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Casual Friday (The Office)
Encyclopedia
"Casual Friday" is the twenty-sixth episode of the fifth season of the television series The Office, and the 98th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC
in the United States on April 30, 2009. In this episode, Michael
, Pam
and Ryan
return to Dunder Mifflin as salespeople, and other members of the sales staff become upset when they don't get their old clients back that the Michael Scott Paper Company stole from them. Meanwhile, Jim
tries to remain neutral about the situation and plays board games with Creed, and Casual Friday
is reinstated in the office, with mixed results.
The episode was written by Anthony Q. Farrell
and directed by Brent Forrester
. The episode received generally positive reviews, with several commentators expressing relief that the series appeared to remain fresh following the six-episode "Michael Scott Paper Company" story arc, which had ended in the previous episode, "Broke
". According to Nielsen ratings
, "Casual Friday" was watched by 7.3 million households during its original broadcast, marking the lowest original episode rating of the fifth season until the May 14 season finale, "Company Picnic
".
(Steve Carell
) has returned to his old job as regional manager of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton branch and announces that Pam
(Jenna Fischer
) and Ryan
(B. J. Novak
) have joined the sales team, retaining their old clients from the Michael Scott Paper Company. Dwight
(Rainn Wilson
), Andy
(Ed Helms
), Phyllis (Phyllis Smith) and Stanley
(Leslie David Baker
) are upset because most of those clients were ones Michael previously stole from them. They are also upset that Michael treats Pam and Ryan with more respect because they were the only people to follow him to his new company, with Michael believing his company operates within the branch despite the buyout. Dwight calls a secret meeting in the warehouse with the salespeople, minus Pam and Ryan, to think of a way to get their clients back.
Jim
(John Krasinski
), trying to remain impartial, informs Michael of the potential mutiny and heads to the break room to play board games with Creed
(Creed Bratton
) until the conflict is resolved. Things take a turn for the worse when Dwight interrupts a sales call with Ryan, causing him to lose the client. Michael steps in and demands an apology, but Dwight, Andy, Phyllis and Stanley threaten to quit and start their own paper company. When Michael calls their bluff, Phyllis breaks down and says that they were the real victims of Michael's company, not corporate, and that they were hurt since Michael had treated them like a family and then turned on them. Michael is taken aback by her words.
Meanwhile, it is Casual Friday
and most people dress too loosely at the office. Angela
(Angela Kinsey
) complains to Toby
(Paul Lieberstein
) about Oscar
(Oscar Nunez
) wearing sandals to work and having to look at his feet. Meredith
(Kate Flannery
) disgusts the rest of the employees by wearing a very short dress without any panties or a bra, thus exposing herself to the rest of the office as she tries to adjust it to meet Toby's requests. Toby calls a meeting with everyone regarding Casual Friday. When Dwight tries to take charge of the meeting, Toby is finally stern with him and cancels Casual Friday, much to everyone's disappointment.
Michael calls a meeting with Dwight, Andy, Phyllis and Stanley to give them a formal apology, but they do not accept it since all they want is their clients back. Michael reluctantly agrees to give back their clients. In doing so, however, there are not enough clients to keep both Pam and Ryan on the sales team, leaving Michael to decide which one to keep. He talks it over with Jim, who suggests Pam would be better suited, while Michael thinks Ryan should get it. Michael calls a meeting with Pam after meeting with Ryan to inform her she did not get the sales job. Pam is visibly disappointed, but Michael starts laughing and tells her that she did get it, having offered Ryan a temp position again. Pam laughs it off and tells him he should stop with the "fake-firing" joke. Michael then decides to pull the joke on the new receptionist, Erin
(Ellie Kemper
). This is a callback to the Pilot episode in which Michael "fake fires" Pam.
and directed by Brent Forrester
. The official website for The Office included two cut scenes from "Casual Friday" within a week of its original release. In the first 50-second clip, Jim welcomes Pam to her new sales desk with a gift of a model of an island with figures representing Jim, Pam and Dwight, who share the office pod together. Dwight insists he did not have anything to do with the gift and does not welcome Pam to the desk because she "obscures my view of the shredder." In the second 50-second clip, Dwight tells Andy, Stanley and Phyllis that they should "put our balls in the guillotine, as they say," by threatening to quit if Michael does not give their clients back. The others express doubt and wonder if they should keep quiet in order to protect their jobs.
in The Shield
; Michael is not familiar with the show, but recognizes the actor from The Commish
. Erin says that Kelly looks like J-Lo in her outfit, a reference to the actress and singer Jennifer Lopez
. Kevin is shown to drive a Honda CR-V
.
