This may be the worst episode but the "would you prefer a nature or sexual analogy?" bit is absolute comedy gold. Robert: "Would you prefer a nature or sexual analogy?" Jim: (Jumping at it) "Nature, definitely." Robert: "When two animals are having sex..."

I have thought about it, and I think the failure in this episode basically comes from how they introduced Nellie. Instead of having her just walk in, they should have had Robert use her to replace Andy intentionally which would have been perfectly in character for him especially after the events of Mrs. California. Also, while Andy didn't earn his victory, he just put himself in a position to win. You can say the same thing about Jim and Pam at the end of the job. Hell, Andy went more out of his way than Jim did.

The attempt to turn Nellie into a latter-day David Brent was a bad idea, and an even worse execution. And speaking as a Brit, Nellie's hamming up of her Britishness is VERY annoying (or at least the Hollywood imagination of Britishness - the writers may as well have had her eating crumpets and banging on endlessly about the Royal Family, or play the first bar of "Rule Britannia" every time she appears on screen). And no, we have no such thing as a King James breakfast pie. Yet. But on the plus side, Nellie is such a badly written character in this series, she makes my secret love Robert California look amazing.

I'm a Brit and can confirm a King James breakfast pie definitely doesn't exist, even linguistically it doesn't work.

I understood the geography joke as Andy's heart being in the "wrong place", seeing as he already had a girlfriend who loved him...

Friends don't let friends move to Florida unless that friend is Florida Stanley

Okay but whoever said they didn’t like Catherine Tate in Doctor Who needs to sort of their priorities because she is a POWERHOUSE.

The only thing I really disliked about this episode was that it was the episode when I went back to disliking Andy

I still think the deangelo portion of the show is worse

This episode is bad but I think the backdoor pilot to Dwight's show is the actual worst episode.

I love Donna on Doctor Who :( granted I’ve only seen some of the 14th Doctor special stuff so far but I think she’s quite likable

I started to like Nellie, when she becomes a normal The Office member in season 9.

Honestly I hated how they wasted Catherine Tate's time. She's very talented, and funny. Instead the writers were lazy. They really didn't know what to do with Nellie. Personally the character should have ended in FL. But instead they wasted her so damn annoying and top of that slowly make Andy a complete jerk too. I literally stopped watching season 8 when it first aired after this episode. Then went back later and it just got worse. It just didn't jump the shark. It jumped a pool of sharks, and eels.

Halfway through the video and want to comment on 3 things before I forget them: • "Friends don't let friends move to Florida" is spot on to the point that I feel like Greg Daniels should be developing a pilot about it right now • I'm so glad that you mentioned the green screen - I always figured this was something that got cut early but then thrown back in at the last minute to make the episode the exact length they needed or something, but I did NOT know the building was literally right across the street, that's pretty inexcusable 3) You are not alone in your affinity for Ellie Kemper ;)

The fact that Andy was made manager to begin with, was a true downward spiral. He started off a slimy, awful person, then they softened him a bit, then he went whiney and slimy later on, until he got knocked down in his ‘audition’as the next best thing. I think there was so much experimentation in the writing of his character, he grated on me most of the time. Nellie, well, I have to admit , when she first came on , I was not amused. Why she was brought into Scranton in that manor is something I will never understand. Were the writers intent on making her a hated character? What makes me sad is that Kathryn Tate is really wonderful, and it’s a shame she was not used well. Oh, yeah, Ed Helms is wonderful too. Just not as Andy.

Love that you put parks and rec in this lol.

I think King James refers to the King James Bible. It was a re-write of the Christian Bible so maybe she is saying this is a bad copy of a breakfast sandwich?

A wild greenscreen? Our favorite creature found in nature

I consider myself an avid office fan. I'm not as knowledgeable as you are with who the directed, the writers etc. (which is why I've watched every one of your vids, thanks) but I have watched this series since Hulu was free lol. Having said that, I think I'm probably one of the selective few that rewatches this particular episode a lot more than most. IT'S BY FAR ONE OF MY FAVORITE EPISODES! For two reasons, I like watching Andy crash and burn and I LIKE NELLY. I like how The Office writers kinda brought this series back to it's "British roots" by trying out Nelly at the Helm (pun intended). Of course she doesn't work but that's the comedy of it right? Anyway, I think Nelly gets a lot of hate simply because she's not Michael Scott. Which btw in my opinion The Office days where numbered as soon as Steve Carrell became the star. Don't get me wrong, I absolute admire SC and his talent but I think The Office in the beginning was meant to be an ensemble cast and SC's improve skills just took over like a runaway train. I'm not in the troll Nelly gang like most. Which is leading me to believe that I might have a slight crush on her. Btw, I thoroughly enjoyed her scenes with Darrell and the tacos so maybe I am crushing ...

