- Comedy
- 2010
- Buy the DVD
Reviewed by Will Harris
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espite the number of TV fans who regularly surf the ‘net, it’s still pretty hard for a television series to find success with original “webisodes” unless they feature primary members of that series’ cast. Unfortunately, the catch-22 in the situation is that it’s generally impossible to convince a network to put up the cash to pay for such cast members to appear, which is why you often get yawn-inspiring semi-spinoffs featuring heretofore-unseen cousins of various characters. Eventually, however, the combination of NBC-Universal’s deep pockets and the large ensemble cast of “The Office,” which is consistently hilarious across the board, we finally ended up with a series of so-called “digital shorts” that were worth logging onto our computers to watch.
Well, mostly, anyway.
If you’re not a diehard “Office” fan, you may not even be aware of these shorts, so you deserve the same fair warning that, to the producers’ credit, they’ve gone out of their way to provide to those who pick up this DVD: if you’re looking for Michael, Dwight, Jim and Pam, then you’d best keep on walking. They’re spoken about often but, unless my memory is failing me, are never actually seen. The sooner you’re resigned to this fact, the more you’ll appreciate the proceedings, because everyone else in the cast turns up at some point or other, and they tend to be just as funny here as they are on the actual show.
Well, mostly, anyway.
Yeah, I know, there’s that caveat again. The biggest problem with these shorts is that, although they were originally designed to be watched on a chapter by chapter basis over the course of several weeks, they’re now presented back to back. It would’ve been nice if someone had taken the time to edit the chapters together and create a more natural flow. Watching them in this manner via this medium, there’s a serious problem with comedic momentum at times. That’s not to say that all of the shorts could’ve been saved in editing, but it’s easy to imagine how much better some of them would be if they’d only been tightened up and meshed into a cohesive unit.
There are seven shorts included on the set: “The Accountants,” “Kevin’s Loan,” “The Outburst,” “Blackmail,” “Subtle Sexuality,” “The Mentor,” and “The Podcast.” With “The Accountants,” where Oscar, Angela, and Kevin search the office and question their coworkers in an attempt to find some missing funds, you can tell that the producers were still trying to figure out the best way to sell the webisodes to the fans, as the references to Michael and Dwight are at their most numerous. By the time “Kevin’s Loan” rolls around, however, they seem comfortable leaving the focus solely on those who are in attendance.
Speaking of “Kevin’s Loan,” it’s easily one of the funniest shorts, thanks in no small part to the decision to combine Kevin’s notorious naiveté – oh, hell, let’s be honest: the guy’s stupid – with Darryl’s craftiness. Unfortunately, the former is no match for the latter, but the results are pretty hysterical. Creed fans will enjoy “Blackmail,” which both puts the spotlight on Creed Batton and allows the writers to provide a bit of ridiculous back story to some of the other characters. “Subtle Sexuality” lives and dies by its music video, which more than makes up for its slow start, and “The Mentor” and “”The Podcast” help to flesh out the then-new characters of Kelly and Gabe, respectively.
None of the digital shorts are necessarily must-have pieces, but each has enough laughs that “Office” fans will just be glad to have all of them together on one DVD.
Special Features: Even those who may have been underwhelmed by the overall results of the various digital shorts will still find themselves drawn to this disc by the bonus material. First, there’s an hour-long Q&A with the cast which took place during the “Office” convention in Scranton a few years ago, followed by a segment from the Paley panel which offers insight into the show’s writer’s room. Beyond that, you’ve got the “Subtle Sexuality” video with optional audio commentary from Mindy Kaling, B.J. Novak, and Ellie Kemper, video commentary from Creed Batton during “Blackmail,” a Dwight Schrute video, the legendary “Lazy Scranton” video, Michael Scott’s Dunder Mifflin ad, and fake “The More You Know” public service announcements.
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