March 6th, 2010

Office-ially a Family

Mazel tov! The Halperts have become three with the arrival of little miss Cecelia Marie and all of Scranton rejoices. “The Delivery” seemed like a rather subdued episode of The Office, making with the chuckles every now and again, but relying more on the “aww” factor and the strength of its players to sell the more heartwarming moments. In that respect, it came out ten fingers, ten toes. A rousing success.

Some of the more laugh-out-loud moments ranged from Kevin’s (Brian Baumgartner) ridiculous excitement at his ability to share large meals with pregnant Pam (Jenna Fischer), to Dwight (Rainn Wilson) and Angela’s (Angela Kinsey) extremely matter-of fact decision to draw up a contracted agreement to conceive a child of their own. “Bear my child” is likely to become my new go-to pickup line. I wouldn’t mind having it on a t-shirt, either.

The Office surprises me the most when the writing manages to slip in tender moments of real human emotion into over-the-top characters and absurd situations, and this episode was no exception.

John Krasinski stole near-every scene with his wonderful nervous tension getting Pam to agree to finally drive to the hospital, which led to several very sweet moments. While Pam “accidentally” revealing the baby’s sex felt somewhat clichéd, the talented chemistry between Krasinski and Fischer sold the moment very nicely. Fischer brought A-game of her own to her frantic confession about feeling unready to become a mother, a moment, again, wonderfully played between the two and charmingly ruined by the presence of Michael (Steve Carell) and Kevin.

Once little Cecelia arrives, the pacing slows somewhat, drifting back between Jim and Pam’s efforts to deal with their fussy newborn and Michael attempting to play matchmaker around the office. I feel like we’ve seen dozens of TV couples deal with babies to the point of being unable to mine any new territory, but at the very least it provided a hilariously disturbing moment as Pam realizes she’s been coddling and breast-feeding the wrong baby.

I’m definitely interested to see where the writers take this new dynamic, having travelled farther than Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant ever imagined with their British counterparts.

Finally, we also saw some progress with Erin (Ellie Kemper) and Andy (Ed Helms).  Michael’s Cupidic effort at pairing Erin with Kevin finally pushed Andy to ask her out, albeit in a bizarrely juvenile way. I swear, these people become more like children each week. How bitterly ironic.

And kudos to whoever thought of bringing Pam’s sister Isabelle back to provide a romantic foil for Dwight and Angela, I need a good surprise now and again in a 5 year relationship.

Now we wait for the inevitable baby-related “that’s what she said.” Shudder.

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