Watching The Office

And we’re back to the 30 minute episodes for The Office this week! I previously wasn’t too thrilled about the extended or supersized episodes, so I’m looking forward to this one.

Airing October 25th, the newest episode is entitled ”Local Ad”.

And it carries the following synopsis:

When the Scranton branch is asked to participate in a Dunder Mifflin ad, Michael seizes his chance to exhibit his creativity.

Which means, more of those ”Michael Scott Joint” videos, huh?

Meanwhile, Dwight explores the online world of Second Life.

Alright, I won’t pretend to know what Second Life is, as I honestly don’t. My online activities are so far limited to watching TV series and keeping my blogs up to date. So,  I went ahead and googled for more information and evidently it’s a very popular social networking service/virtual reality game that began in 2003 and now has some 10 Million users. Alright, that’s not exactly my cup of tea, but it looks like an interesting playground.

But I definitely could not imagine that it is something Dwight could get into because, let’s face it, he’s one of the less sociable characters we know.

So, what is Dwight doing on Second Life? Is this his way of getting over Angela? Is he trying to hook up online? Or maybe he’s conquering the world of DunMiff/Sys which he has, so far, outsold and outperformed at Dunder Mifflin.

Promos for Local Ad is up at Youtube, and you can view them here and here. If you’re looking for photos, there are tons posted on this website.

Local Ad is the first 30-minute episode of the season and showtime is at 9 PM.

By the way, last week’s episode, Money, drew very divided opinions from fans of the show. Has the show been going in the wrong direction? Slate Magazine outlines what could be wrong with The Office today:

NBC finally has a hit on its hands, but now the network is giving the audience too much of what it wants—Jim and Pam together, Michael acting infantile, Dwight killing innocent animals, Ryan being a villain. It’s true that the hourlong episodes make the problems we’ve enumerated seem more glaring. But they’re problems all the same. Will the show return to form next week when it goes back to the half-hour format? That would be awesome.

Suffice to say, tomorrow night is going to be the real test, now that the show returns to its 30-minute format. But is anyone actually expecting perfection from this show?

The Office, The Office Local Ad, The Office episode guide, The Office episode preview, Second Life, Slate Magazine