Dane Always Watching.

We're continuing our coverage of the paper on NBC Peacock with episodes seven and eight I Love You and Church and State.

We'll be right back, but we have to buy some mouse snudgers from Travis first, and these ads are going to come on that we have no control over.

Welcome back to Always Watching.

I'm Hailey Hobbs and I'm Jasonson and we have a couple of really good episodes to talk about today.

Yeah, what's so good about these is they're starting to like lean into like the weird, funny plot lines.

Yes, we've got the characters established, like we know their backstory, as we know their quirks, like all that stuff, and now we can just get weird, which is what The Office did so well was when it would just like go down a rabbit hole for an entire episode, just like relentlessly down a rabbit hole.

That's what these felt like to me.

So when I first saw episode some title I Love You, I was like, oh no, oh no, Like what is this going to be?

I thought it was gonna be like The Ned and Marathon threw it up with.

Mayor right, and I'm like, is he going to be awkward.

No, it's so much better than that.

So funny, so funny working out his daddy.

Yeah, and once it was clear that that was the joke, and then the fact that it wasn't just a one off joke, but like they chased it the whole episode, like he was constantly seeking his approval.

But then to have the turn where he's sitting in his office like a kid in his room and he turns on him and he starts being like, get out, I don't want you in here.

Then for the wife to come in, who I guess is his brother's wife we learned sister in law to come in and then scold him like his mom.

It was so funny.

Like I love the commitment to the bit of that episode.

I also love that they've chosen to make Marv, who's the CEO, just like really likable and really nice and you're just like, well, I can't hate this guy, which is basically what Adamila says, because she's like, oh, everybody's just gonna start bowing down to the man in charge.

I'm not like that, And of course she does too, and she's like, damn.

It, I like the guy.

Like I love that because then you have Ken and as Marealda in the middle, who are just so terrible, and so it's a perfect balance between Marv being really nice, Ken and as Marelda and then Ned and the rest of the paper being kind of goofy and just fumbling around a little bit.

Yeah, it was very fun.

I love a good like dumb villain to like trying to scheme up a plot but not doing it very well and trying to deal with that.

The custodians funny.

He's like, all I heard was that you were just trying to take down the company, or take down Marv and take over the company, that's all.

They're so screwed for that.

And then they try to put him in the ground with he has drug problems, and I was like, you guys so out of hand.

Yeah, super hilarious, And I do love the end of Marv just Ned goes to try to make peace with him and he's like, listen, this is not what you think it is, and you really need to take a shell Bill.

Yeah, but in the nicest way possible.

That's very funny.

Yeah.

I'm really encouraged by the development of the show at the at the beginning, in the first couple episodes.

It's it does feel pretty dry, but I think that that's I mean, that's the nature of it.

You can't really dive in and make it funny until you've spent a little bit of time with the characters and kind of scene who's more serious and who's maybe not as smart, and who's kind of sarcastic, and who's kind of this, and that you need to build up a lot of that first before you can really dive into funny storylines.

So I do feel like this is the part of the season where we're seeing that a lot more of the idea of here's here's the idea.

You can only see the writer's room, like, here's the idea for the episode.

We're gonna run with it kind of hohold the episode.

So Ned has daddy issues, he kind of projects them onto the owner, and that is kind of what we're gonna run with, you know.

And that's that's good recipe for a good you know, twenty five minutes of television or whatever.

And they are returning to some of the hits of the Office.

But like I've said before, I think they're doing it in a way that it does make you go, oh, I know, that bit, but it's fresh enough in this and it's different enough the setting is all changed and stuff that it still hits pretty hard.

So the Mayor and ned dynamic in this episode where she's not speaking to him.

He made her feel terrible about herself.

She like had a horrible weekend at home, like evaluating her life as a woman because he thought she was a sexual because as.

Maralda told him she was.

And then how she kind of gives him an olive branch in the end of the episode, like making fun of him and he's happy to take it.

I thought was really well done.

Yeah, I thought that was cool, Like having the messages on the screen at the end.

