TV Review: The Office, “Blood Drive”

DWIGHT: "Michael, why do you keep looking at the front door?"
MICHAEL: "No reason."
DWIGHT: "Is somebody after you?"
OSCAR: "Why do you always go to that? Has anyone ever been after anyone in this office?"
DWIGHT: "Hey, it just takes one!"

NBC’s The Office is at it’s best when they’re portraying things that really occur in actual offices in the documentary, “reality show,” format. That’s why I thought tonight’s episode, “Blood Drive,” worked so well—I have participated in quite a few blood drives in my own workplace experiences.

I have to admit I was a little confused by the Valentine’s theme so far after the actual Valentines’ Day—maybe it was bumped for some reason. It was fun to see love trying to blossom for Michael as he flirted and joked with the mystery woman on the blood drive bus so I thought this worked into the Valentines’ Day theme of the show very well.

Sometimes The Office strays into more cartoony storylines and it doesn’t work as well as it does when there are a lot of subtle moments worked into the mundane lives of these people at work. Seeing things like Creed and Meredith’s computers forever stuck on Solitaire are things that ring very true in the modern office environment. In fact, many years ago a company that I was a temp employee for removed Solitaire off of all the computers in our little pool of workers in order to increase productivity. Of course, I wasn’t one of the violators. Really.

It was fun to watch Jim and Pam’s lunch outing with Phyllis and Bob because I could identify the initial awkwardness of a meal with someone you don’t interact with much socially. Of course, any comfort they were able to gain in the pleasant conversation was thrown out the window when the Vances had their little detour in the middle of their lunch hour in the janitor closet. Yikes.


After having a Lonely Hearts support group, Michael decides to have an office park mixer in hopes that he’ll find the mystery girl that got away from him after he passed out on the blood drive bus. During the mixer Michael does his best to match people up in his own strange ways, and it looks like there might have even been a love connection for Kevin. Unfortunately, the blood drive bus girl didn’t show up.

What I liked most about tonight is how all of the Dunder Mifflin gang who stayed for the Lonely Hearts mixer rallied around Michael in his latest infatuation. At least this time around she is a living breathing person and not a deceased chair model or an Asian waitress that he can’t distinguish from her friend. It was also nice that Michael’s crush didn’t show up at the end. It would have ruined the supposed “reality” of this show for her to show up, because in real life stuff like this happens all the time where you meet someone who leaves a strong impression, but then you never see them again.

This is one of the best episodes of this season because of the understated tone of it. There weren’t any larger than life antics, but most of it was made up of the quirky conversations and office place antics that I’ve come to love from The Office.