idiots that made things awkward for everyone else (which made things funny), but now everyone in the office are pretty much air-headed. Not so funny. I hope next week redeems itself.
Thanks for the review!
Best part was when Phyllis was like “oh, you’ll love these birdhouses my friend likes” hahaha. That was clutch.
And I feel bad for Jim, but, NO GOOD MANAGER would ever announce raises to the group if not everyone was getting one. That was stupid. You’d call people in 1 by 1 and tell them raise or no raise. Or give the lame people .25%, and the performers a bit more, so everyone thinks they got one. That was silly.
Not a bad episode; not a great episode.
I guess my expectations for the show are high since it’s one of my favorites, but I also don’t like to be let down. The Office is one of the best shows going and I hate to see it become asinine. There were some good lines, like the short exchange between Creed and Meredith, but there was so much that was just wrong.
Thomas, you’re exactly right on the “no good manager” thing because I thought the idea was that Jim was supposed to be the anti-Michael, but it looks like they’re going to be two peas in a pod.
PG, I agree with you on the whole office turning into airheads. I mean, Kelly used to be the office ditz and now Pam is falling for ponzi schemes? Really?
Thanks for the comments, all!