Tbf you could say that about any episode from season 7 onwards. I recently did a rewatch and stopped at the end of season 6 and then watched Steve's last episode and the finale. Even watching that I knew I made the right decision.

Really, I don’t think this is the worst episode. I love this series, but there are some episodes I won’t rewatch. This is not one of those episodes. Once Steve Carell left, the show was struggling to gain back its equilibrium. I like Catherine Tate (look her up as her “Nan” persona. Very British humor). To me she is not as weird as Robert California and Todd Packer….two weirder-than-weird characters. BUT, I worked in an office for 30 years and there are weird characters in ALL office settings. To me, that is what made this show so great…it was an….office. Now to Andy and Erin, who came together on the rebound. Erin broke up with Gabe (another weirdo) and Andy was dumped by Angela. Andy was a jerk with control issues and anger management problems (re-dit-dit-ta-do), and I liked that Erin ended up with Pete. I loved the episodes with Idris Elba and Will Farrell. Kathy Bates was great! BTW, I love your reviews of this series. 👍🏻😃

I like Erin and Andy as a couple. Their more interesting than Jim and Pam.

Only 3 more until a Top 10 episode, "Turf War".

Thank you for the helium fact. More ammoto the balloons are the worst argument

For me, the thing that was so disappointing about how bad Catherine Tate was in The Office and Doctor Who is that she was so wonderful in her own sketch comedy show. The Catherine Tate show was brilliantly funny and always makes me laugh heartily.

A lot of evangelical Christians think the King James Breakfast Pie was created under divine inspiration

Love your vids man. Helps me get through the day. 🤘🤘🤘

Brother, great video. It’s like you managed to put into words what I’ve been repressing for 10 plus years!

What rating would you give the cold-open Really like your vids

I'm really going against the grain but I liked this episode and the way Nellie won the office over. First, she wins over Dwight, the shallow and materialistic ones with raises, uses the prospect of sex with Robert, gave Pam something better than money: a nap. All that isolates the only sane man left, Jim and his protest is drowned out. It was like a coup in a corrupt government. Plus there were many good lines and bits like nature or sexual metaphor, and Dwight's failed takeover of Daryll's office (and Creed succeeding)

I Want to throw up everytime I think in watching S09. It's a completely disgrace.

According to Google, Jacksonville Beach is ~185 miles away from Tallahassee

I think my brain selectively removed this episode from my memory bc I couldn't for the life of me remember the details of the episode until this video. Nelly was so obnoxious and unfunny it's almost physically painful. And I completely agree that the Andy x Erin romance made zero sense. They had no chemistry and only a modicum of development btwn the two of them

Assuming Andy's 200 mile statement is indeed correct, and he's still within the bounds of Florida, then my crow-flies estimation puts him at somewhere around either St. Petersburg or Ormond Beach (near-ish to Daytona), give or take 20 miles. And yeah, that's quite a bit of an overshoot. (Yes, I am aware that I am taking it _way_ too literally.)

It honestly took me a few rewatches to even notice the green screen

15:54 Jim Carrey cameo

pisses me off how bad Andy handled it

I am especially looking forward to your review of THE FARM episode, which I just watched on Peacock. It is, imo, one of the best. It has everything. And is surprisingly very touching. I have binged on your reviews for the last few weeks, and subscribed. You are one of the best reviewers on yt, and your format is great!

I've never been sold the Andy/Erin romance. In contrast, Jim and Pam had chemistry and in the first few seasons I felt invested in how the relationship played out. But with Andy and Erin, there's no buildup. The writers never try to convince us that there's a deep romance; they just want us to take it on faith. But I guess you can make the argument that Andy's prior relationship with Angela showed how screwed up he was emotionally and how desperately he wanted to find his true love (echoing Michael Scott). And Erin is just a wildcard. I could never buy into the character of Nellie either. She just comes off as an over-the-top caricature. We've already seen a character (Bobby California) will his way into becoming CEO. Now we have Nellie willing her way into the regional manager position at Scranton. It just doesn't seem well executed with Nellie.

wow, who would have thought "you messed up saying your own name?" would be the funniest line/delivery in the episode when they heard it in the first act. Eh, maybe its Irene's son picking up Andy's phone and greeting Jim with "proctology." Respect for that goof. "When two animals are having sex..." was pretty good too, but for any of those moments (or a Nellie moment I forgot about) to be the best in the episode is just embarrassing

I had to pause mid video to go and research helium. I'm gonna be in the rabbit hole for days now!

This is bad, but for me a lot of season 9 episodes are worse. Most of all Customer Loyalty, my least favorite episode. But for many peope season 8 is the worst season for me it's 9.

5:20 i heard somewhere it was because it has something to do with the homeowners not being there or something, don't take it as fact, but I could have sworn I heard some castmate mention it.

