The Office Season 9 Premiere Review: New Jim and Dwight Jr Join Favorites Like Jim and Pam

Despite rumors that the season premiere would disappoint, I was quite pleased to find myself laughing at Creed and the familiar Dunder-Mifflin faces. I wouldn’t go so far to say I’d watch the episode again, but I was pleased. The show opened with a recap on everyone’s summers, which included Andy participating in Outward Bound and Jim turning down a dream-job to start his own business in Philadelphia. Kelly exits the show to move to Miami, Ohio, with her husband. She flamboyantly exits thinking she is heading to Florida, and Ryan decides to follow. With old members out, two newbies are introduced—the new Jim and Dwight Jr. Dwight originally finds himself fond of the newbie after being heartbroken to learn that he is indeed not the father of Angela’s baby (this I still don’t believe, I’m waiting for it to be uncovered later on). Dwight Jr., however, proves himself to be more shrewd and sets a paranoid Dwight into competition. Dwight’s antics do feel tired, and he is at his best bantering with Jim rather than trying to out-do his younger nemesis.

The episode continues with highlights from Angela and her cats—Comcast (the jeans wearing cat) is up for adoption. The plot thickens when camera crew catches Oscar on the phone with Angela’s husband, the senator. Looks like Oscar is more involved with the Senator than where we left off—no more trying to prove to everyone else that the Senator is gay, I think he found his validation.

And as we expected, Andy is out for revenge against Nelly. She’s being a tough sport, and his jokes are actually funny, but Andy’s mean spirit is not flattering and I would be a fan of moving past that story line.

As for our favorite couple, Jim and Pam, the episode has strong undertones of a change in the air as they continually refer to the monotony of their lives. Jim ends the episode by accepting the dream job, leaving us wondering how this is going to play out.

Overall, the season promises for more typical jokes Office style (Creed tops the end of the episode with a classic Creed-style monologue) and just enough character drama to make us want to keep coming back for more. Season 9 will definitely be about wrapping up endings as the show sadly comes to a close.

7/10