The Office – Season Four (Universal DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: A Episodes: B+
If I told
you four seasons ago that a series centering on the daily lives of the
employees at a paper company in Scranton Pennsylvania would be one of the funniest
series to ever hit television, you would have thought I was crazy. The
Office, in fact, is one of the best series on television today with its odd
brand of humor and absurd events that are so simple, but at their core are
brilliantly complex.
The Fourth Season of The Office was shortened by the 2007-2008 Writers Strike, but still managed to hold it together to
produce 14 hilariously funny episodes.
This season gives fans the same brand of oddly awkward humor from our
favorite paper company employees as we anxiously dive into the psyche of one of
the most dysfunctional office environments around. The
Office - Season Four treats fans to such surreal moments as ‘The Fun Run’
where Michael forces his employees to do a ‘charity’ 5K run in their work attire
(due to thinking the office is cursed) as he gobbles down pasta to ‘carb load’
for the run, a day of chaos when Michael becomes obsessed with a chair model in
‘The Chair Model,’ and when Michael gets upset that he has not been invited to
the corporate wilderness retreat in ‘Survivor Man’ he decides he will venture
out into the woods to prove himself with nothing on his back but his suit…good
thing Dwight is close behind.
But in,
most likely, one of the most awkward episodes of The Office ever, ‘Dinner Party’ exposes the unhappiness that is the
home life of Michael Scott and his psychotic ex-boss and current girlfriend
Jan. Fellow Dunder Mifflin employees Pam
and Jim are tricked into coming to a dinner party at Michael’s condo (along
with Dwight who just shows up), where the couple is submitted to what can only
be described as hilariously awkward torture where Michael and Jan fight like
rabid dogs.
This
reviewer can not sing the praises of The
Office enough; it is one of the best comedy series ever created. It is not often that writers can so
intelligently combine comedy with genius scripts, without becoming too
slapstick or over the top. With so many
bland ‘family comedies’ and ‘crime dramas’ on television today The Office is a breath of fresh White-Out;
if the show were anymore outrageous I would think I was high.
The
technical features on this Fourth Season,
4-Disc set are right in line with the previous DVD releases. The picture is once again presented in a 1.78
X 1 Anamorphic Widescreen that maintains the series natural color palette as it
is illuminated from the florescent office lights above and has a great
crispness that many series lack. The
audio is also consistent with previous releases, once again presented in a
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround that is clean, crisp with a very natural use of the
soundstage for this mockumentary series.
The
extras that are available on The Office
season sets are some of the best special features anyone could get on
television on DVD. The extras this
season remain rewatchable, insightful, and constantly hilarious. The special Features include:
Deleted
Scenes
-
Most
series ‘deleted scenes’ neither add nor detract from any of the episodes and
mainly are a wash of lackluster nothings.
The Office’s Deleted Scenes,
however, act as an amazing extension of already hilariously memorable
episodes. Essentially each deleted scene
is the stuff that the creators did not have time to show us and these viewable
Deleted Scenes act as a ‘While you were out…’ sticky note. The creators even sight the deleted scenes as
fair game for future references. With
over 2 hours of deleted scenes they are not something to miss.
Rabies:
The More You Know
-
A
mini but hilarious public service announcement (22 seconds) that addresses
Rabies…of course it’s funny.
Episode
Commentaries
-
A
total of four episodes contain full length audio commentaries; ‘Money,’ ‘Local
Ad,’ ‘Dinner Party,’ and ‘Did I Stutter?’
The commentaries as always are full of life and people. In the many television series this reviewer
has watched and owned, none have had the sheer amount of commentators as are
found on The Office’s Audio Commentary tracks.
Where the discussions on the audio tracks are rarely serious, they
manage to be very fun and entertaining.
It is good to know the whole cast, actors and writers alike, love what
they do.
Blooper
Reel
-
Running
about 23 minutes long the Blooper Reel is hilariously absurd as should be
expected. Full of mess ups, do overs,
and laughing fits; the viewer will be so enthralled by the comedic chaos it
feels as if they are there laughing right along with the cast and crew.
The
Office Convention
-
This
featurette takes the viewer to good old Scranton, PA where the annual Office
convention is held each year. The
featurette, though the filming leaves something to be desired, lets fans get
some insight from the writers of the series as they discuss the creative
process and some of their favorite episodes.
There is only limited footage from the dreary (bad weather) gathering,
it is still fun to watch.
Michael
Scott’s Dunder Mifflin Ad
-
This
is the ‘director’s cut’ of Michael Scott’s Dunder Mifflin promo that premiered
in the episode ‘Local Ad.’ It is the
same goodness observed in the episode, only kicked up a notch.
Summer
Vacation Promo
-
This
is the promo NBC aired before the start of Season
4, giving a look into what everyone has been doing with their time
off…hilarious.
Also
included in this Season 4 set (while
supplies last) is a full ‘mini book’ script of the episode ‘Dinner Party.’ This mini script is a nice little memento for
long fans to take home; especially since it hosts some of the series most
awkwardly hilarious moments.
The Office - Season Four is an amazing piece of
television. The series in its short
lifetime has already achieved ‘future classic’ status that future generations
will look back on and find just as hilarious.
Whereas the series still has a ton more to offer (supposedly signed for
at least 3 more seasons), this past season just shows fans why the series is so
brilliant. By infusing comedy, an
extremely talented cast, and scripts that are unrivaled with their odd brand of
genius The Office has become solid
gold. Even with the season cut in half,
the writers still made some of the best episodes of television ever. Length doesn’t always matter…THAT’S WHAT SHE
SAID!
- Michael P. Dougherty II