Dwight is exactly correct about the gold standard. Our money is fiat, it only has value because we say it does.

I did not know that Bob is the Greek Βασίλης Κασιμάτης

I always assumed Andy drove all the way to the Atlantic coast

Still has robert's best rant by far though

Mulverine asked if anyone liked Nellie. I don’t think she’s that bad and liked her fine in s9. I love Donna on Doctor Who as well. In general, I think s8 and s9 are absolutely terrible, Robert California is annoying, Andy as manager is unbearable, and all the other characters are boring/flanderized. So Nellie doesn’t rank high on my priority list of hate. The season was bad before she was introduced

I was a fan of Andy and Erin during season, but this is the episode that kills it. Maybe I just was projecting myself onto Andy because I have a crush on Ellie Kemper too . 😆 I have more distaste for next week but it’s mostly the Andy/Erin plot. The actual Office antics are a step up from this episode though. That bridal shower is just too much cringe for me.

The king James pie doesn't exist hahaha

This was the episode I could never seem to get through on rewatches. I knew I wasn’t crazy…

Wow... alot to say about this. I'm at the point where I'm just gonna say fuck it and join your Patreon when I get my next check, a) so I don't keep clogging up your comments section, and b) because I'm engaging more with your work than anyone else on YT right now, and I want to show my appreciation for that. But ok, that said: First of all, this script goes HARD, man. Funny, insightful, paced perfectly - I just think that should be recognized :) I know I've mentioned this before but I'm so impressed by the whole "deeper meaning" section of these vids - this is something I never bother to look for in sitcoms (except maybe community, and that's just because that whole show is basically an art project to me) - but it makes me embarrassed a little bit because OF COURSE the writer (s) have a reason why the A & B stories fit together, and this one in particular kind of blew my mind... BUT, I don't know if I agree with it. Like, not in a existential sense, but from the perspective of the writers I don't think they're suggesting that the moment between Andy + Erin isn't earned, they put a LOT of work into developing that relationship to the point that I think they expected this to be a really big moment without realizing how uninterested most of the audience was with the Andy/Erin storyline. I think it's probably more along the lines of your summary at the end, you have to just go for it if you expect anything to happen. I think the "random" thing Nellie says is just a joke and you're connecting dots that absolutely exist, but weren't intentionally meant to be connected lol I never hated this episode and don't think it deserves a 1/5, but apparently I'm in the minority there - what I hated about this episode was how fucking cringe Nellie's takeover of the office was - I think they loved Catherine Tate so much that they were absolutely planning on her taking over for Michael, or at least had her at the top of the list, but Spader's performance + availability would have been negligent to ignore, so for whatever reason they went with this and omg it's just so hard to watch. The Office doesn't do "villains" well - Roy was really their only success. Jan was sympathetic, and Dwight was so bad that they toned it down due to fan response - I think Nellie is yet another example of that, but we don't have enough of a background on her to have any sympathy or even comprehension why she's behaving this way, so it's just cartoonish villainy that seems out of place for a (generally) grounded show like the Office. They attempt to retcon it with the magician stuff later but it's too late at that point, and Nellie becomes almost as unbearable a presence as Andy believes her to be in-universe. I dunno, it's just the most bungled introduction/development of a character I think I've ever seen, which is I think the driving force behind the hatred of this episode. The Andy/Erin stuff, ok it's not the greatest love story ever told but it's fine, I mean is it really that much worse than Kelly/Darryl or Michael/Helene? I think the success of Jim/Pam made the writers super reliant on these love arcs that usually lead to disappointing results. I don't want to keep typing about this forever lol but the last thing I'll say is that Nellie's behavior in this and upcoming episodes really drives me crazy when she then turns around and complains about Robert California sexually harassing her - of course harassment is always wrong and I'm sure he is meant to have wildly crossed the line, but she basically suggests that she's gonna sleep with the guy to attain this position and then seems astounded when he begins to pursue that outcome - I mean, she literally says "do you know how good it feels after someone who says no, no, no finally says yes?" - I dunno man, her whole vibe in this season is really hard to ascribe to anything other than "wow, what an awful person" and one episode worth of backstory about lost love + debt doesn't do the work to rehabilitate Tate (boom) in my eyes - I think the hard reboot in s9 is one of the only good things about that season because she IS a funny actress and deserves better than she got from the series

I actually like this episode. I mean, I don't really like any of the post-Michael Scott episodes, but within that group, I'd put this in the top half. I think it's because I like the Andy-Erin story and where that was taken here, but, yeah, Nellie and other elements of this episode are pretty bad.

I’m up do date with the series !

Having a thing for Erin is definitely relatable 😂

I made a habit of wathcing the office with my parents and my mother loved Nellie's character.

