"The Office" Season 7, Episode Two -- “Counseling”

"The Office" Season 7, Episode Two -- “Counseling”

Television Review

By our guest blogger, Megan O'Malley

"The Office" got off to a strong start with “Nepotism.” The second episode, "Counseling," was only slightly less exciting in that it didn’t touch on many of the plot points that were set up the previous week. “Counseling” had a wonderful cold opener. Dwight is going to open a daycare in the building. There might be a plant and if you cross out the words Insane and Posse from an ICP poster, you might just end up with pictures of demonic clowns.

What children wouldn’t love that?

Since Michael spanked his nephew in the office in the first episode, he had to do six hours of mandatory counseling with none other than Toby. I expected more from this. There were some good parts but the whole storyline wasn’t as well written as it could have been. Michael’s fake stories about getting through his counseling are good, but not the most exciting part of the episode. It kind of fell flat. I love Toby, though, and when he slaps that little grin of achievement on his face, you just want to cheer for him.

This episode did showcase one of the show’s major strengths.  It was when all the Dunder Mifflinites work together toward a common goal. In this case it was giving Dwight a “Pretty Woman”-style makeover. If you haven't seen the show, I don’t want to give too much of it away, but Dwight thinks it’s a revenge story. This storyline was really where the laughs were, especially when Jim is sitting in on Dwight’s confessional as Andy is combing Dwight’s hair.

“Counseling” had a bunch of nice little nuances that made it worth watching. For example, Erin’s throwaway scene with the disposable camera was really a hidden gem. Also, Kelly finally made her presence known. Kelly really needs to show up more. Pam was taking more charge of her career, albeit in a very sneaky way. I liked seeing her in a storyline that didn’t involve Jim. We get it that they're married--they don’t need all their storylines to be together. Ryan’s closing statements really fit the whole feel of “Counseling.”  They were a bit nonsensical, they didn’t really go anywhere, but they were fun to listen to and offered up a few laughs.

Top 3 lines of “Counseling”:

“I’m glad Michael’s getting help.  He has a lot of issues and he’s stupid” – Phyllis

“I talk a lot, so I’ve learned to just tune myself out” – Kelly

“You know I might have actually been probed by ALF” – Michael telling Toby his life story.