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Wow, what a great series finale for The Office. After six long years, a marriage, and a birth, our friends at Sabre nee Dunder Mifflin are going on their way, as the documentary crew that has been dutifully following them has decided that the story they set out to tell has been told. Right? Isn’t that what happened last night? I was reading an interview with Jenna Fischer this week, and she was saying how she thought it was really cool that Jim and Pam’s wedding was at the beginning of the season instead of a more typical dramatic season finale, and how she thought it was cool that Jim and Pam were having a baby in the middle of the season, and how both of these episodes were just proof that The Office was really special and different. Sure, Jenna Fischer. I mean, I get it. It is special and different when mainstream TV shows shake off the preconceived notions handed down to them by generations of by-the-book storytelling. But at the same time, there is a reason why dramatic stakes have, in many ways, remained largely unchanged (and unimproved upon) since Shakespeare: because they are very limited in their operation. You need to build to something because if you start with the built thing then who cares. My point is, where does The Office expect to go from here? I suppose that is a question more for the writing staff to concern themselves with, but personally, I really loved the Jim and Pam wedding episode, and I’ve been sort of done with the show since then. The rest has seemed…inconsequential. And now that Pam has had her baby, the one dramatic resolution hold out, it can only get worse. I do not care about the funny things that Jim and Pam, two made up people, are going to learn and discover about the wonders of raising a child, because they are all make-believe, and this show isn’t called The Baby.
Please be careful The Office. Because I do have a lot of fondness for you, and I would hate for that fondness to be worn out and ground to dust in a slow process of lazy erosion as you spin your wheels just because you can, like some kind of bum hip replacement. Let’s discuss!
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That’s the thing about The Office. There simply aren’t any stakes left to care about. I get that it’s a comedy, but still, that doesn’t mean every non-drama show has to devolve into Entourage where the characters literally tread (poopy) water for 100 seasons pretending there’s a lot at stake when there is really nothing at stake.
Agreed. And I think that’s why I, like Gabe, enjoyed the wedding episode so much. It was a nice reminder of why I used to love the show so much.
Is this going to be the last season of this show? It feels like it’s ending, but I haven’t actually read anything about the show being put to pasture.
At this point, I don’t think NBC can let this show end, kind of like the Government.
The government can’t end “the Office” because it would take a 60 vote majority right now. Let’s wait until the Senate rules are adjusted to that the filibuster isn’t so easily abused.
This would be a perfect time for the Dems to finally start using Reconciliation.
literally.
srsly, though, community was great last night.
So what I’m saying is don’t care about Batman, because he’s the same as Superman.
Goddammit! I keep doing that. I’m going to post this comment down below so it’s in context. Bear with me.
Did anyone notice that the girl digging Abed was Dennis’s (from IASIP) wife/ pharmacist?
I couldn’t agree more. Ever since the “Michael Scott Paper Company” this show has been a waste of time. How can you care about the trials and tribulations of the central character when time and time again, regardless of their actions, everything works out for them. From the moment Dundler Mifflin bought out a bankrupt company to bring back 3 employee’s that had been nothing but absurd failures the show has become nothing but a series of random false trials.
Why do we care about Batman? Because he, like us, can fail. Michael Scott is Superman. I can’t wait for the office story arc where Micahel dies and comes back as 4 different Michael Scotts.
Batman is too big to fail. Wayne Enterprise got a big chunk of the bail out.
Uh… I hate to break ti to you, but
1) Batman, in all his nerdy glory, CANNOT fail. He has researched and found ways to defeat like, EVERY other character in the DC universe.
2) Batman died and is in the process of coming back RIGHT NOW. And just like The Death and Return of Superman, where there were four Supermen but none of them were really Kal-El, in the Batman books it was called “Battle For The Cowl” where all the Robins and all sorts of other people came out of the woodwork wanting to be the next Batman.
But in the end they always come back because coming back makes money.
worst reply ever*…..
*this is not the worst reply ever, I’m simply using a rendition of a line from a Simpson character that your reply reminded me of.
So what I’m saying is don’t care about Batman, because he’s the same as Superman.
The Office had the potential to do something great this year with Jim being in charge and Dwight and Ryan plotting to take him down, but there was no follow through.
After last night’s Community, I no longer miss the days of pale and pudgy Joel McHale. Yowza! Maybe a little less spray tan, Joel.
Dwight is all over the place these days. From conspiracies to contriving conception, where will it end?
