"Shut Up Toby"

[If you didn't watch The Office last night, and care about the show, this post might be considered a spoiler]

The Office has been pretty weak lately - I think the move to a one hour format hurt. I mean, the show is still probably the best sitcom on tv right now, but it was slow going for a little bit there. But last night was a return to form.

The whole deposition was fantastic, and classic Michael Scott. It makes me wish Jan was still the boss and Ryan was just a bit part of the show. My favorite was when the Dunder-Mifflin attorney was reading Michael's journal and asked "who is this girl Ryan? Not as pretty as Jan, but still sexy?" Then Toby started laughing hysterically. That killed me.

The Michael - Toby relationship is one of my favorite parts of the show. Something about Toby's sad-puppy face and Michael being so mean to him just gets me every time.

And the Kelly-Pam ping-pong thing was a nice side story, although I feel like Jim is enough of a geek that he would have been better at ping-pong; it wasn't surprising that Dwight is a ping-pong savant. Kelly talking smack, not trash, to Pam was priceless. It would have been better if Pam was nasty good at ping-pong and just slammed it in Kelly's face every time, totally emasculating Jim in the process.

[Quick Tangent: Due the writer's strike, it appears The Office will be running out of new shows here in the near future. Apparently, NBC is thinking of showing the original British version of the show to finish the season. I think this is a great idea, and maybe the only good thing to come of the strike ( I miss you Daily Show ). While I really enjoyed the Brit version, I think the length of the American version has allowed it to pass the Brit version. The Brit version has more painful awkwardness with the boss, but the American version has a better supporting cast. And Dwight K Schrute.]