Episode no. Season 2
Episode 7 Written by Paul Lieberstein Original air date November 8, 2005 | Directed by Greg Daniels Production code 2005 Running time 22 minutes | |
"The Client" is the seventh episode of the second season of the American comedy television series The Office, and the show's thirteenth episode overall. Written by Paul Lieberstein, who also acts in the show as Toby Flenderson, and directed by Greg Daniels, the episode first aired in the United States on November 8, 2005 on NBC.
Contents
The series depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. In this episode, Jan Levinson (Melora Hardin) and Michael Scott (Steve Carell) begin a relationship after landing an important client (Tim Meadows). Meanwhile, the rest of the office finds a screenplay written by Michael and they decide to read it together.
The idea for Jan and Michael to have a romantic relationship was conceived by Steve Carell as far back as the filming of the pilot episode. The kiss between the two was rehearsed and filmed "many, many, many times", according to B. J. Novak. While filming, Steve Carell and Tim Meadows improvised a good majority of their dinner scene, but most of it never made the final cut. During the production of the episode, the cast and crew were informed by NBC that the show would be picked up for a whole 22 episodes, a move that "surprised" them. The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics and earned a Nielsen rating of 3.8 in the 18–49 demographic, being viewed by 7.5 million viewers.
Plot
Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and Jan Levinson (Melora Hardin) meet with an important potential client, Christian (Tim Meadows), at Chili's. The client represents the governmental paper interests of the branch's entire surrounding county, and it is mentioned that taking him on could mean Dunder-Mifflin will not have to close one of its branches – a threat that had been looming for the past year. Jan is initially disgusted with Michael's antics (which began with Michael changing the meeting location from a hotel meeting room to Chili's without permission) and refusal to talk business, but discovers at the end of the day that there is a method to his madness when the client bonds with Michael, allowing him to close the deal. Afterwards, in the parking lot, Michael and the recently divorced Jan kiss and leave together.
Meanwhile, Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) finds a screenplay written by Michael called Threat-Level Midnight starring himself as "Agent Michael Scarn", and the staff read it together. While reading the script, the character sequence "Dwigt" appears. Pam explains to the camera that originally, Michael based his incompetent sidekick on Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), but later changed the name with a search and replace. Unfortunately, the search and replace mechanism failed to change Dwight's misspelled name. Dwight is upset and quickly shuts down the exercise to invite everyone to set off fireworks outside, but only Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner) follows.
Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and Pam break off their respective evening plans to enjoy an impromptu dinner on the roof and watch Dwight and Kevin fool around with fireworks. The next day, Jim jokes about their "first date", and Pam, in an unexpectedly blunt tone, tells him it was not a date. Surprised and obviously disappointed, Jim makes an unwise comment that at least he didn't leave her at a high school hockey game, in reference to Pam's earlier revelation of what Roy had done on her worst date ever. Pam is clearly upset and gets up to go send some faxes, leaving it awkward between her and Jim, who tries unsuccessfully to apologize.
Word quickly spreads that Jan and Michael spent the night together. Michael initially tells the documentary crew that "nothing happened", that they just talked for several hours, but his story gradually changes to imply that they did more than that. Jan calls, clearly regretting what happened, but Michael refuses to accept her change of heart.
Jim and Michael share a glance at each other, both disappointed in the days' events.
Production
This episode was the third episode of the series directed by Greg Daniels. Daniels had previously directed the episodes "Basketball" and "The Dundies". "The Client" was written by Paul Lieberstein, who acts on the show as human resources director Toby Flenderson. The idea for Jan and Michael to have a romantic relationship was conceived by Steve Carell as far back as the filming of the pilot episode. According to writer and producer Greg Daniels "it was like he (Michael) was turned on by his teacher." Writer and actor Paul Lieberstein said that the first idea that anybody came up for the episode was the final shot, where Jim and Michael look at each other and shake their heads, suggesting that they had been through similar experiences. The rest of the episode was written to lead to that scene. The scene where Oscar tells a story about a date getting a background check on him was based on an actual date that Paul Lieberstein went on.
While filming, Steve Carell and Tim Meadows improvised a lot of their dinner scene, but most of it never made the final cut. One improvised scene that did make the final cut was the "Baby Back Ribs" song. In an interview, Jenna Fischer said that the rooftop scene was her favorite to shoot. Fischer recalled that "there was a very small crew up on the roof and they had the cameras really far away." After the main shooting ended, producers decided to do a re-shoot to explain the "Dwigt" situation clearly and concisely. The kiss between Michael and Jan was rehearsed and filmed "many, many, many times", according to B. J. Novak. While editing the kiss between Michael and Jan, Greg Daniels brought many people into the editing room to see if they thought the kiss was too long or not long enough.
During the production of the episode, the cast and crew were informed by NBC that the show would be picked up for a whole 22 episodes. Initially, the show's second season had only been brought back for six episodes, to test the water. Despite the lackluster reception the first season had, ratings jumped during the second season to 7.7 million in the fall alone. After the ratings success, Kevin Reilly, NBC Entertainment president, "surprised" the cast and crew of the staff and ordered a full season; he later likened the series to Seinfeld and Cheers, noting that they too had "slow starts".
Reception
"The Client" originally aired on NBC in the United States on November 8, 2005. The episode was viewed by 7.5 million viewers and received a 3.8 rating/9% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. This means that it was seen by 3.8% of all 18- to 49-year-olds, and 9% of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching television at the time of the broadcast. The episode retained 73 percent of its lead-in "My Name is Earl" audience, the best the show had done up until that point. An encore presentation of the episode, on April 25, 2006, received 2.4 rating/7% share was viewed by over 4.8 million viewers.
The episode received mostly positive reviews from television critics. TV Squad's Michael Sciannamea gave the episode a largely positive review wrote that Michael is "totally taken with himself", but still "has shown us his vulnerabilities". Sciannamea noted that, by showing the audience Michael's humanity, the writers were making "this sitcom so compelling". Sciannamea, however, did point out that this is the second week in a row that "Pam is offended by something Jim has said or done", which in his mind "will get tiresome quickly if it continues". "Miss Alli" of Television Without Pity graded the episode with a "B+". Rolling Stone named the scene wherein the employees read Threat Level: Midnight as the tenth funniest in The Office's first three seasons.
Erik Adams of The A.V. Club awarded the episode an "A" and called it "a series-best episode of The Office whose series-best status sneaks up on you". He was largely complimentary towards the way the episode built towards a climax, and followed various successful "setup-punchline rhythms". He also applauded the introduction of the Threatlevel: Midnight screenplay, calling it "a subplot so crucial to the mythology of the series, it would form the basis of an entire episode near the end of Steve Carell’s time in Scranton." Adams ultimately concluded that the episode is "a top-notch Office installment overall", thanks in large part to the Pam-Jim and Michael-Jan subplots and dynamics.