The Office Season 5 Episode 14 "Lecture Circuit"

Very funny new episode tonight, reminiscent of David Brent's motivational speech in the original UK Office.

The Office Season 5 Episode 14 "Lecture Circuit" s05e14
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The Office S05E14 Cast Credits

Jenna Fischer (Pam Beesly), John Krasinski (Jim Halpert), Creed Bratton (Creed Bratton), Angela Kinsey (Angela Martin), Mindy Kaling (Kelly Kapoor), Oscar Nunez (Oscar Martinez), Paul Lieberstein (Toby Flenderson), Phyllis Smith (Phyllis Vance), Craig Robinson (Darryl Philbin), Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute), Steve Carell (Michael Scott), Leslie David Baker (Stanley Hudson), Brian Baumgartner (Kevin Malone), Ed Helms (Andy Bernard), Kate Flannery (Meredith Palmer).

The Office "Lecture Circuit" Synopsis:

The Episode 14 is the first part of Lecture Circuit and the next Episode 15 will be the part two of the same title. In the first Part From Scranton has been so successful, Michael will be sent around to the other branches to explain how. At the same time, Dwight and Jim, the new leaders of the party planning committee, forget a birthday, and must deal with the fallout. After the expiry of his engagement, Andy falls for a new one.

Nature abhors a vacuum and after Phyllis lost her fragile hold on the Party Planning Committee by snitching on Angela and Dwight the committee lost its leadership and its sense of purpose. Tragedy struck: Kelly’s birthday went uncelebrated by her peers and Dwight and Jim put their personal differences aside to throw an exquisitely half-assed, tardy party for their supremely pissed-off co-worker. This thread beautifully illustrated on of the show’s recurring themes: how wage slaves cling to silly little rituals as a way of staving off the drudgery of their day to day lives. As always, Dwight and Jim made a terrific team, especially as they were forced to work together towards a common goal: pacifying Kelly. My favorite gag of the night was a Dwight crafted banner reading, “It is your birthday”. No exclamation point or frilly letters, just a dry statement of fact. It was the perfect embodiment of his brutally unsentimental, Teutonic sensibility: why celebrate and make a big whoop when you can coldly, dispassionately lay out the bare facts in the sparest manner imaginable.

In a subplot that promised more than it delivered, Michael is sent by corporate to different branches to deliver a speech on improving sales. Pam accompanied as his assistant/driver/sidekick and Michael predictably succeeded in alienating just about everyone with his spiel about using unflattering observations about people as mnemonic devices to remember people. “Sugarboobs” and “Black Woman” were my favorite nicknames/mnemonic clues though that might just be because Sugarboobs and Black Woman was also the name of my favorite late seventies cop show.

As part of his lecture tour Michael and a nervous Pam encounter Karen, who is very, very pregnant by a man who is not Jim. The Office has a tendency to draaaagggg out awkward moments to excruciating lengths for comic and dramatic effect, but it didn’t linger at all on Pam telling the now married-and-pregnant Karen (damn, she works fast) that she and Jim were now engaged. Karen seemed happy for America’s sitcom sweethearts but was it genuine happiness or smiling-through-gritted-teeth faux happiness? What do you guys think?

The Office Season 5 Episode 14 "Lecture Circuit" s5e14