The Office: Season Three DVD Review
By A.J. Carson
As The Office: Season Three opens, paper company Dunder-Mifflin is in romantic turmoil. In the Scranton office, Regional Manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) is dating Carol Stills (Nancy Walls), having ended his relationship with his New York City-based supervisor Jan Levinson (Dirty Dancing's Melora Hardin). Blustery Assistant to the Regional Manager Dwight Schrute (Six Feet Under's Rainn Wilson) and conservative scold Angela (Angela Kinsey) have yet to make their relationship public. They barely even speak to each other in the office, doing so only surreptitiously while standing in separate corners of the break room. Business student Ryan Howard (Punk'd's B.J. Novak) can't seem to end his relationship with motormouth Kelly (Mindy Kaling), mostly because he can't get a word in edgewise. Soft-spoken Phyllis (Phyllis Smith) is engaged to Bob Vance of Bob Vance Refrigeration. Oscar (Oscar Nunez) is accidentally outed by Michael, who blunderingly tries to make him feel more comfortable.
The most compelling relationship is one that isn't even happening. Receptionist Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) called off her wedding to warehouse worker Roy (David Denman) after salesman Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) admitted that he had a huge crush on her. She was too late, though. Sensing that he didn't stand a chance-Pam was almost psychotically committed to Roy-Jim transferred to Dunder-Mifflin's Stamford, Connecticut branch. He is promptly nicknamed "Big Tuna" (after the sandwich he brought to work on his first day) by idiotic go-getter Andy Bernard (Ed Helms, The Daily Show) and is constantly killed in the branch's daily game of Call of Duty by smart, sexy Karen Filippelli (Rashida Jones).
The turmoil isn't all romantic. When word gets out the corporate office plans on closing one of the branches, Kevin (Brian Baumgartner), Stanley (Leslie David Baker), Meredith (Kate Flannery), Creed (Creed Bratton), and Toby (Paul Lieberstein) happily plan their post-Dunder-Mifflin lives. Unfortunately for them, it's the Stamford branch that gets put on the chopping block.
This crew of goof-balls and deadheads is being filmed by a movie crew for what must be the world's longest documentary on business management, so "candid" vignettes alternate with "confessional" interviews, giving us an incredibly funny and truthful look at the banality and tediousness of the modern workplace. The workers even decide that prison sounds like a better alternative than work ("The Convict," written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant of the original British version of The Office).
They are so bored that when an office nutcracker-themed Christmas party planned by Angela begins to sound like a snooze, Pam and Karen plan a rival margarita party. Everyone is forced to choose sides. Eventually, Brian is singing a karaoke version of "You Oughta Know" at the margarita party while across the office the nutcracker attendees look at catalogs and mope ("A Benihana Christmas").
There are even some moments where the workers manage to pull together and make a few sales. To everyone's surprise, Michael negotiates a tricky distribution deal with a company that was formerly a Staples exclusive ("The Convention"). The salesmen prove their mettle when they team up for sales calls. Michael teams with Andy, deftly making a sale despite Andy's bungling, overbearing style. Stanley proves that his years of education won't help Ryan when it comes to working in the real world. Phyllis shows Karen that a bouffant hairdo and overdone makeup is sometimes just what's needed to make a sale. And Jim and Dwight prove to be a surprisingly effective team ("Traveling Salesmen/The Return").
The entire cast is great, but special kudos go to Jenna Fischer, who is heartbreakingly realistic as Pam. C'mon Emmy Awards, smarten up!
The twenty-two episodes that make up season three are divided onto four discs. Each of the discs are designed to look like graph paper, and are numbered with bent paperclips. The discs are housed in a foldout case which features an office theme. The four discs attach to two panels-two of the panels hold two discs (one on top of the other) in a figure eight pattern. Two panels of the foldout case list the titles of each episode along with a brief episode synopsis. The case slides into a cardboard sleeve featuring Michael and the Dunder-Mifflin employees beneath a looming sheaf of paper.
The clever DVD menus-which feature an office theme-are simple and easy to navigate. Viewers can play all episodes or choose them individually. There are no scene selection menus, but the episodes do include chapter stops.