"Casual Friday" included several callbacks to previous episodes. The scene in which Michael pretends to fire Pam, and she tells him, "Maybe you shouldn't fake fire people anymore," is a reference to the first episode of The Office, in which Michael pretends to fire Pam as a prank and she becomes very upset, which he then does exactly to Erin. Michael compares the difficult choice of choosing between renting the movies The Devil Wears Prada
and Sophie's Choice
, both of which star Meryl Streep
. The reference to the former film is a callback to the cold open
to fourth season episode, "Money
", in which Michael discusses having watched the movie recently and acts rudely toward Pam in the same fashion as Miranda Priestly, the film's antagonist, who is played by Streep. When Dwight is writing the secret messages, he uses Ryan's coffee mug, that Kelly gave to him from the "Customer Survey
" episode, to hold the urine.
. It was the lowest original episode rating of the fifth season at the time of its broadcast, although the season finale "Company Picnic
", would later receive a lower rating on May 14, being watched by 6.72 million viewers. "Casual Friday" received a 4.2 rating/12 share among viewers aged between 18 and 34, and a 3.7 rating/10 share among viewers between 18 and 49. The episode received generally positive reviews. Most reviewers particularly praised the opening scene with Kevin dropping his pot of chili; Fickett called it "a great silent comedy moment (and) a quintessential Office moment".
Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger
praised the episode, saying that it proves the show will still be good following the "Michael Scott Paper Company" arc, which he referred to as one of the best storylines in the show's history. Sepinwall said he thought all the supporting characters were excellent, and that he particularly liked the new adversarial dynamic between Michael and Dwight. Margaret Lyons of Entertainment Weekly
said, "This was the episode I've been waiting for weeks." She said she particularly enjoyed many of the subplots involving Kelly's clothing, Creed's chess game with Jim and Toby dealing with casual friday problems. Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club
gave "Casual Friday" a B+ grade, and said the episode had good character moments and a bit of dramatic depth in addition to a few good laughs.
Travis Fickett in IGN
said Creed, Kevin, Meredith and Toby were all in top form in "Casual Friday", and said he enjoyed the changes that resulted in Michael's departure from and return to the company. However, Fickett questioned what direction the show would go now that so many questions have been resolved. Jay Black of TV Squad said the conflict between Michael and his co-workers was very good, and he enjoys the way Phyllis revealed how hurt she was by Michael's departure from the company; however, Black said he did not like that the episode included a "casual friday" even though the office had never had one before. Rick Porter of Zap2it
said the supporting characters were all in top form and that the episode demonstrated how Michael, in offering a genuine apology, has grown this season. Porter also praised the scenes with Jim and Creed, and described Kate Flannery as "one of the most fearless actresses on TV" for her scene with the short bathing suit. Josh McAuliffe of The Times-Tribune called the episode "yet another winner in what's shaping up to be a terrific last third of the season".
"Casual Friday" was voted the sixteenth highest-rated episode out of 26 from the fifth season, according to an episode poll at the fansite OfficeTally; the episode was rated 7.95 out of 10.
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
in the United States on April 30, 2009. In this episode, Michael
Michael Scott (The Office)
Michael Gary Scott is a fictional character on NBC's The Office, portrayed by Steve Carell, and based on David Brent from the original British version. Michael, the central character of the series, was the manager of the Scranton branch of paper and printer distribution company Dunder Mifflin Inc...
, Pam
Pam Beesly
Pamela Morgan "Pam" Halpert is a fictional character on the U.S. television sitcom The Office, played by Jenna Fischer. Her counterpart in the original UK series of The Office is Dawn Tinsley....
and Ryan
Ryan Howard (The Office)
Ryan Bailey Howard , played by B. J. Novak, is a fictional character on the US television sitcom The Office. He is based upon Ricky Howard from the original version of The Office , but his role is significantly expanded and he is a main character.-Character profile:Little is known about Ryan's...
return to Dunder Mifflin as salespeople, and other members of the sales staff become upset when they don't get their old clients back that the Michael Scott Paper Company stole from them. Meanwhile, Jim
Jim Halpert
James Duncan "Jim" Halpert is a fictional character in the United States version of the television sitcom The Office, played by John Krasinski. The character is based on Tim Canterbury from the original version of The Office...
tries to remain neutral about the situation and plays board games with Creed, and Casual Friday
Casual Friday
Casual Friday along with dressing casually during the week became very prevalent during the Dot-com bubble of the late 1990s and early 2000s rooted in a relaxed California-based business culture...
is reinstated in the office, with mixed results.
