Changes: Performance Review

Revision as of 19:29, 23 May 2013

"Performance Review" is the eighth episode of the second season of The Office and the 14th overall. It was written by Greg Daniels aand directed by Stephen Merchant. It first aired on November 15, 2005. It was viewed by 8 million people.

Synopsis

While Michael poorly conducts performance reviews with the staff, he angers and annoys Jan by trying to discuss their relationship. Meanwhile, Dwight believes it is Friday when it is actually Thursday, so Jim and Pam attempt to further convince to him that it is Friday to trick him into miss work, and Dwight falls for it.

Deleted scenes

The Season Two DVD contains a number of deleted scenes from this episode.

Trivia

This episode contains some of the first hints of the secret romance between Dwight and Angela: Dwight smirks when Jim believes he's not having sex, and Angela tells Oscar and Kevin that "office romances are nobody's business but the people involved."
The popped fitness orb is actually a blooper. The script called for the orb to deflate slowly, but John Krasinski hit a seam, and the orb popped.
When rehearsing the welcome scene, Steve Carell accidentally touched Melora Hardin's breast. She thought it was so funny that she pushed for it be added to the script.^[1]
In the episode The Fire, Dwight says, "Michael is in there right now evaluating the temp. He hasn't evaluated me in years." However, Pam says that performance reviews are annual and company wide. This is either a writing error or Michael doesn't consistently evaluate his employees.
Right before Pam talks to Jim about "The Apprentice", Meredith is seen placing a piece of lined yellow paper into the suggestion box. Later the note reading "Don't sleep with your boss" is shown as being on lined yellow paper, implying Meredith wrote it.
During the suggestion box meeting, one of the messages, regarding employee outreach for depression, comes from "Tom", a co-worker who had recently committed suicide. During the Writer's Block Q&A session at The Office Convention in 2007 (shown on the Season 4 DVD), it is implied that, possibly...

Ryan was hired as a temp to replace Tom
The documentary crew's original purpose was to observe how DM-Scranton coped with the death of an employee, but changed their focus when they realized that the day-to-day ennui of a Michael-run office was a far more interesting subject.

Jim states that the Saturday of the week that the episode takes place within is the 15th. It is likely that the Saturday will be November 15, meaning that this episode takes place on November 13, 2005.

Cultural references

I missed you can be interpreted two ways. Jan intended it to mean "I failed to get in contact with you," but Michael interprets it to mean "I am saddened by your absence."
The Apprentice is a television reality game show hosted by Donald Trump. Every week one contestant is eliminated ("fired").
Dwight repeats every suggestion after Michael reads it, in the style of Ed McMahon, sidekick to former late night talk show host Johnny Carson.
Y2K is shorthand for the year 2000. Computer failures caused by the change of century were a major concern in the 1990s.
B.O. is slang for body odor.
Lex Luthor is the villain from the television series Smallville, which is about the teenage superhero Superman.

Quotes

see Performance Review Quotes

Cast

Main cast

Recurring cast

References

↑ Performance Review DVD commentary

[1] Performance Review DVD commentary

[1]

@@ Line 67: / Line 67: @@
 [[Category:Episodes]]
 [[Category:Season 2|208]]
+[[Category:Season 2 Episodes]]