The Office Season 4

This past season of TV has become a game of buyer beware for fans looking to add full season box sets to their collection. After last winter’s writer’s strike, most are truncated at best. Trust the The Office gang to bring the jam-packed goods even without the ambitious (30 episode!) season originally planned. Though only 14 eps were produced, several were hour-long efforts; on top of that, this set’s primary feature is a wealth of deleted scenes — on average, about 15 minutes per episode, which means lots more of Office support staff Stanley, Kevin, Angela, Creed, Toby and Kelly. Since so much of this show’s hilarity stems from the random asides and odd character glimpses, the deleted scenes actually play remarkably well, considering. The handful of gang-style commentary tracks only occasionally devolve into giggle fests, though that’s almost the entirety of a long blooper reel; it’s actually quite hilarious to witness the staff’s most stoic employees, like Leslie David Baker’s Stanley, crack up a room. As one writer/star Mindy Kalling notes — as she struggles to get through a Kelly rant about the evil’s of ex-boyfriend turned boss Ryan — it’s one thing to write this stuff, it’s another completely to get through it with a straight face. That star Steve Carell manages to get through an episode at all spewing the ridiculousness that comes out of Michael Scott’s mouth is a testament to his great self-control. Carell offers up some rabies PSAs (his fund-run event is a season highlight), as well as his own in-house ad for Dunder Mifflin, but missing is this summer’s online webisode series featuring Kevin’s small business venture. An hour-long writers panel, featuring two fistfuls of staff, suffers from bad sound and a lack of focus. The joy of The Office, on second (third, fourth) viewing becomes spotting tiny background details — a facial expression, a subtle movement — that just fleshes out the depth of ridiculousness this show achieves so effortlessly. Plus: summer vacation promo, more. (Universal)