The episode was written by Anthony Q. Farrell
Anthony Q. Farrell
Anthony Q. Farrell is a writer and actor residing in Los Angeles, USA. He has written for The Office, presided as executive story editor for Little Mosque on the Prairie as well as produced and performed in various stand-up and sketch comedies.Having been born and raised in Toronto, Canada,...
and directed by Brent Forrester
Brent Forrester
Brent Forrester is an American writer, who wrote several episodes of the animated television sitcom The Simpsons between 1993 and 1997. He has also worked as an executive producer on King of the Hill, and a writer on The Ben Stiller Show, Mr. Show with Bob and David, Undeclared, and The Office...
. The episode received generally positive reviews, with several commentators expressing relief that the series appeared to remain fresh following the six-episode "Michael Scott Paper Company" story arc, which had ended in the previous episode, "Broke
Broke (The Office)
"Broke" is the 25th episode of the fifth season of the television series The Office, and the 97th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on April 23, 2009...
". According to Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
, "Casual Friday" was watched by 7.3 million households during its original broadcast, marking the lowest original episode rating of the fifth season until the May 14 season finale, "Company Picnic
Company Picnic
"Company Picnic" is the fifth season finale of the American comedy television series The Office, and the 100th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on May 14, 2009...
".
Plot
MichaelMichael Scott (The Office)
Michael Gary Scott is a fictional character on NBC's The Office, portrayed by Steve Carell, and based on David Brent from the original British version. Michael, the central character of the series, was the manager of the Scranton branch of paper and printer distribution company Dunder Mifflin Inc...
(Steve Carell
Steve Carell
Steven John "Steve" Carell is an American comedian, actor, voice artist, producer, writer, and director. Although Carell is notable for his role on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, he found greater fame in the late 2000s for playing Michael Scott on The Office...
) has returned to his old job as regional manager of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton branch and announces that Pam
Pam Beesly
Pamela Morgan "Pam" Halpert is a fictional character on the U.S. television sitcom The Office, played by Jenna Fischer. Her counterpart in the original UK series of The Office is Dawn Tinsley....
(Jenna Fischer
Jenna Fischer
Regina Marie "Jenna" Fischer is an American actress and director. She is most widely known for her Emmy-nominated portrayal of Pam Halpert on the NBC situation comedy and mockumentary The Office, and has also appeared in several films, including Blades of Glory, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,...
) and Ryan
Ryan Howard (The Office)
Ryan Bailey Howard , played by B. J. Novak, is a fictional character on the US television sitcom The Office. He is based upon Ricky Howard from the original version of The Office , but his role is significantly expanded and he is a main character.-Character profile:Little is known about Ryan's...
(B. J. Novak
B. J. Novak
Benjamin Joseph Manaly “B. J.” Novak is an American actor, stand-up comedian, screenwriter, and director. He is best known for being a writer and co-executive producer for and playing the role of Ryan Howard on the US version of The Office, as well as appearing in Inglourious Basterds...
) have joined the sales team, retaining their old clients from the Michael Scott Paper Company. Dwight
Dwight Schrute
Dwight Kurt Schrute III is a character on NBC's The Office portrayed by Rainn Wilson. He originally exactly resembled Gareth Keenan from the original UK version of The Office. Dwight is the top salesman and former acting manager for the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company and has won numerous awards for...
(Rainn Wilson
Rainn Wilson
Rainn Dietrich Wilson is an American actor and comedian. He is primarily known for his role as the egomaniacal Dwight Schrute on the American version of the television comedy The Office...
), Andy
Andy Bernard
Andrew "Andy" Baines Bernard is a fictional character from the U.S. television series The Office. The character is highly insecure, yet egotistical, constantly mentioning his education at Cornell University...
(Ed Helms
Ed Helms
Edward Paul "Ed" Helms is an American actor and comedian known for his work as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, as Andy Bernard on the US version of the sitcom/mockumentary The Office and for his role as Dr. Stu Price in The Hangover films.- Early life :Helms was born and raised...
