There’s nothing funny in his self-justifying behavior, and I was very disappointed that the episode didn’t open with David firing him. Yet other than his irrational hatred of Toby, his worst behavior tended to come from a naive place – he thinks he and Pam are going to laugh and laugh about the fake firing, and he thinks he’s going to become successful enough to put all these kids through college – where Andy was just being petty and mean.
Michael Scott could be a genuinely hurtful character, but the episodes where he was (the pilot, “Scott’s Tots”) tend to be among my least favorite of the Carell era. (*) Was Odenkirk ever considered to play Michael, or was it Steve Carell all the way? I don’t remember much about the development of the show, but in 2004-05, Carell would have had a higher recent profile thanks to “The Daily Show.”
And what was strange about “Moving On” was the way it presented us both Andy as a far more malevolent version of Michael Scott at the same time it was giving us Bob Odenkirk as a much more accurate approximation of the real thing.(*) Until now, it’s felt as if Andy was being written as Michael Scott by people who have forgotten how to write for Michael Scott, but the Odenkirk scenes were a pretty spot-on recreation of the early years. That’s two largely unpleasant episodes in a row since Andy returned. A review of last night’s “The Office” coming up just as soon as I hose you down…