I did find myself laughing at Dwight a lot last night. But you’re totally right, he doesn’t have any believable motivation.
On another eclectic character note: Ryan is cracking me up with his scarves, etc.
Me too! So stylish!
I thought the pecs-to-spray tan ratio was perfectly acceptable.
I can’t find any photographic evidence of Joel McHale in the buff. I guess my many mental pictures will have to suffice. Unless anyone can find one on the internets! Hint! Hint!
I think it’s time to see the documentary footage released and the consequences of it (a la the OG Office). With all of the hijinks filmed over the years, it would make for a fine final season and truthfully, it’s the only place to go from here.
I do feel like they’re going to focus on the Sabre element for waaaayy too long though. Bummer.
I bought 3 shares!
Donna is the best.
“I wanna meet cha-boy.”
The Leslie + Ron storyline was boring. But, as usual, Andy and Tom killed it.
“Warren BuffAYY”
Dear Office,
If I wanted to watch a lifetime movie, I’d watch a lifetime movie.
Love,
Whoa!
In case I wasn’t clear, I DO NOT want to watch a lifetime movie. From now on I’ll be spending my Thursday nights down at the Velvet Snake (or whatever it’s called) with Tom Haverford. I’m sorry, I tried to make it work, Office.
If anyone’s interested, Tom and I will be meeting up with Finchy at Chasers late night.
Millions of upvotes for the idea of Finchy and Tom at Chasers. I would love to be there, except for the part of me that would hate to be there. But I would love to hang out with Donna at her club and laugh at Tom’s horrible friend.
I fall a little bit more in guy-love with Andy Dwyer each episode.
Adios…adios…guys…class is over, I’m trying to get you to leave….COMMUNITY wins hands down.
Thank GAWD the Sping Olympics are over!
Parks was hilarious. Donna is killing it. I watched a couple minutes of The Marriage Ref because of Tina Fey. I should have known better. At least it confirmed my previously unfounded conviction that Eva Longoria is an idiot.
Oh god, it was wonderful! Tina could not make her face look like she was enjoying herself no matter what! At one point the host (who’s name I never caught) said something about how if he was a woman he’d be a lesbian and looked pointedly at her. Her laughs were all beyond staged, and she perpetually looked like she was about to cry.
‘The Marriage Ref’ is the best thing I’ve ever seen. I would watch it every night if she was on it.
I admit that because I have three boys under the age of six (that’s not ironic Gen Y humor, guys – that’s down-home Gen X REALITIES), I don’t get to watch TV much before 11pm. Last night the kids wound up asleep by 8:45, which was special! So we watched a new episode of the Office for the first time in a while.
I’m going to put on my old person hat here, and say that I have had a lot of babies. That being said, the hospital experience with Pam and the other guy were frighteningly reminiscent, and the whole latching thing gave me some serious PTSD. I totally related, and was proud of the Office for showing the days after delivery with more attention than the actual birth.
Also this one time we came home from the hospital, and my mom was really annoyed that she had to watch our two year old son, so she passive-aggressively refused to clean the kitchen after herself, and then tore out of our house the second we came in the door. It was all “cute baby! See ya!” [screetching tires]. This relates because Dwight! OMG!
I also have 2 young kids (which, thankfully, my wife delivered, not me) and my biggest lolz of the episode happened when Pam tells the neo-natal nurse (that’s a newborn baby nurse for all you whippersnapper monsters) she’s read all the books and the nurse says, “Oh good. You know everything.”
Agreed. I should also publicly apologize for saying that “I have had a lot of babies”. Sorry. Caffeine. Please amend to “I have seen a lot of babies born, because I had absolutely NOTHING to do with the actual giving birth parts and my wife is amazing for delivering all three of our kids without any kind of medication and we also had a doula all three times so basically I was very supportive but that’s about it.”
Maternitygum.
I loved the fact that the neo-nazi nurse was played by Emo Sarah from Free Radio.
Whoops. Neo-NATAL. Gosh, being not a parent is hard…
My totally inconsequential Office observation: it made me happy that the newborns were portrayed by actual newborns, not alert and smiling 15 lb six-month olds.
Community – white abed and brown joey
also the awesome Abed as Don draper hitting on Annie (of Mad men) was a nice touch, that’s some arrested level shit right there
Favourite part was when Abed turned into vampire Abed.
I didn’t even bother watching the Office. The shamelss promotion of the Baby Episode, as a lead in to the Marriage Ref, over the last two weeks was enough for me. Community killed it last night (baggel?)and Parks and Recreation gives me everything the Office ever did.
