Since The Office Christmas episode, “Christmas Wishes,” I have become a very proud Mindy Kaling fan. The episode, which aired back in early December, developed a cohesive storyline centered on an office Christmas party where different character stories developed in an intriguing and surprising way, and a return to the reliably funny Dwight-Jim pranks became reminiscent of earlier Office seasons. But tonight’s episode, “Trivia,” was on the opposite end of the quality spectrum – mainly in that it was the complete antithesis to all that was good in Mindy Kaling’s Christmas episode.
My hope grew during the cold open of “Trivia” as the Dunder Mifflin employees were breaking their record of longest period of silence – 14 minutes. But that was quite the extent of my amusement with the episode. The plot that continued to develop in which Andy got the office to drive to Philadelphia to participate in a trivia competition and use the money to meet their paper-selling quota was hardly inspired. And, while it is often useless to point out how unrealistic this show can be (since it so often exceeds expectations in this respect), the idea that Andy could round up all the employees to leave work and participate in this field trip was strange and far-fetched.
While “Christmas Wishes” was not among my favorites of Office past, it was certainly head and shoulders above “Trivia.” We see Andy showing off his new girlfriend at the office Christmas party as Erin grapples with her feelings for him and her new-found awareness of drunkenness. Erin’s part in the episode guided the show to a place that made sense – of plot exposition and character exploration. Unlike “Trivia,” which maintained that pathless sitcom effect where the story falls secondary to the gimmick (in “Trivia”s case the story was anything that happened prior to the episode and the gimmick was the trivia competition), “Christmas Wishes” was about struggles within The Office’s overarching narrative. The major struggle is between Erin, Andy, Andy’s new girlfriend and now Robert California (who butts himself into Erin’s business). The secondary, but equally interesting struggle was the comic relief part of the episode, manifesting in Dwight and Jim’s prank war.
But “Trivia” forgot all about the hijinks of its preceding episode. There was little interaction between Andy and Erin, no mention of her proclamation in the last episode of wanting Andy’s girlfriend dead. The Robert and Erin part of the story also fell under the radar in pursuit of the trivia competition gimmick.
So why was The Office so willing to let the story fall off course? I couldn’t say. I can only hypothesize that whoever was responsible for writing the episode must not have been aware of the previous plot and character development. And the sad thing is that this is something that has been occurring in The Office fairly regularly. While we have spurts of plot development, most of the episodes are filler. They’re fluff and no substance. Sometimes not even comic substance.
“Christmas Wishes” had moments of reflection on Andy and Erin’s relationship, but it was also packed with the silliness of Jim and Dwight. From Jim defacing his own photo of his daughter to Dwight writing on his own forehead in the effort to frame each other so as to get the other in trouble, this was a comedic gimmick that, unlike the trivia competition, was actually funny and characteristic of The Office. The only funny moments of “Trivia” were the teaser, Gabe’s comparing himself to a toilet, and Kevin’s deconstruction of the word “fluke.” But other than those few minute spurts of good writing, “Trivia” seemed misguided.
The Office needs to find its way back, if only by sticking to its plot and history of good comedy. Maybe Mindy can help.