New Boss - Reception

Reception

In its original American broadcast on March 19, 2009, "New Boss" was watched by 7.95 million overall viewers and received a Nielsen rating of 3.9 among adults aged between 18 and 49, and 4.4 among ages 18 to 34. The episode received generally positive reviews. Marc Hirsh of National Public Radio said the addition of the no-nonsense Charles Miner character infused a sense of reality into The Office, which he said was growing increasingly wacky and out of control: " may, in fact, have been one of the most important episodes of the entire series, acting as a corrective to the show's increasing flirtations with ridiculousness. The characters of The Office have lived in a bubble for long enough." Travis Fickett of IGN said "New Boss" brought a badly needed change to the series, which he said had been in a "stagnant state" over the last several episodes. Fickett said Steve Carell gave "a tour de force" as Michael saw his power slip away, and he called the final scene when Michael quit as one of the show's biggest moments. He said, "Watching Miner work like a monkey wrench thrown into the works is the most fun I've had watching this show in a long time." Shahzad Abbas of TV Guide said, "Overall, this was a terrific episode, tightly structured, some nice laugh-out loud moments, and a genuine shocker at the end that was completely consistent with Michael's personality."

Alan Sepinwall, television critic for The Star-Ledger, said the episode was satisfying, although he felt it was short on laughs, except for Jim's antics with the tuxedo and the episode's documentary-style interviews. Sepinwall particularly praised the twist of Michael quitting and said he looked forward to seeing where the subplot went. Jeff Labrecque said "watching Jim flail for approval (was) one of the episode's most awkward delights", but he said the episode was really about "the type of man Michael Scott really is". Labrecque also said he looked forward to seeing how Michael regained his job, and raised the suggestion that the reason Michael clashed so much with Charles was because he was intimidated by the man's race. Brian Howard of The Journal News said, "For 22 minutes of not much fun and only some funny, 'New Boss' was a pretty good episode." He particularly liked the ending, which he said he did not see coming and served as a kind of redemption for Michael; Howard also liked Pam's documentary interviews and Jim's failed efforts to make a good impression to Charles. Several reviewers particularly praised the line about the "two-way petting zoo", a zoo in which people pet the animals and the animals pet back.

Joshua Alston of Newsweek criticized the episode and the introduction of the Charles character. Although Alston said Elba's acting was fine, he said the character "sucked the funny out of every scene he was in" and created an awkwardness inappropriate for the show. During the week following the episode's original broadcast, many fans theorized on the Internet that Michael said "I acquit" rather than "I quit", and that Michael's supposed resignation was something of a prank. Jenna Fischer, who plays Pam on The Office, addressed this issue on her MySpace blog, saying, "He said 'I quit'. And he meant it. You will see how it all plays out this week on the show."

The introduction of Charles Miner ranked number 3 in phillyBurbs.com's top ten moments from the fifth season of The Office.