At times, it’s excruciating to watch, but you can’t look away.
Jim sums things up perfectly when he says, “Michael and Jan seem to be playing their own separate game and it’s called ‘Let’s see how uncomfortable we can make our guests’ and they’re both winning.” The performances of Steve Carell and Melora Hardin (as Jan Levinson) are award-worthy in an episode whose twists and turns are fantastic. Steve Carell stars as Michael Scott, the bungling regional manager who never fails to cause a stir with his inappropriate behavior, poorly timed jokes. “Dinner Party” also pushes the boundaries of how “The Office” could make you feel uncomfortable, even when you can’t stop laughing. Based on the critically acclaimed British series from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, The Office follows the daily lives of employees at Dunder Mifflin, a paper sales company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. As you can imagine, it wasn’t an easy sell – removing the main characters from the office and excluding most of the supporting cast from the episode (save for the cold open) entirely. When the branch hosts a charity casino night in the warehouse, the employees take some big gambles.
“Dinner Party” is unlike any other episode of “The Office,” so much in fact that it requires its own (amazing) oral history. The Continental: From the World of John Wick. The greatest episode of “The Office,” quite possibly the best episode of comedic television that’s ever existed and the peak of cringe comedy TV shows.
