The Office Season 5 Episode 1 Preview

The Office writers are a talented bunch. In a day and age where information flows freely, and plot secrets are nearly impossible to keep under wraps, props have to be given to an outfit that can successfully misdirect an audience that's millions strong. The Office ended last season with a marriage proposal, just not the one that viewers were expecting. As tonight's fifth season premiere opened, a number of story-lines were in play: Angela and Andy's engagement, Dwight and Angela's affair, Jim's inability to propose, Pam's impending three-month schooling in New York, Jan's pregnancy and the arrival of Michael's new crush – HR lady Holly (played by Oscar-nominee Amy Ryan). That's a lot of baggage to bring into a season premiere, but The Office managed to address almost every issue, all the while keeping a completely separate through-line for the entire one-hour episode.

The Office is the unique comedy in which characters evolve, story-lines take seasons to play out and the mythology is never dispensed at the expense of the humor. Five season in, and tonight's premiere was every bit as funny as anything from the previous four. It's a testament to the writers and the actors, and their continued focus on staying the course, sticking to what makes The Office perhaps the best and most consistent all-around comedy.

In a new storytelling device, tonight's premiere took place over the course of seven weeks. For the first time, we saw a summer at Dunder-Mifflin. The corporate powers-that-be announced a weight-loss contest among all the Dunder-Mifflin branches. Whichever branch lost the most weight over the course of two months would get an extra three days of vacation (the vacation days were eventually extended to five). We picked up with our characters every Monday (when the weigh-ins were) for seven weeks.