Tori’s Review: Fun Run
Sunday, September 30th, 2007There were a few ways I thought Season 4 of The Office might begin; Michael hitting the “face of rabies” with his car was not one of them. Just one of the reasons to love this show.
Fun Run starts with Michael and Jan in domestic bliss, and Jim and Pam not dating. What the …?
Oh, wait; things might not be what they seem …
After a series of unfortunate events that start with Pam downloading porn, and end with the death of Angela’s cat, Michael decides the reason he ran over Meredith has nothing to do with him being a jackass, but instead a curse — from Satan … and Toby.
Even though Michael is so good at making people want to leave him on the side of the road and never look back, the idea that anyone would be upset with him makes him crazy. Meredith was not quick to accept the apology he never gave her, so he did what any mediocre manager would do; he deflected blame.
Once he realized Dwight exposed Meredith to rabies before he hit her, he was again lifted up and the Michael Scott D.M.S.M.P.M.C. Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race (don’t hang up) for the Cure was born.
As self-involved as Michael is, when Pam mentions Angela’s cat died, he knows the cat is named Sprinkles. I love how they give us these small hints Michael sometimes pays attention to the world around him. Of course, he turned her pain into something all about him, but he did know the cat’s name. One small step for mankind.
I’m interested to see where Sprinkles’ death will take Dwangela this season. Angela put the most important thing in her life in Dwight’s hands … and he put it in the freezer. A relationship doesn’t just bounce back from that. I believe these characters are meant to be together, mostly because everyone else thinks they are insane, but I want to see Dwight work for it.
So while most of the office was running for no reason, we finally got what we’ve been waiting for; flirty and dating Jim and Pam! Karen was so pissed off, Jim dumped her; she took her computer and telephone with her when she left. That’s a hurt woman, right there. I’m happy PB&J were outed to us in the first episode because 1) Greg Daniels doesn’t have to put up that electric fence, and 2) we’ll finally get to see little glimpses of what this couple can be without obstacles. I haven’t been so excited over hand-holding since the 7th grade.
Pam’s new look, bolder attitude, and curiosity about celebrity sex are all adorable. Her necklace, which used to be a pony (I think), is even now a butterfly. Cute metaphor. I know a pony isn’t a cocoon, but a cocoon would make a crappy necklace. These continued changes show she is now in a relationship where she can be herself, instead of hiding behind someone else.
It’ll be great to see Jim and Pam work together again to make Dwight’s life miserable and keep Michael alive. On the commentary for Season 3’s Safety Training, someone said Michael is like Jim and Pam’s child. You see pieces of that in this episode. Good parents keep their kids out of trouble, inevitably they see them naked, admittedly they rarely hire them a stripper, but they certainly never leave them by the side of the road.
Jim and Pam gave Michael the little boost he needed to finish a race and then watched him throw up.
That’s unconditional love.
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Tori Weber is a Web Producer and writer for a television news station in Orlando, FL. Writing keeps her sane, and ice cream makes her happy. Dogs are good too. Visit her here.
After seeing that Pam was able to confuse “28 Days” with “28 days later,” I think that it is very possible that this was just a simple mistake. Because she said “it happened so fast!” I don’t see this as something she did on purpose. On another note: Jim and Pam, Dwight and Angela, Jan and Michael, Kelly and Ryan. Come on now, what is going on?
65 | Kacee Tue. Oct. 2, 2007 at 6:43pmYes! Tori’s reviews are always “spot-on”!
64 | Angela Tue. Oct. 2, 2007 at 6:25pmI agree! What’s with the Pam drama?!?! I love the new Pam. She seems more at ease and really shines. I love this review of Fun Run. It’s exactly how I feel.
63 | Fig Newton Tue. Oct. 2, 2007 at 5:58pmWhat’s with all this drama about Pam?!
#59 has it right.
If you re-watch the episode, the IT guy says something like, “You shouldn’t click on offers that you didn’t ask for”.
It was an accident….
…..and very funny.
62 | karly j Tue. Oct. 2, 2007 at 2:33pmPeople are trying to come up with off-the-wall excuses
Michael being responsible for her downloading it is as far from “off-the-wall” as excuse as I can think of. Frankly, I never entertained the notion that Pam was the one responsible.
That being said, I am absolutely not shunning Pam for doing it, if that is what the writers intended.
61 | ThreeHolePunchVersion Tue. Oct. 2, 2007 at 9:12am“I’m sorry but it’s far past the age where a woman should be shunned for wanting to explore and be curious about sex.”
Angela, no one has a problem with Pam being curious about sex. The problem is that she was downloading pornography at work. That’s not curiosity–that’s just weird and creepy. I’m no prude; I have no problem with exploring sex, believe me. But if I were to download porn at work and crash a computer doing so, I would be fired on the spot and would hope there wasn’t a lawsuit coming. I don’t think anyone would care that I’m a grown woman curious about sex.
There are some boundaries that decent people just don’t cross. Downloading porn at work is one of those things that decent people simply don’t do.
That’s why this is such a big deal–it’s putting into question the basic decency of Pam’s character.