I hate Florida.

I love NELLY!!

Personally I didn’t think this was the worst one but oh well ratings are ratings 😅 that mafia episode was hella worse imo and so was the doomsday one…

It is the beginning of the real downfall of the Office. Season 6, S7, and S8 have some bad episodes. But after this episodes it is barely any *good* episodes left.

As someone who watched “The Office” for the first time, in its entirety, this year…. And then proceeded to binge it for the next month after I finished my first watch through… Nelly is BY FAR the worst character in the show… when I saw her during the one where Jim, Gabe and Toby are searching for a replacement for Michael, I didn’t like the character… then seeing her again during the Tallahassee arc, was HORRIFIC!! THEN, they had the BALLS to make her a permanent character?!!! It is borderline unwatchable honestly… Dwight, Jim, Pam, Daryl, etc, carry this show the final years…

Love the posters behind you!

They got Catherine Tate and absolutely wasted her potential

I actually like Nellie. I like her more than most of the new characters like Robert California or Clark Duke. She’s weird and oblivious like the other fan favorites

I never catch the greenscreen stuff. It certainly doesn't bother me. It probably will now. Thanks for making this bad episode worse for my next viewing.

Making ed helms manager killed the entire series

I might be your first but I am a fan of The Office (favorite show seen it whole way through double digits) and I like Nelly but I only started to like her when I started to hate Andy when he went off on that boat

Dont feel bad, I have a major thing for Ellie Kemper!!

The opener was the only good part but otherwise, yuck! One of my least favorite episodes of tv EVER.

I’m British and Iv never head of it

Oh sh1t... I... Understand... Nothing from this episode lol

The Andy/Erin romance was nonsense. In real life someone as pretty as Erin would be dating one of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Penguins and have nothing to do with a goof like Andy

IMO also the worst episode of the series

Nelly is the worst! Period.

I said this in another vid but I actually like Nellie because I have a passionate hatred for Andy And I kinda have a thing for middle aged white women with red dyed hair

Personally, I DID believe in the Andy-Erin romance. At its early peak, it was remarkably sweet and uncomplicated, and they never should have been broken up just to draw out wish fulfillment a la Jim and Pam. It wasn't necessary. One of the things that makes this episode so bad is that you can't just excuse terrible developments like Nellie's arrival with saying the show is a comedy. We're invested in these people at this office. There are stakes. Nellie's arbitrary arrival is insulting to anyone who cares about the story being told. It's underwritten and communicates that the writers have given up. It also ends a 5-season trajectory of Andy growing as a person we want to see stick continue to grow and succeed-which is remarkable considering he's the villain of season 3. Here begins his decent into being a joke, with the writers ruining that trajectory entirely. Partially Helms' fault because he had to leave the show... But if I had been on the writing team, it would have gone like this: 1) Andy realizes he's been an idiot and goes to tell Erin he loves her. 2) When they reunite, it goes amazingly and it's a heartfelt moment until Andy's phone keeps ringing. His dad has passed away. 3) Andy is off the show while he needs to be, but he and Erin are good-just long distance for awhile as he sets things in order at home, helps his mom (etc.) off camera. 4) Erin remains Erin, but we build up her dissatisfaction in the job. Her decency needs another venue. Her childhood was hard and she's realizing she wants a smaller town life and to work with children, but she's worried about what Andy will think after working his way up to manager. 5) When Andy finally gets back, he expresses that he doesn't want the job anymore. We see some B-roll as he declares something clicked for him while away. He wants to move home to his WASPy town and run an musical arts school for kids that has become available (maybe Broccoli Rob wants him to take over to bury the hatchet), but he's worried about Erin thinking he'd expect her to just uproot her life. 6) Great things happen as the stories converge and the characters can end the series also moving away. 7) Nellie never comes back.

This episode and the promise are unwatchable.

Andy lost weight.

I liked Nelly she was funny when suddenly showed up and became manager, later when they started making her more human I liked her even more

Ellie Kemper is lowkey the best looking woman in The Office. I think most of them look great. I do have on her as well.

FL is the best state.

I really dislike this Nellie Bertram character so much. Catherine Tate should never have been allowed on The Office and I'll never understand why she was brought on, especially in this way. Also, unlike most, I would go as far as saying that Catherine Tate is just a bad, thoroughly unfunny actress with zero charisma. I base this not only on her performance on The Office but also The Catherine Tate Show, which was not funny at all compared to other British sketch shows. It was very dull, uninspired, not witty, unintelligent and low class. As the name suggests, she was fully in charge of that material. She tries so hard but being funny just isn't her thing. Her fame feels deeply unearned.

Lets be honest season 8 is trash, the office ended in season 7. One should not watch beyond season 7 it just ruins the expierience.