So here’s the cold opening from last night’s The Office:

The Brent-less episode that followed was a good one, and generally I think the show has been better this year than last. Parks & Recreation, which had maybe its best episode ever last night (episodes written by Norm Hiscock are almost always good — he’s the guy who’s written for Kids in the Hall, Corner Gas, the “That’s my Purse!” episode of King of the Hill, and wrote the episodes where Parks really found itself and clicked into place), but like How I Met Your Mother, I think Office has gotten over some of the rough patches and is doing all right for a show that’s done over 100 episodes. It does seem kind of hard to believe, though, that it was once one of the least sitcom-y sitcoms on the air: as a veteran hit show where the stories and characters have been getting broader, it’s gone through a lot of sitcom tropes™ of late, so that the impending arrival of Will Ferrell as a gimmicky Special Guest Star hardly seems out of place.