The Office: Secretary’s Day

I didn’t even bother to look at what the actual title of this episode was, and I’m not going to. After watching it, I’m that confident it’s “Secretary’s Day.” Anyway, this is the first show back after about a month on hiatus, and it’s quite solid.

The two core storylines of this episode consist of a) the first chinks are put in the boundlessly cute, precious armor of the romance and subsequent relationship between Andy and Erin, as Erin learns about Andy’s past relationship with Angela from Michael; and b) Kevin’s struggle to put an end to an office-wide, episode-long laugh-fest over the similarities between his voice, and that of the Cookie Monster.

The a) storyline takes off when Andy has everyone bombard Erin with gifts, since it is in fact Secretary’s Day. He then bestows her with the ultimate gift for any secretary, lunch with her boss, over which Michael of course lets it slip. I had to give pause here. Really? This whole thing is set in motion because we’re supposed to believe that (even in the zany, wacky world of this series) a joyous treat for any self-respecting secretary is to have lunch with her boss? I swear, these people who put together this show are freaks. That preposterous concept as a key plot point, in even slightly less capable hands, would’ve been disastrous (aside from the usual 100% committed performances, we also had writer Mindy Kaling and Director Steve Carell to thank; sometimes I wonder why they ever use anyone out of house to do those jobs at all, at this point).

As for the b) storyline…well, I suppose it’s not much of an actual storyline anyway. More of a running gag. But a really funny one. Which, oh yeah, that’s why you should watch this episode of The Office. It’s pretty funny.

Season 6, Episode 21: Secretary’s Day (originally aired April 22, 2010)

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Thursdays, 9/8C on NBC

Photograph courtesy of NBC Universal, Byron Cohen, and Mitchell Haaseth.