this one physically pains me
Solid episode, Creed scenes really boost everything
yet another episode where Michael is just awful. There’s some character stuff around the edges that elevates this episode slightly but it’s just too much awful Michael. And he gets some redemption at the end for no earned reason.
★★☆☆☆☆☆
Trivias
+For the original Secret Santa: Kelly got Oscar a shower radio, Oscar got Creed a shamrock keychain, Creed got Jim an old shirt, Jim got Pam a teapot with sentimental gifts inside, Pam got Meredith a picture of the office, Meredith got Dwight four shot glasses, Dwight got Phyllis 200 paintball pellets with 2 free lessons with himself, Phyllis knitted Michael an oven mitt, Michael got Ryan a video iPod, Ryan got Toby a book of short stories, Toby got Angela a poster of babies posing as adults, Angela got Stanley a picture frame and Stanley got Kelly a "Kelly" nameplate.
+Phyllis's boyfriend (Bob Vance of Vance Refrigeration) works on the same floor as she does, in fact when Michael steps out of the office after getting her Christmas gift, you can clearly see Bob's office.
+For the gift exchange, Oscar is giving Creed an Irish key chain. In a talking head, he holds the gift up and refers to it as a Shamrock key chain; in fact, it has a four-leaf clover on it. (Shamrocks have only three leaves.)
Spoilers
+Phyllis's red oven mitts are similar to the red mitts she knits as a goodbye present to Michael (s7 e21).
+Micheal buys 15 bottles of vodka, which appears to be Fleischmann's brand, for a total of $166.41.
Is this interesting?
+Angela's babies-as-jazz-musicians poster gifted to her by Toby later becomes a point of contention with Oscar in "The Office", #2.21, The Office: Conflict Resolution (2006)
Ho-Ho-Ho-Pimp, damn, that line literary broke me :D
how can dwight have so much game?
2 girls wants him...
damn
Love me a good Christmas episode. Angela smashing the ornaments always makes me laugh
aww i wish to see the letter!!
Shout by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2015-12-17T05:47:24Z
Pretty damn great episode. This show thrives on the fact that its characters are so well-defined that it can essentially just throw them into any situation and play out their natural reactions to comedic effect. The best example is Michael himself, who's basically a 12-year-old boy: well-meaning, self-centered, and not really understanding how misaimed and inappropriate his behavior is. And yet, it all works out in the end as despite the disaster that Michael turns the gift swap into, everyone eventually relaxes and has a good time. There's way more to it than that, but the various characters reacting and responding to all the little developments as we'd expect them to is really the highlight.
At the same time, I was stuck by how good the editing is on this show. It's not the kind of thing that really stands out to me in watching television, but the show has such a distinct rhythm to it, and preserving the superb comedic timing of the show with all the cuts that the editor makes is a real virtuoso performance in the editing bay. Great stuff.