How to Spend $20

By Eric Hughes

September 2, 2008

That's...a lot of paper.

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Welcome to How to Spend $20, BOP's look at the latest DVDs to hit stores nationwide. This week: Office fans, try to calm yourselves. You can now purchase season four. Also, some other stuff is released, too.

For people who hate people named Toby: The Office: Season Four

Yes, it's finally here - Season Four of NBC's Emmy Award-winning comedy series about the mundane job life inside a paper supply company based in Scranton, Pa. Diehards for the most part criticized the season for its sense of unevenness, lack of continuity and fantastic (verging on very absurd) storylines. But I found a lot to like here, including some of my favorite episodes - Dinner Party, Chair Model - in the show's 66-episode history. In fact, the season finale, packed with a marriage proposal, kinky nerd sex and mistaken mental handicaps, is arguably the series' best to date.

The season seemed to mark the showrunners' knowledge that the show is a definitive hit on NBC's weak schedule, and thus, they noticeably let their guards down in what they felt comfortable in doing with their fine stable of awkward, yet charming characters. With Arrested Development now two years off the air, The Office is without a doubt the funniest thing on current primetime television. Season five kicks off September 25th.

Disc includes: Deleted scenes, gag reel, outtakes, audio commentaries, The Office Convention featurette




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For people who get serious when it comes to food: The Promotion

Need a little more Pam Beesly this week? The Office's real-life counterpart, Jenna Fischer, has a supporting role in Dimension Films' The Promotion, starring two welterweight comedians, John C. Reilly and Seann William Scott. Produced by the Weinsteins, The Promotion features two grocery store managers (Scott and Reilly) who vie for a promotion once a new supermarket opens up a few blocks away. And that's when the competition really heats up, ultimately putting stresses on the boys' financial situations, as well as their respective marriages.

Disc includes: Deleted scenes, audio commentary, Making The Promotion featurette, webisodes, outtakes

For people who are constantly reminded that they are a valued customer, yet must still remain on the line for the next available agent: Outsourced

It sure didn't make a heck of a lot of money (just a hair over $160,000 in domestic dollars), yet never showing in more than eight theaters in a single weekend probably helped matters. It's Outsourced, winner of a number of awards when it made its rounds on the film festival circuit. And critics as a whole loved it too, registering a 77% fresh rating over at Rotten Tomatoes.

Starring Josh Hamilton, the cross-culture comedy centers on a customer call center manager named Todd who finds out that he and his entire department, Western Novelty, have been outsourced to India. Even worse, the man must ship off to India as well to help train his replacement. There, Todd meets up with his eventual replacement, Puro (Asif Basra) and the opinionated Asha (Ayesha Dharker), and discovers along the way that he still has a lot to learn, in reference to India and America and also himself.

Hey, Office fans! Ken Kwapis, who directed several episodes of the series, including the pilot, was tapped by NBC to create a television spinoff of this movie. Well, consider me excited (that's what she said).

Disc includes: Bare bones


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