A new year means NBC’sThe Officehas founda new home at Peacockafter spending years on the Netflix platform. To celebrate the beloved comedy’s transition to the NBCUniversal streamer, a never-before-seen cold open fromThe OfficeSeason 9 has been released. This thoroughly delightful bit of new content is just a taste of themany new bonus features now availableforThe Officefans to indulge in with their Peacock subscription.
Look, we here at Collider love a goodcold open fromThe Office. Longtime fans like myself might also agree that the best cold opens fromThe Officecenter around the various pranks Jim (John Krasinski) plays on Dwight (Rainn Wilson). A deep appreciation for the friendly animosity (that later evolves into a true friendship) between Jim and Dwight is part of the reason this newly released cold open from Season 9 is so enjoyable. Dwight is now the manager of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton branch, which means the cold open must have been filmed for one of the episodes later in the season.
In the five-minute cold open, we see another classic (and ridiculously elaborate) Jim prank. He and Pam (Jenna Fischer) are trying to convince Dwight that he is in the Matrix and is about to be recruited to take it down — just likeKeanu Reeves' Neo inThe Matrix. This includes Jim and Pam training two cats, hiring extras to look like Agent Smiths, and even recruiting Hank the security guard (the lateHugh Dane) to play Dorpheus, the fake brother of Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) all in an effort to get Dwight to take the red pill.
This never-before-seen cold open is absolutely delightful and only adds to my appreciation for the hilariously absurd twists and turns in Jim and Pam’s long friendship with Dwight. Since it’s a Season 9 cold open, it’s clear that the couple doesn’t want to be mean, per se, but that they still enjoy razzing Dwight all these years later. Anyone who knows Dwight also knows that he loves sci-fi and fantasy movies likeThe Matrix, so of course, he’ll fall for it. But he’ll only fall for it so long as Jim and Pam make it extra believable because, by this point in the show, Dwight would likely be wise to any basic Jim prank.
But I can also totally understand why it got cut. It runs a bit long for a cold open and is so involved that it could have worked better as a B- or C-plot for the episode it was supposed to be in. However, by Season 9, Jim, Dwight, and Pam are juggling some new, serious challenges that would make them all participating in this prank seem weird since their attentions are elsewhere. Thank goodness this cold open is now available to revisit on Peacock.
The Officeis now available to stream on Peacock (notNetflix!). Check out the never-before-seen cold open below. For more, check out John Krasinski’s recentholiday-themedSome Good Newsepisodeand get thelatest Peacock updates.
