Party

The Office's genius reaches new levels in this episode, which in some ways mirrors its Season One counterpart as to the use of sex-related humor and painfully embarrassing situations.

In the first series, as fans certainly recall, Tim received a huge inflatable penis for his birthday (and the present was given to him by Dawn and Lee, no less). This time, it's Trudy who's celebrating, and in pure office tradition she receives a provocative outfit and a dildo. While the latter causes a few problems for David, who's failing to impress both Neil and two potential collaborators, Gareth keeps hitting on Rachel (Stacey Roca) in a quite obnoxious manner, even though she's adamant she will only go out with Tim.

The writing, as ever, is spot-on, the balance between humor and bleakness remaining solid throughout the whole 30 minutes. The real value, however, is in Gervais' interaction with the dildo (yes, I know it sounds wrong) - it even makes his filthy Dalek impression look like a lazy effort.