But that doesn’t mean that last week’s first show, “Weight Loss” was something to forget about. In fact, it was worth the weight. (Couldn’t resist.) The plots, the characters and the comedy continued the momentum it left off at last spring.

When corporate gave its branches the mission to lose the most weight collectively as a staff in exchange for three vacation days, some took the task seriously, some not so seriously, and some too seriously. Kelly, for example, reverted to a maple syrup, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and water cleansing diet which eventually caused her to pass out right off the scale. It’ll be worth it when she’s in that bakini though.

The weight loss mission prompts Dwight drive Phyllis five miles from the office and push her out of his car in the bad part of town so she could walk back. “Yea, I took your purse. What are you worried about? You look great!” said Dwight.

A call to corporate manager, David Wallace ensued, and high tensions were eased and self-image problems were addressed by a healthy weight-loss strategy business meeting, led by Michael “Klump” Scott. Moral: Pigs are beautiful.

Deleriousness must have ensued from cutting calaries and sugar because the antics of the Dunder Mifflinites were at an all-time high as several of them pursue their love interests. Michael continues to hit things off with new Human Resource Manager, Holly until the end of the episode when he chooses to make a point by tearing up two Counting Crows tickets rather than invite her to go with him. Dwight and Monkey (AKA Angela) repeatedly sneak down to the wearhouse whenever she pages him for a booty call, while poor Andy is committed to planning the wedding of Angela’s dreams. While Andy is willing to work with Angela’s picky taste, the line is crossed when she refuses to have his college a capella group provide the reception music. One thing is made for sure though – Whoever the band is will be playing “Little Drummer Boy” for the married couple’s first song. Meanwhile, Phyllis is shaking up the Party Planning Committee, taking over Angela’s position.

The inevitable finally happens when Jim and Pam meet half way between Scranton and New York to a gas station and he proposes. Many that I have talked to say this is the beginning of the end of the storyline and that they should have dragged out their pre-engagement a bit longer. I feel that Pam being in New York for art school for a few months, though, forces us viewers to get used their relationship being a little “different” ffrom now on before they make the big jump. Baby steps.

Tonight’s episode, get this, is called “Business Ethics.” The title itself suggests extreme (epic?) humor as Michael and the Scranton Branch repeatedly violate tradition ethics, keeping former HR manager, Toby, on his toes.

Holly will be leading her first meeting, and Michael is mentoring her to lead a “fun” meeting. She takes his suggestion to open up with a song and dance routine, “Let’s Get PhysicalEthical” in sweatbands. Michael will continue to be allured by her high level of dorkiness as his strategy is to “merge their friendship into a relationship – without her even noticing it.”

Gasp Factor: So what’s the deal with Pam’s new friendat art school? There seems to be a spark between her and her classmate. Could viewers get more of the relationship drama between Jim and Pam they’re wanting instead of a smooth sailing engagement? Watch this Thursday night on NBC at 9pm.

(NBC.com photo)

EDITOR’S NOTE: I would like to  apologize to anyone who read this review/preview last week and had the impression that The Office, episode two would be on last Thursday.  Due to the vice presidential debate being aired, the second episode will be on this Thursday, October 9 at 9pm.

Shannon Hoffman photo

After the last season of NBC’s The Office produced just 14 episodes, plagued by the writers’ strike, Dunder Mifflinites are parched and gathered at the water cooler for tonight’s season premier, titled “Weight Loss.”

The dry-humor sitcom enters its fifth season, and my expectations are high for two reasons: The opening episode of season four (“Fun Run”) was bangin’; the writers sure aren’t afraid to set the bar high early on. Secondly, the last episode ended in so many cliff hangers that even a few partial resolutions will help me to breath easy again.

Take Jan’s pregnancy for example (played by Melora Hardin). After accepting that his ex-girlfriend chose artificial insemination over a donation from his own bank, leading man Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) decides to support Jan through the pregnancy and lamas classes and to be “kind of a Daddy.”

Michael will undoubtedly be consumed by his partial-parental status, which could un-focus him from the opportunity at hand – the best chance he’s had at a successful relationship since the show began. Replacing Toby (Paul Lieberstein) in Human Resources – a department that, to this point, Michael assumed to be a “breeding ground for monsters” – is Holly (Amy Ryan), a quirky blond who could possibly, dare I say it, equal Michael in dorkiness. She’ll probably manage to do so in a much less inappropriate and cringe-inducing manner, though.

Michael tells Jim (John Krasinski) that after hearing Holly speak for the first time, it was love at first see, with his ears. At this, Jim spends part of the episode coaching his boss through taking a relationship slow. Serving as a perfect example is his own office romance with receptionist, Pam (Jenna Fischer), to whom Jim spends the rest of the episode planning his proposal to. Jim, Pam, and Toby’s glory are all overshadowed at Toby’s going-away party by Andy’s (Ed Helms) sudden, awkward proposal to office-priss, Angela (Angela Kinsey), while Dwight (Rainn Wilson) is clearly left heartbroken… But not for long, as he and Angela are caught doing the nasty in a cubical by Phyllis (Phyllis Lapin) at the end of the episode.

The sneak peaks (http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/) promise huge possibilities but are vague, as to be expected. Michael leads the office to believe that he is not just “kind of a Daddy” to Jan’s unborn but the actual father. It is hinted that Holly may be Michael’s perfect match, while Jim’s perfect match is replaced at the receptionist desk by a blonde, middle-aged woman named Ronnie.

Available on the Dunder Mifflin Infinity site is a press release from Corporate Management to the Dunder Mifflin branches, announcing a Summer Weight Loss Initiative. For seven weeks, the branches will compete to lose the most weight, and the winners receive three extra vacation days. “Here at Dunder Mifflin, we think our employees are great the way they are. However, studies indicate that a healthy lifestyle is likely to make you happier. Plus, your healthy lifestyle will help lower our insurance premiums, which makes the company happier. So we’ll all be twice as happy” (http://www.dundermifflin.com/media/summer_08.shtml). The written preview indicates that the office becomes obsessed with their weight as a result.

The real juicy tips can be found on spoiler sites like Office Tally (http://www.officetally.com/the-office-season-5-spoilers). WARNING: If you do not want to know anymore before watching tonight, read no further. These are a few of the tips I read from the site, before realizing that I myself didn’t even want to know this much this early:

·         Pam meets Jim’s brothers, played by Blake Robbins and Tug Coker, who eerily look a lot like Jim.

·         Also eerie is the way that Jim is now taking his job seriously – A job that was the butt of all his jokes (Well, the ones that Dwight was not the butt of) in the first four seasons.

·         Meredith (Kate Flannery) will experience some sort of “natural disaster” in the first episode. Considering in the opener last season, Michael drove into her with his car and she discovered that she had rabies all in the same day, I’d say the writers are creating a trend.

·         This season is the most scandalous so far, according to Mindy Kaling who plays Kelly. She reports having several make-out scenes coming up. She neglects to say if any of them are with long-time love interest, Ryan (B.J. Novak), a corporate member who was just jailed for fraud.

·         Dwight is applying to Cornell. Perhaps he is trying to be like someone else we all know “went to Cornell” – A someone who also happens to have just proposed to Dwight’s woman.

Read these with a grain of salt; the bloggers include a disclaimer that they cannot verify all the information, but each rumor is linked to the source. Additionally, Office Tally was officially nominated for the bloggers choice awards for Best Entertainment Blog, so I expect their research skills can’t be too shabby.

So some of these tips may be rumored, but one thing is for certain—I will be sprinting from my evening class to catch the 9:00 p.m. (8:00 p.m. Central time) start tonight. See you at the water cooler?