60 | Snarky New Beesley Tue. Oct. 2, 2007 at 8:51amWhile I don’t think it had anything to do with Michael or a prank, we’ve never gotten to see Pam talk about anything related to her sexual life (except maybe the “bath” comment in “Basketball” and Roy’s “best sex…” comment in “Valentine’s Day”) because Pam wasn’t in a particularly happy relationship. We do know that she is willing to do some different things, like unbutton the top button of her shirt for a blind date. Rather than this being “out of character” it was part of “character development”; just because the camera doesn’t go home with Pam every night, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. And if you don’t like to see Pam as the type who would order a sex tape, I’m sorry but it’s far past the age where a woman should be shunned for wanting to explore and be curious about sex. Just because she may be sexually adventurous doesn’t mean she can’t still be a generally nice person. If we question why the writers put a scene in there to develop Pam’s character, then we can start to question why they put any scenes in at all.
59 | Angela Tue. Oct. 2, 2007 at 6:56amAfter one episode..I am already seeing all the “out of character” comments when no one even knows the reasoning behind it. After 3 years I think that the writers have proved that they know what they are doing and know these characters better than any of us.Just like last season when people were talking about Jim being a jerk and trying to screw Michael and how he was being sneaky and called David Wallace, but when you watch the deleted scenes you see that David Wallace called him.For all we know the reason that Pam was doing whatever she might have been doing might actually be explained next September on disc one.
58 | Damian Tue. Oct. 2, 2007 at 12:29amThough, I will say that Pam is wearing the same outfit that she is during the first day when they have the conversation, but there is no evidence that the porn download did not transpire the day before.
57 | ThreeHolePunchVersion Mon. Oct. 1, 2007 at 7:50pmHe wasn’t even there when Pam was downloading it–he was taking Meredith to the hospital.
We don’t know the specific timeframe in which she clicked the ad.
When Jim was asking her about it, she definitely would have told him that Michael had ordered her to do it.
I’m not sure she would, especially when Jim was not asking her specifically why the incident happened.
I think it’s pretty clear that she had picked it and paid for it.
Well, matter of opinion, of course, but it seems highly unlikely to me that she would do it out-of-the-blue.
56 | ThreeHolePunchVersion Mon. Oct. 1, 2007 at 7:44pma great review!!! i just love how pam is more confident, and not so shy. can’t wait to see what will happen with the PB&J storyline.
55 | Nina Mon. Oct. 1, 2007 at 3:38pmLoved the review Tori. Sooo good.
A Dwight/Angela/Andy triangle seems in the cards, but what I can’t figure out is Andy’s motivation. If Andy knew that Dwight and Angela were an item, he’d move on Angela just to put a spoke in Dwight’s wheel. But Dwangela is a secret from him, so does he really want Angela or is she a step in his grand plan that even he doesn’t understand yet?
54 | Dingo Babies Mon. Oct. 1, 2007 at 3:06pmWhoa, I’m not upset that people think Pam was the one who clicked it on purpose, I just think we have evidence that Michael had something to do with it, namely his statement later on in the episode. It seems a little out-of-character for Pam to want a celebrity sex video, to me, when we’ve had no inkling of it before. And her shyness about it when questioned by Jim speaks volumes. Were porn surfing really a part of Fancy New Beesley, she would have challenged Jim about it, as opposed to merely saying “irrelevant”.
53 | ThreeHolePunchVersion Mon. Oct. 1, 2007 at 12:11pmI remember that blog from Jenna too and I think that may have been a necklace she wore to a talk show appearance and then bought for herself and friends. Pam may have had a couple of necklaces, but I definitely know I’ve seen a screen capture of a unicorn or a horse.
I’ve never seen Pam as sweet and innocent. She has a quiet suffering to her, but not sweet and innocent. And to be completely honest, sweet and innocent people don’t kiss their best friend while they are still engaged to their boyfriend of ten years.
Yes, this is also the same office where Michael had Dwight research gay pornography on the web so they could understand Oscar.
52 | Angela Mon. Oct. 1, 2007 at 12:05pmI’m glad I wasn’t the only one who noticed Pam’s necklace shift from pony to butterfly.
I really liked the horse though :)
51 | megan Mon. Oct. 1, 2007 at 11:35am“In my mind, Pam wasn’t sitting at her desk surfing porn. I saw that scene as maybe she was reading a celebrity gossip blog, saw the ad, got curious and figured the link would show more info. I don’t think she expected the computer to start downloading it and crash her computer.”
This was exactly my take on it…I thought it was funny and not out of character for Pam…she and Jim have always goofed around at work when they should be working.
50 | CorporateBS Mon. Oct. 1, 2007 at 9:49amPam’s old necklace was most definitely a dove, not a horse. I didn’t notice the butterfly - that is cool!!
49 | CorporateBS Mon. Oct. 1, 2007 at 9:43amwhy is everyone obsessed with Pam being sweet? Let’s let her be multidimensional, people.
48 | Jen Mon. Oct. 1, 2007 at 9:10amI definitely agree with the excitement over hand holding!! And the look on Jim’s face when they admit to the cameras that they are dating and it’s going well!
Yeah, I thought the porn thing was a little odd for Pam, even with her new blossoming personality. But some thoughts different people mentioned here seem to make sense as the prank idea.
My husband thought that the Pam seeing Michael naked could’ve expanded into an entire episode itself. There was just so much stuffed into this premiere!
I like the Michael as Jim & Pam’s child thing too. I recall that commentary and thought it fitting here.
At times I felt some things were forced (like the religion talk in the conference room) but watching it a second time made me love even the forced parts more.
47 | I(Heart)PB&J Mon. Oct. 1, 2007 at 7:55amMichael did say something about the power outage while downloading “porn.” It was part of the three things that went wrong that day.
46 | gary325 Mon. Oct. 1, 2007 at 7:54am