It's not a conversation, it's you just kind of see their interaction and seeing kind of, yeah, a little bit of a peacemaking kind of a situation going on.

And then I mean we move right on from it in the next episode, which I like, we don't need to.

Yeah, it doesn't need to be a thing.

Because it's it's like way too highly offensive to keep going on.

He thought she was a This makes me laugh.

Also, the I think the Jim and Pam stuff and it's kind of a common criticism on the show.

I'm not really saying anything that's you know, people haven't said a million times, but a lot of the Gym and Pam stuff was a little overdone and a little oversaturated.

And it did get to the point where when they finally had that episode where they you know, Jim confessed his love for or whatever, it just felt like, Okay, we're finally here, you know kind of thing, and not I don't think for everybody in a good way.

Like I think that's a good episode now if you're watching the show just straight through, but if you had to wait for all that time, from season to season and week to week for every episode, it did feel like it was really slow dripped for a long time.

And I think just kind of getting in getting out, not feeling like you have to carry the drama over multiple multiple episodes.

That's a good call.

Well in the Gym and Pam dynamic, and we don't have to talk too long about the office, but like it's there's a sense of wrong to it because she's engaged, like she has a fiance, she's involved with somebody, and he's still you know, yearning for her.

In this situation, it's kind of icky.

It's like, yeah, is it super okay that Jim kept going after this girl who has a significant other?

No, probably not, even if you think that they're wrong together, even if you can tell that she likes you too, Like it's it's kind of it gives the ick.

When you watch it, watch it back, if you watch it.

Yeah, it's kind of like they're not a perfect couple.

I won't even get into the last My husband I argue about it every single time where we watched the show.

We like are so irritated with each other about it's hysterical.

But I think interestingly, because of the time we're in now, when they've made this show, like Nicole kind of has adopted that role of like doing the things that are not quite like super nice, you know, like she's treating Detric really poorly.

He's just trying to be nice to her.

Like I'm super team Detric in this situation.

I'm not team Nicole.

Even though I like her and I think she's very funny, I'm not.

I'm not on board with her the way she treats him.

I know.

I think we'll see that relationship develop over time.

I'll imagine they're very funny together, I wrote a note Nicole was wrong with you.

I don't even remember what she was doing in episode seven.

That made me say that that's very funny.

Actually, so we also got the nice little the nice little fun bit, the nice little intro bit about the mouse moving.

Yeah, that's it again, Like that's a perfect classic the office intro bit.

Yeah.

There are the companies who measure your productivity that way.

Yeah, I'm thankful I don't work at one of them.

You know, my job is very much in person, so I haven't had to deal with that either, But that is very real.

Score two for working in education.

I liked the I wish I could remember and I didn't look it up, and I should have neds not ned Marv's secretary.

I have seen that woman in so many sitcoms and I can't remember her name, but she's so funny with her little, tiny voice.

And they're having their lunch together and he's like, I don't want this to rougle.

It's a spicy weed, and she's like, oh, I like it, and then he like dumps it all on her plane.

I love the little teeny interactions, and like I've said before, I do find myself like putting my phone down, making sure I watch, because if you don't watch their facial expressions and stuff, you're missing half the joke in some of these situations.

And it's just so good.

Yeah, you missed the one liners which are really funny.

This is jumping ahead to the next episode.

But there's a time where they're talking about Church and State.

It's Ned talking to Ken and he says, like, I think Ken, since something like church and State, I mean sometimes they have to team up, and Ned says, uh oh yeah, like what like the Inquisition or something like that.

Like it's just like little stuff like that.

If it's like blink and you miss it.

But they add a lot of flavor to each episode.

That's really funny.

I didn't take a lot of notes during that episode.

I think I was just watching it because it's hysterical.

My favorite part is as Marelda stage momming her kid is it's commercial and she's just being terrible, And her best line is my son is very Chalomey from Do Not Wonka.

Grabbing him from school in the middle of a math test and rushing him down.

I was, but then also like you can tell he's exasperated with her all this stuff, and at the end Oscar tries to like, you know, level with him, like, oh, here's how to deal with your mom, and he's like yeah, okay, and he's like that old guy doesn't pay for my Wendy's He's crazy.

