Ebert Did It Better: Gasbag Reviews

• The Writers – Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant
• Director – Jeffrey Blitz
• A brief synopsis – The accounting crew and Michael discover that one of the staff is an ex-convict.  Everyone is nervous, including Michael, who goes out of his way to make sure that the employee, who “happens to be black” knows that he is welcome.  Then, when his descriptions of prison life start to make Michael jealous, Michael then goes out of hsi way to make sure everyone is aware that Dunder Mifflin is better than prison life.  Andy, however, informs Jim that he is “horny” and asks Jim for the lay of the land when it comes to women.  Jim heads him right to Pam on a lark with all sorts of bad info.  This is fun, of course, until Karen gets wind of it and wants in.
• The best line – Andy: Pam-a-lama-ding-dong. Listen, you’re cute. There is no gettin’ around it. So… I don’t know if you like country music, but I was thinking maybe one of these days we could drive out to a field, crank up some tunes, smoke a few Macanudos… maybe even toss a disk around. Utway ooday ooyay inkthay, Ampay?
  Pam: Wow… I–
  Andy: Shh. Think about it. I’ll hit you back.
• The best moment – The moment Pam realizes that Jim put Andy up to asking her out.
• The best storyline – Slim pickin’s.  Andy, Jim and Pam
• Notable guest appearance – The number of new employees since the merger is dwindling.
• Would Michael have been reprimanded? – At least twice.  For the ill-advised baby references at the beginning and then prison Mike.  My guess is he would be fired by the end of the episode.
• Grade – D

The baby thing is getting ridiculous.  The prison thing is ridiculous.  The prank on Andy works…for the most part.