), Phyllis (Phyllis Smith) and Stanley
Stanley Hudson
Stanley James Hudson is a fictional character from the US television series The Office. He is played by Leslie David Baker. Stanley's counterpart in the UK series is Malcolm.-Overview:...
(Leslie David Baker
Leslie David Baker
Leslie David Baker is an American film and television actor who plays Stanley Hudson on The Office. He also had several small roles in Scrubs and appeared on That '70s Show as a janitor after a Ted Nugent concert and played an office worker in several of OfficeMax's "Rubberband Man" series of...
) are upset because most of those clients were ones Michael previously stole from them. They are also upset that Michael treats Pam and Ryan with more respect because they were the only people to follow him to his new company, with Michael believing his company operates within the branch despite the buyout. Dwight calls a secret meeting in the warehouse with the salespeople, minus Pam and Ryan, to think of a way to get their clients back.
Jim
Jim Halpert
James Duncan "Jim" Halpert is a fictional character in the United States version of the television sitcom The Office, played by John Krasinski. The character is based on Tim Canterbury from the original version of The Office...
(John Krasinski
John Krasinski
John Burke Krasinski is an American actor, film director, and writer. He is most widely known for playing Jim Halpert on the NBC sitcom The Office...
), trying to remain impartial, informs Michael of the potential mutiny and heads to the break room to play board games with Creed
Creed Bratton (character)
Creed Rowland Bratton a.k.a. "William Charles Schneider" is a fictional character from the U.S. television series The Office. Confusion may arise from the fact that the character is played by and partially based on the musician of the same name, Creed Bratton...
(Creed Bratton
Creed Bratton
Creed Bratton is an American actor and musician, a former member of The Grass Roots...
) until the conflict is resolved. Things take a turn for the worse when Dwight interrupts a sales call with Ryan, causing him to lose the client. Michael steps in and demands an apology, but Dwight, Andy, Phyllis and Stanley threaten to quit and start their own paper company. When Michael calls their bluff, Phyllis breaks down and says that they were the real victims of Michael's company, not corporate, and that they were hurt since Michael had treated them like a family and then turned on them. Michael is taken aback by her words.
Meanwhile, it is Casual Friday
Casual Friday
Casual Friday along with dressing casually during the week became very prevalent during the Dot-com bubble of the late 1990s and early 2000s rooted in a relaxed California-based business culture...
and most people dress too loosely at the office. Angela
Angela Martin
Angela Noelle Martin is a fictional character from the US television series The Office played by American actress Angela Kinsey. She is an original character, and has no equivalent in the British version of the show, The Office.-Overview:...
(Angela Kinsey
Angela Kinsey
Angela Kinsey is an American actress. She currently appears as the uptight accountant Angela Martin on the hit NBC television series The Office.-Personal life:...
) complains to Toby
Toby Flenderson
Toby Wyatt Flenderson, M.S.W. born 1971 is a character from the US television series The Office. He is played by Paul Lieberstein. He is an original character and has no equivalent in the British version of the show, The Office.-Overview:...
(Paul Lieberstein
Paul Lieberstein
Paul Bevan Lieberstein is an American screenwriter, actor and television producer. An Emmy Award winner, he is most widely known as a writer, producer, and as supporting cast member Toby Flenderson on the U.S...
) about Oscar
Oscar Martinez
Oscar Jual Paul Martinez is a fictional character from the US television series The Office. He is played by Oscar Nunez.-Overview:Oscar Martinez is an accountant at the paper distributor Dunder Mifflin. He is a first generation Mexican-American. Oscar is also openly homosexual after being...
(Oscar Nunez
Oscar Nunez
Oscar Nunez , sometimes credited as Oscar Núñez, is a Cuban American actor and comedian.He currently appears as Dunder Mifflin's paper supply accountant, Oscar Martinez, on NBC's The Office.-Career:...
) wearing sandals to work and having to look at his feet. Meredith
Meredith Palmer
Meredith Elizabeth Palmer is a fictional character from the US television series The Office. She is played by Kate Flannery. She is an original character and has no equivalent in the British version of the show, The Office....
(Kate Flannery
Kate Flannery
Katherine Patricia "Kate" Flannery is an American actress best known for playing the role of Meredith Palmer on the NBC hit series The Office.-Personal life:...