I did wonder.

I did wonder.

I had the passing thought one time about would there ever be an episode that the paper went after the toilet paper side for something?

And then they did it, you know, like it was like I thought at one point, just kind of like I was just thinking about, you know, the dynamics, and we were talking about the toilet paper and the paper, and for a minute, I was kind of like, I wonder if there'd ever be an episode where there was that kind of thing, And then we got it, you know, the flushable slash not flushable?

What are they called?

Definitely man uh man myth horrible.

The most horrible idea of a wipe being the shape of your hand glove is really disgusting, honestly, like, who is buying me is apparently a lot of people and then nobody.

And I loved the twist because it was kind of like, how are they going to resolve this?

They have to tell the story that it's clogged up the sewer line.

They also can't not sell these things because Marv's on vacation and if he comes back, he'll be mad.

And so we see ned in action in sales and it's very satisfying.

He's crazy with his purple hat.

Oh goodness, what do you think of his motivational videos?

Oh my gosh.

Yeah, great, great subplot of an episode, look.

Like Draco Malfoy cocaine, which is doubly funny because of Don All Gleason being and the Harry Potter movie es as Bill Weasley.

I pulled that one out of nowhere just now.

I'm really proud of my self for that.

Even the cold open, you know, Mayer's sleeping at the paper because of the sewer line issue and right stings, and he's just like, you can go take a shower at my house.

Don't use my shamp.

His water pressures are great.

It bounces you around the shower or whatever.

That's such a small moment, but it's so funny that she's telling you or Nicole that very good.

Yeah, I don't know, it's all very fun and funny.

I'm really excited for what they can do with season two.

I feel like I say that every week, but just by the time we get out of season one, I mean, I've gotten used to these characters really fast.

Anything they do to me is funny.

I don't have to really question any of them at this point.

I don't have to wonder who's that guy or who's that person.

I like all of them.

There's none that like sometimes on the office of the character that kind of great your gears a little bit and not in a good way, like you kind of be like, oh my gosh, it's another episode with that guy or whatever.

And I think they got a little character heavy, especially when they went away from using a lot of people who were background characters to trying to make the main characters.

It got a little messy.

This one has a perfect balance of main character versus side character, at least at this point.

So I'm really excited for what they can do with the season two once we kind of have the characters in the bag and we can kind of pull them out as needed.

That's going to be that.

I like the trajectory.

There, yeah, because everybody shines, and even Barry, who probably gets the least amount to do of all of them, but when he pops in.

It's very memorable and funny for sure, one of the best parts of it for me.

So yeah, it's so great.

Like I told you before we started, I basically rewatched the whole season today and it's just so much fun.

And it still just makes me laugh every time, and that's an awesome thing to have instead of it being like built on gags or whatever that only get you one time, like this, this is lasting funny and that's great.

It's smartly written.

I mean the you can tell with the dialogue and the one liners and the back and forth.

It's just really really smartly written by people who who really understand what they want to pull from the characters, like comedically, emotionally to a little bit, but mostly at this early stage at least comedically.

And I have to say, like just very impressed with Sabrina and patatories, Like it's very fun that they cast somebody to be foreign in the show, because like we didn't have that at all before, and it very much puts this element of funny in And I'm impressed by her because you know that it takes her so much longer to learn all this material and to learn what the jokes are and stuff and so, and she still delivers really really well.

So I think she's a standout in that way.

I think all the work, I think she'll be an Emmy darling.

Whenever we get to that time, I think, yeah, I think they'll I think they'll put her up she should or for an Emmy.

I feel pretty good about that prediction.

Yeah, yeah, we'll see anything else.

No, I don't think so.

I'm just I wish we had I know, I wish we had nowhere.

When I saw that, it was that I had just finished episode eight.

I was like, there's no way that there's like two episodes of this left.

But yeah, that's where we're at.

But more is coming, so something to look forward to.

Yeah, all right, we'll catch you on the flippity flip bye.

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