 Oscar Dahl , a senior writer for BuddyTV , gave the episode a favorable review and stated that " Tonight 's Office was possibly the funniest of the season . " Christine Fenno of Entertainment Weekly stated that " ... ' Branch Wars ' , penned by Mindy Kaling , didn 't measure up to the brilliance of last week 's episode ( ' Local Ad ' ) but served up plenty of laughs . " Travis Fickett of IGN stated that " This episode feels like it comes in two halves , one that works and one that doesn 't so much " when referring to the trip to Utica , and " The Finer Things Club " , respectively , but later pointed out that " Despite being a somewhat bumpy ride , the episode has a fair number of big laughs . " Fickett particularly enjoyed Jim 's character in the episode , and his actions and reactions to the situation that he became involved in . 
