TBG TV: The Office - Season #5, Episodes #1 & 2

Simply put, I like this show…I just don't love it. The season premiere ("Weight Loss") featured several of the subversive moments that first hooked me in – the two or three beats between Pam stepping off the group scale and everyone trying to do the math in their heads was brilliant. Ryan's "9/11" explanation for his poor treatment of Kelly? Edgy. And, I dig that. It's just that, for one, I'm done with Jim and Pam. These sporadic relationship torpedoes are numbingly dull and formulaic (two years ago, it was Rashida Jones, this season it's "distance"). Gee, I hope they end up together in the end.

The second episode of the season ("Business Ethics") had a ton of potential, but got bogged down in my other beef – Michael Scott. Steve Carrell is a wonderful television actor, but the Scott character has done everything he can to establish himself as a boorishly inept manager without any sense of self-awareness. Watching him rap and/or riff on Let's Get Physical is just stupid at this point. It's similar to how every episode of The Simpsons has turned into "Homer's Wacky Adventures & Friends". That's a shame, because Kate Flannery (Meredith) nearly hit one out by herself with the matter-of-fact delivery of her sex-for-paper discounts-and-Outback coupons revelation.

Points for Jim's needling of Dwight's Battlestar Galactica fandom, though.