E-mail Surveillance

Infobox Television episode
Title =E-mail Surveillance
Series =The Office


Caption =Phyllis singing at Jim's party
Season =2
Episode =9
Airdate =November 22, 2005
Production =02008
Writer =Jennifer Celotta
Director =Paul Feig
Guests =Ken Jeong
Episode list =List of The Office (U.S. TV series) episodes
Season list =
Prev =Performance Review
Next =Christmas Party

"E-mail Surveillance" is the ninth episode of the second season of the American comedy television series "The Office", and the show's fifteenth episode overall. Written by Jennifer Celotta, and directed by Paul Feig, the episode first aired in the United States on November 22, 2005 on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).

In the episode, the company tech support employee gives Michael the ability to read his employees' e-mails, causing him to find out that Jim is throwing a party that Michael was not invited to. Meanwhile, Pam begins to suspect that Dwight and Angela might secretly be having a relationship.

Plot

After Michael Scott (Steve Carell) mistakes the company's tech support employee, Sadiq (Omi Vaidya), for a terrorist, he informs Michael that he can monitor his employee's e-mails which causes Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) to worry that Michael will discover the party he is throwing that night, to which Michael is not invited. Inevitably, Michael notices and tries to get Jim to admit that he's having a party, while Jim acts nonchalantly as if nothing is happening. Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) notices some things that lead her to suspect that Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) and Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey) are dating. However she discreetly abandons her suspicions when she realizes that suspicions could just as easily be raised about her and Jim. Jim and Pam bond when she sees Jim's room for the first time and looks through his high school year book. After ruining an improv class, Michael decides to crash Jim's party, much to the staff's dismay (and Dwight's cluelessness). Michael awkwardly tries his hand at karaoke but Jim then joins in, easing the tension considerably. The documentary crew catches Angela and Dwight making out in Jim's backyard.

Production

This episode was the fourth episode of the series directed by Paul Feig. Feig had previously directed episode "Office Olympics", "Halloween", and "Performance Review". "E-mail Surveillance" was written by Jennifer Celotta.

When filming the scene with Michael in the improv class, Ken Jeong, who played Bill, said that "they (the crew) would shoot the scenes as scripted the first few takes, and then we would improvise after that." For example "the scene where I (Ken Jeong) say 'Good job' to Michael and he says 'Good job, Bill... not' was improvised."cite web |url= http://keithp23.blogspot.com/2007/08/two-cents-five-questions-with_30.html |title= Two Cents & Five Questions With... |accessdate=2008-07-06 |last=Jeong |first=Ken |coauthors= |date= |work= |publisher=TheTwoCents] Omi Vaidya, who played Sadiq, said that he enjoyed shooting the party scenes because they got to drink real beer and play the Xbox 360, which hadn't been released at the time. Vaidya said that "it was like being at a real party with everyone from "The Office" except that we had to shoot a few scenes while we were chatting and relaxing."cite web |url= http://keithp23.blogspot.com/2007/09/two-cents-and-five-questions-with.html |title= Two Cents & Five Questions With... |accessdate=2008-07-06 |last=Vaidya |first=Omi |coauthors= |date= |work= |publisher=TheTwoCents]

Reception

"E-mail Surveillance" received 3.9/9 in the ages 18–49 demographic in the Nielsen Ratings. This means that 3.9 percent of all households with an 18 to 49 year old living in it watched the episode, and nine percent had their television tuned to the channel at any point. "E-mail Surveillance" was watched by 8 million viewers.cite web |url= http://www.officetally.com/the-office-nielsen-ratings/3/ |title= "The Office" Nielsen Ratings |accessdate=2008-07-06 |last=Tan |first=Jeannie |coauthors= |date= |work= |publisher=OfficeTally]

"E-mail Surveillance" was generally popular with critics. James Fan of NorthernAttack called Pam "the superstar" of the episode, and that "watching her operate as she attempts to get to the bottom of the Dwight/Angela situation is just too much fun."cite web |url=http://www.northernattack.com/archives/e-mail-surveillance/ |title=OfficeTally "E-mail Surveillance" |accessdate=2008-07-06 |last=Fan |first=James |coauthors= |date=2005-11-22 |work= |publisher=NorthernAttack] TV Squad's Michael Sciannamea said that "E-mail Surveillance" was "a solid episode", and that even though "Michael's vulnerabilities were again exposed", in the end "you walk away from the episode feeling good that he did make it to Jim's party."cite web |url=http://www.tvsquad.com/2005/11/22/the-office-e-mail-surveillance/ |title="The Office": "E-mail Surveillance" |accessdate=2008-07-06 |last=Sciannamea |first=Michael |coauthors= |date=2005-11-22 |work= |publisher=TV Squad] M. Giant from TelevisionWithoutPity.com graded the episode with an "A-".cite web |url=http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/the_office/email_surveillance.php |title="E-mail Surveillance" |accessdate=2008-07-06 |last=Giant |first=M. |coauthors= |date=2005-11-22 |work= |publisher=Television Without Pity] In a poll done by "Office" fansite OfficeTally.com, viewers ranked "E-mail Surveillance" as the eighth most popular episode out of the twenty-two episodes of season two.cite web |url=http://www.officetally.com/officetally-survivor-poll-season-2 |title=OfficeTally Survivor Poll: Season 2 |accessdate=2008-07-06 |last=Tan |first=Jeannie |coauthors= |date=2008-04-08 |work= |publisher=OfficeTally]

References

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0664515/ "E-mail Surveillance"] at the Internet Movie Database
* [http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/episodes/season2/208/ "E-mail Surveillance"] at NBC.com
* [http://www.northernattack.com/archives/e-mail-surveillance/ "E-mail Surveillance"] at NorthernAttack.com