The Office "Last year, my performance...

The Office
"Last year, my performance review started with Michael asking me what my hopes and dreams were, and it ended with him telling me he could bench-press 190 lbs. So I don't really know what to expect." I'll tell you what you can expect, Pam: a healthy dose of interoffice romance analysis with a dash of "satisfactories" and "adequates" to taste. Not particularly helpful if you're an employee, but plenty of fun if you're an at-home viewer. You know, as it turns out, it's performance-review time here at TV Guide, too. I'm thinking maybe I ought to use Dwight's "I am awesome" karate-chop stairwell technique to prep for my big sit-down with the boss. Although without the charts and graphs, the whole presentation pretty much falls apart, and I'm just not that willing to commit to the joke. (Great, now I know what the "Additional comments"box on the form is gonna say this year: "Follow-through on random silliness sometimes lacking. Raise denied.")

I must admit, I'm pleased to see the complete jackass side of Michael Scott back in action after a few weeks of legitimate, albeit hilarious, pathos. Between his badgering of Jan Levinson-Gould into an awkward it's-not-you-it's-me conversation and his dismissal of Tom, the guy who used to work in accounting [insert hideously inappropriate yet uproarious gun-to-head motion here], I think my brow might be permanently furrowed from a full half-hour of constant cringe-laughing.

It seemed like the camera eye contact in this episode was bordering on out-of-control Jim, Kevin, Dwight, all with the devilish glances and yet it got me to full-on chortle every single time. What can I say? These guys have got me in a comedy death grip, and they're not letting go.