If you thought the first episode of this season’s “The Office” was boring, just wait until you see the second one.

Watching this episode is much like sitting there waiting for grass to grow. Nothing happens. Like, literally, absolutely nothing. Usually, one would expect a certain goal to be fulfilled or a certain conflict to be resolved in a show like this, but nope, we don’t get any of that. There is no innovation or fun in the episode.

Toby counsels Michael, hoping to help him recover from his incident. Michael had spanked his nephew at the office, in front of everyone, and this is his punishment. Of course, Michael acts like his usual annoying, goofy self, and refuses to be counseled. He jokes around being “probed” by aliens and having grown up not seeing humans for a long time. Needless to say, the counseling session is not a huge success.

Pam, who is bad at being a salesperson, decides to pretend to be the office administrator. She takes it too far by asking for her higher salary, and Gabe, the representative from “Corporate,” finally calls her out on it. But Pam knows how to win the poker game, and plays Gabe, instead of the cards.

The rest of the staff tries to help Dwight become a gentleman because he wants to get revenge on a cashier at a mall. They help him choose the right clothes and he smashes his glasses on the floor. Dwight’s revenge plan does not work and it was unclear why he was trying to get revenge in the first place.

Where the episode could have been fun, it fails. I was expecting some goofy plan, some intricate way of getting revenge, but all I got was flat acting.

Ryan Howard, a temp who works at the office, finishes off with what is probably the single best line of the second episode: “Earth, you don’t have to be crazy to live here, but it helps.”

It was painful to see how low “The Office” ship is sinking. Hopefully, the producers have something exciting in store for the next episodes &- or I fear this will be yet another casualty in the land of TV.

Daniel Vasilchuk can be reached at [email protected]