Dream Team (The Office) - Reception

Reception

In its original American broadcast on April 9, 2009, "Dream Team" was watched by 7.2 million overall viewers, according to Nielsen ratings. The episode earned more ratings than the Parks and Recreation pilot that immediately followed it (which had 6.8 million viewers) but had less than "Michael Scott Paper Company", which came right after Parks and Recreation and had 8 million viewers. "Dream Team", as well as "Michael Scott Paper Company", had the most viewers in its time slot among adults between the ages of 18 and 49.

"Frankly, The Office kind of needed this sort of shake-up, even if it’s something as simple as another room to put all our characters in. (Though it’s smaller than Michael realized: “165 square feet seemed like a lot.”)"

"Dream Team" received generally positive reviews. Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger said he was enjoying the new paper company storyline and that "Dream Team" was funnier than "Michael Scott Paper Company". Sepinwall said the final scene with Michael trying to comfort Pam in the car was a "good payoff" which was well acted by Steve Carell and Jenna Fischer, and "yet another reminder that Michael does know what he's doing some of the time, which means Pam wasn't a complete idiot for following him out the door." He also liked Kevin's struggle with the phones in the beginning, but said the storyline between Jim and Charles was getting repetitive and, "It would help if the writers ever gave Idris Elba something funny to do." Steven Mullen of The Tuscaloosa News called the episode "stellar", said the Charles Miner soccer subplot ended "perfectly" and said, "Watching fears bubble beneath the surface and slowly erode Pam's confidence was a masterwork."

Travis Fickett of IGN said he was happy with the new, unpredictable direction The Office was taking. He particularly praised the Michael/Pam relationship in the episode, as well as soccer subplot involving Jim and Charles and the return of Ryan; he said Ryan's new bleached blond hair and his theft of bowling shoes were particularly funny moments. Will Leitch of New York magazine said the episode has provided a change the show needed, and said, "Considering how unlikely it was that The Office was going to allow Michael and Pam to degrade into homelessness and squalor, the show has handled the predictable transition as well as possible." Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club said the episode included a good exploration of Michael and Pam's relationship; he said "they're weirdly good together". Phipps, who gave the episode an A- grade, also said the Dunder Mifflin material worked well, "although Idris Elba has been so good at portraying a heartless professional it almost doesn’t seem right for anything to break through his icy exterior."

Margaret Lions of Entertainment Weekly said the episode had "strong moments, and some interesting character play I didn't get quite the same buzz from this week's installments as I did from the previous episode." She said "Dream Team" lacks the usual group interactions between the office co-workers, which she said are normally the funniest parts of the show. However, she praised Michael's pep talk to Pam in the final scene, and said the episode was "the best showcase Jenna Fischer has had in years". Entertainment Weekly listed Michael's pep talk to Pam at the end of the episode as one of the 13 highlights from that week in television.

In her list of the top ten moments from the fifth season of The Office, phillyBurbs.com writer Jen Wielgus ranked Michael's formation of the Michael Scott Paper Company in the downstairs storage closet as number one, citing the "Dream Team", "Michael Scott Paper Company" and "Heavy Competition" episodes in particular. She also said she specifically enjoyed the attempt to solicit investments at the retirement home from "Dream Team". Ryan's return to the series, along with his brief return as a temp in the episode "Weight Loss", ranked number 5 in that list. "Dream Team" was voted the fifteenth highest-rated episode out of 26 from the fifth season, according to an episode poll at the fansite OfficeTally; the episode was rated 8.00 out of 10.

Claire Scanlon received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series. "Dream Team" accounted for one of the ten Primetime Emmy Award nominations The Office received for the show's fifth season at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards, which were held on September 20, 2009.