) disgusts the rest of the employees by wearing a very short dress without any panties or a bra, thus exposing herself to the rest of the office as she tries to adjust it to meet Toby's requests. Toby calls a meeting with everyone regarding Casual Friday. When Dwight tries to take charge of the meeting, Toby is finally stern with him and cancels Casual Friday, much to everyone's disappointment.
Michael calls a meeting with Dwight, Andy, Phyllis and Stanley to give them a formal apology, but they do not accept it since all they want is their clients back. Michael reluctantly agrees to give back their clients. In doing so, however, there are not enough clients to keep both Pam and Ryan on the sales team, leaving Michael to decide which one to keep. He talks it over with Jim, who suggests Pam would be better suited, while Michael thinks Ryan should get it. Michael calls a meeting with Pam after meeting with Ryan to inform her she did not get the sales job. Pam is visibly disappointed, but Michael starts laughing and tells her that she did get it, having offered Ryan a temp position again. Pam laughs it off and tells him he should stop with the "fake-firing" joke. Michael then decides to pull the joke on the new receptionist, Erin
Erin Hannon
Kelly Erin Hannon is a fictional character from the U.S. television series The Office. She is the office receptionist for the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin, a position previously held by Pam Halpert before she left the company. Erin is played by Ellie Kemper...
(Ellie Kemper
Ellie Kemper
Elizabeth Claire "Ellie" Kemper is an American actress, comedian and writer best known for her role as Erin Hannon in NBC's The Office.-Personal life:...
). This is a callback to the Pilot episode in which Michael "fake fires" Pam.
Production
"Casual Friday" was written by Anthony Q. FarrellAnthony Q. Farrell
Anthony Q. Farrell is a writer and actor residing in Los Angeles, USA. He has written for The Office, presided as executive story editor for Little Mosque on the Prairie as well as produced and performed in various stand-up and sketch comedies.Having been born and raised in Toronto, Canada,...
and directed by Brent Forrester
Brent Forrester
Brent Forrester is an American writer, who wrote several episodes of the animated television sitcom The Simpsons between 1993 and 1997. He has also worked as an executive producer on King of the Hill, and a writer on The Ben Stiller Show, Mr. Show with Bob and David, Undeclared, and The Office...
. The official website for The Office included two cut scenes from "Casual Friday" within a week of its original release. In the first 50-second clip, Jim welcomes Pam to her new sales desk with a gift of a model of an island with figures representing Jim, Pam and Dwight, who share the office pod together. Dwight insists he did not have anything to do with the gift and does not welcome Pam to the desk because she "obscures my view of the shredder." In the second 50-second clip, Dwight tells Andy, Stanley and Phyllis that they should "put our balls in the guillotine, as they say," by threatening to quit if Michael does not give their clients back. The others express doubt and wonder if they should keep quiet in order to protect their jobs.
Cultural references
Ryan makes reference to Michael ChiklisMichael Chiklis
Michael Charles Chiklis is an American actor, voice actor, occasional director and television producer. Some of the previous roles for which he is best known include Commissioner Tony Scali on the ABC police drama The Commish, LAPD Detective Vic Mackey on the FX police drama The Shield, Thing in...
in The Shield
The Shield
The Shield is an American television drama series starring Michael Chiklis which premiered on March 12, 2002 on FX in the United States and concluded on November 25, 2008 after seven seasons...
; Michael is not familiar with the show, but recognizes the actor from The Commish
The Commish
The Commish is a television series that aired on ABC in the United States from 1991 to 1996. The series focused on the work and home life of a suburban police commissioner in upstate New York....
. Erin says that Kelly looks like J-Lo in her outfit, a reference to the actress and singer Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
. Kevin is shown to drive a Honda CR-V
Honda CR-V
The Honda CR-V is a compact suv, now called crossover, manufactured since 1995 by Honda. It was loosely derived from the Honda Civic to satisfy a public demand for a sport-utility vehicle from Honda. There are discrepancies as to what "CR-V" stands for, with Honda sources in different markets...
.
