Prince Family Paper - Reception

Reception

In its original American broadcast on January 22, 2009, "Prince Family Paper" was watched by 8.74 million overall viewers, about a five percent increase in viewership over the previous episode, "The Duel". "Prince Family Paper" received a 5.3 rating/14 share among viewers aged between 18 and 34, and a 4.6 rating/11 share among viewers between 18 and 49. It was outperformed by CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on CBS, which was seen by 17.53 million households, and Grey's Anatomy on ABC, which was seen by 14.25 million households, although commentators said The Office still fared well against the tough competition. "Prince Family Paper" earned higher ratings than the Fox series Bones, which moved to Thursday for the first time and drew 7.5 million viewers.

Tonight was about as inconsequential as The Office gets. With the exception of Michael’s moral quandary as to whether or to take advantage of the naivety of a comically friendly rival paper company it was all about gags, some inspired, some relatively arbitrary.

"Prince Family Paper" received generally mixed reviews. Travis Fickett of IGN called it one of the show's better Michael-and-Dwight centric episodes, and called the chase between them "a classic scene and perfectly executed". Fickett also praised several character moments, like Kelly's breakdown over whether Hilary Swank is hot, but said the Swank subplot was less interesting than the main story. Brian Howard of The Journal News said he appreciated that the script had Michael follow through on betraying the Princes, rather than deciding to spare them, because he felt it was more realistic. Howard said, "They didn’t let Michael off the hook. Instead the writers took a dark and dirty turn toward the truly tragic, in the literal sense of the word." He also praised the Hilary Swank subplot as funny and a realistic conversation topic among officemates, although he admitted it was "relegated to almost buffer status" to the main plot. Alan Sepinwall, television columnist with The Star-Ledger, said Michael's conflicted feelings about betraying the Prince family came up too late and resolved too abruptly to work well, and that the chase between Michael and Dwight was a poorly constructed "misfire". However, he called the subplot about Hilary Swank "genius with a capital G".

TV Squad writer Jay Black praised the main plot, and wrote, "I was delighted that the trip to the Prince Family Paper Company became a test of Michael's morals rather than the usual exercise in his stupidity." Black said Dwight's attempts to get Michael to give up the client were among the best set of scenes for the season. However, Black said the Hilary Swank subplot suffered in comparison, and felt like a vain attempt to find something for the supporting cast to do. The A.V. Club writer Nathan Rabin was disappointed with "Prince Family Paper", calling it overly dependent on throwaway gags and describing it as "about as inconsequential as The Office gets". Rabin complimented the opening gag with Jim and Dwight, but said it "felt like the kind of gag the show has pulled off dozens, if not hundreds of times, before". Alynda Wheat of Entertainment Weekly said it was not one of the strongest Office episodes, and that the script took a particularly mean tone with the Prince Family Paper subplot. But Wheat said it included some enjoyable moments, like Jim's prank against Dwight in the opening scene. Will Leitch of New York magazine was very critical of the episode, especially the Hilary Swank subplot, which he said "sounded like a conversation B. J. Novak had with himself at a party and submitted as a backup script". Leitch also pointed out the episode had nothing to do with the show's ongoing plotlines: "It's the definition of filler. Which would have been fine, had it been funnier." "Prince Family Paper" was voted the lowest-rated episode out of 26 from the fifth season, according to an episode poll at the fansite OfficeTally, where the episode was rated 6.98 out of 10.