Promos (The Office)

The series—presented as if it were a real documentary—depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.

While everyone panics about their secrets being revealed, Pam Halpert (Jenna Fischer) reflects upon how much she and Jim (John Krasinski) have changed over the past nine years.

Meanwhile, at Athlead's office in Philadelphia, Jim and Darryl Philbin (Craig Robinson) have a big meeting with baseball player Ryan Howard (not to be confused with the former series regular), who pitches a bizarre sci-fi sports movie about himself.

However, many of the workers are dismayed to learn just how much of their activities have been recorded; for instance, Dwight and Angela's affair that occurred a year ago was captured.

Andy Bernard becomes obsessed with online comments regarding his brief appearance in the promo, posting lengthy replies and even uploading his own video in response to negative reactions.

Dwight Schrute starts dating a Brussels sprout farmer, Esther Bruegger, while negotiating the purchase of a tractor with her father Henry.

At the Athlead offices, Jim Halpert and Darryl Philbin have a meeting with Major League Baseball player Ryan Howard.

[5] In the cold open, Phyllis is seen listening to an audiobook of the erotic romance novel Fifty Shades of Grey on her iPod, which makes everyone uncomfortable due to her arousal.

During the table read of Howard's screenplay, he mentions that it is of utmost importance for them to secure the rights to the name Darth Vader from the popular space movie series Star Wars.

[6] The title of the in-series documentary, The Office: An American Workplace, is the name given to the series itself when it was broadcast in the UK to differentiate it from the British version of the show.

She argued the episode had a "cohesive, united feel", even though Jim and Darryl were separated from the main action, that "past, present, and (possible) future combined together nicely", and that "the emotion wasn't overplayed".

[11] Dan Forcella of TV Fanatic awarded the episode 3.5 stars out of 5, and criticized the reintroduction of Brian, saying it felt "forced" and that it ruined "something so innately interesting".

[12] Nick Campbell of TV.com wrote that the quality of the episode hinged on whether or not the viewer could accept the fact that the characters were unaware of the extent of the footage that the camera crew caught.

[13] Alan Sepinwall of HitFix felt that "there was good idea hiding inside of 'The Promo' [sic]", but that much of the episode was undermined by the broad nature of the humor.