"Casual Friday" included several callbacks to previous episodes. The scene in which Michael pretends to fire Pam, and she tells him, "Maybe you shouldn't fake fire people anymore," is a reference to the first episode of The Office, in which Michael pretends to fire Pam as a prank and she becomes very upset, which he then does exactly to Erin. Michael compares the difficult choice of choosing between renting the movies The Devil Wears Prada
The Devil Wears Prada (film)
The Devil Wears Prada is a 2006 comedy-drama film, a loose screen adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel of the same name. It stars Anne Hathaway as Andrea Sachs, a recent college graduate who goes to New York City and gets a job as a co-assistant to powerful and demanding fashion magazine...
and Sophie's Choice
Sophie's Choice (film)
Sophie's Choice is a 1982 American romantic drama film that tells the story of a Polish immigrant, Sophie, and her tempestuous lover who share a boarding house with a young writer in Brooklyn. The film stars Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Peter MacNicol. Alan J...
, both of which star Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
. The reference to the former film is a callback to the cold open
Cold open
A cold open in a television program or movie is the technique of jumping directly into a story at the beginning or opening of the show, before the title sequence or opening credits are shown...
to fourth season episode, "Money
Money (The Office)
"Money" is the seventh episode of the fourth season of the American comedy television series The Office, and the show's sixtieth episode overall. It first aired on October 18, 2007, on NBC, and was the last of four consecutive hour long episodes that opened the fourth season...
", in which Michael discusses having watched the movie recently and acts rudely toward Pam in the same fashion as Miranda Priestly, the film's antagonist, who is played by Streep. When Dwight is writing the secret messages, he uses Ryan's coffee mug, that Kelly gave to him from the "Customer Survey
Customer Survey
"Customer Survey" is the seventh episode of the fifth season of the television series The Office, and the show's seventy-ninth episode overall. The episode aired in the United States on November 6, 2008 on NBC...
" episode, to hold the urine.
Reception
In its original American broadcast on April 30, 2009, "Casual Friday" was watched by 7.3 million households, according to Nielsen ratingsNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
. It was the lowest original episode rating of the fifth season at the time of its broadcast, although the season finale "Company Picnic
Company Picnic
"Company Picnic" is the fifth season finale of the American comedy television series The Office, and the 100th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on May 14, 2009...
", would later receive a lower rating on May 14, being watched by 6.72 million viewers. "Casual Friday" received a 4.2 rating/12 share among viewers aged between 18 and 34, and a 3.7 rating/10 share among viewers between 18 and 49. The episode received generally positive reviews. Most reviewers particularly praised the opening scene with Kevin dropping his pot of chili; Fickett called it "a great silent comedy moment (and) a quintessential Office moment".
Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to The Jersey Journal of Jersey City, The Times of Trenton and the Staten Island Advance, all of which are owned by Advance Publications.The Newark Star-Ledgers daily...
praised the episode, saying that it proves the show will still be good following the "Michael Scott Paper Company" arc, which he referred to as one of the best storylines in the show's history. Sepinwall said he thought all the supporting characters were excellent, and that he particularly liked the new adversarial dynamic between Michael and Dwight. Margaret Lyons of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
said, "This was the episode I've been waiting for weeks." She said she particularly enjoyed many of the subplots involving Kelly's clothing, Creed's chess game with Jim and Toby dealing with casual friday problems. Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
gave "Casual Friday" a B+ grade, and said the episode had good character moments and a bit of dramatic depth in addition to a few good laughs.
Travis Fickett in IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
said Creed, Kevin, Meredith and Toby were all in top form in "Casual Friday", and said he enjoyed the changes that resulted in Michael's departure from and return to the company. However, Fickett questioned what direction the show would go now that so many questions have been resolved. Jay Black of TV Squad said the conflict between Michael and his co-workers was very good, and he enjoys the way Phyllis revealed how hurt she was by Michael's departure from the company; however, Black said he did not like that the episode included a "casual friday" even though the office had never had one before. Rick Porter of Zap2it
Zap2it
Zap2it is an American website and affiliate network that provides news, photos and video, local TV listings and movie showtimes. The site is produced by Tribune Media Services , part of the publishing division of the Chicago-based Tribune Company...
said the supporting characters were all in top form and that the episode demonstrated how Michael, in offering a genuine apology, has grown this season. Porter also praised the scenes with Jim and Creed, and described Kate Flannery as "one of the most fearless actresses on TV" for her scene with the short bathing suit. Josh McAuliffe of The Times-Tribune called the episode "yet another winner in what's shaping up to be a terrific last third of the season".
"Casual Friday" was voted the sixteenth highest-rated episode out of 26 from the fifth season, according to an episode poll at the fansite OfficeTally; the episode was rated 7.95 out of 10.
External links
- "Casual Friday" at NBC.comNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...