Oh yeah and…. “Jenny Adams, its a fat girls name. It mine as well be Gravy Jones.”
man i related to the whole baggel thing! my best friend says it and she is always making excuses. like “everyone in washington says it that way (not true) or “that’s the way my mom always said it” (also a lie).
i hope britta also mispronounces “lapel” and has weird nicknames for household items.
When she said baggel, I thought she was referring to the bag of bagels and I was a little disappointed that she did not mean that.
I think there are plenty of places left to go. Having a baby ups the stakes for Pam and Jim.* They work at a company that’s been absorbed by a predatory corporation. For 5 years we’ve seen the implosion of DM — from day one everyone has feared for their jobs. It’s just becoming that much more palpable now. Could anything resonate more with US audiences right now? I think the next level will be the final dissolution of DM and how the characters react to being cast out into the world. And, like others here are saying, the series will conclude with that dissolution and the release of the documentary, which could further shake things up.
*I don’t think the baby gave the Office its biggest obstacle, btw; I think the loss of ennui since the early seasons challenged the original logic. It became much less dark.
Also: Meredith IS the female Clooney!
I’m very happy Andy and Erin are finally going out!
“I don’t know what a happy ending is. Life isn’t about endings is it? It’s a series of moments, and erm…it’s like if you turn the camera off, it’s not an ending is it? I’m still here, my life’s not over. Come back here in ten years, see how I’m doing then. Because I could be married with kids, you don’t know.
Life just goes on.”
Except in America, the cameras NEVER TURN OFF!! [suspenseful music]
Is Mark a player, a hater, or aPlayer Hater? Exhibits as follows:
1. His recognition/acknowledgment (“Hey Cindi”) of one of the buxom blond cheerleaders touting Tom’s investment. Playa!
2. His withdrawal of any support for Tom’s Clubbing experience. Hata!
Mad Men/Community crossover? More please!
Last night’s episode of Community FOR THE WIN! Abed’s impressions were hysterical, from the vampire to Don Draper, and especially Jeff.
it only served to reinforce how deeply i am crushing on actor danny pudi.
Just goes to show you that by mimicking Don Draper’s speech patterns and movements (the arm!), any cheesy line can be hot.
I know many disagree with me but I do not like Jim and Pam together and that pretty much ruined the office for me because I do not like my show centering on a boring couple of two people who were not my favorite characters to begin with. It’s a shame, though because it used to be my favorite.
Whatever, I have the Dorothy Everytime Smurf Girl trophy for excellence in female stuff.
Gabe, I think you’re being too harsh on the new Office, this episode was actually funny!
Also, Parks and Recreations? Hilarious last night.
on another note: ARCHER. get it together guys and start watching it. i know you guys are now marriage ref-heads and can’t tear yourself away from nbc at 10 on thursdays, but they repeat the episode at 11 also. make it happens everybody.
I love this show. I also find myself strangely attracted to Archer. Is that weird?
Yes.
Yeah, how is everyone not watching this? Also, I don’t know if it’s on Thursday or not because I watch it on demand, but holy shit is Caprica good.
Caprica is on Friday, but yes, it’s excellent.
And to not get off track, Archer is killer.
You know, I think it’s interesting how the format of “The Office” has held up better than the show itself, like with “Parks and Recreation” and “Modern Family”, to some extent. I just hope those shows don’t go the way of “The Office” in terms of story and character development.
I was going to start listing things that I liked about “Community” last night, but then this post would be way too long.
Modern Family’s original premise was that a German exchange student who lived with Al Bundy and Diane Chambers back in the day (Mitchel and Claire both had crushes on him!), came back to America to document the “dysfunctional” family he once lived with. I like Modern Family, but I could do without the G.I. Joe life lessons learned at the end of every episode.
I think the “sweet coda” thing is part of the charm. If nothing else, it may get the show a bit more people watching it and thus keep the show on the air. It’s a little thing that sort of hits the videogum reset button at the end of the episode to make sure that no matter how whacky things got during the course of the episode, it ends in such a way as to keep the characters relatable and relatively down to earth and normal.
I thought Jim was hilarious last night, which is something I’ve missed over the last couple seasons. When the dude came in to help Pam with her breastfeeding? Classic Jim ensued.
Like Britta, I also mispronounce the word “bagel,” only instead of an overemphasized “a” mine is an overemphasized “eh.” (as in “beg”) Sometimes you don’t realize you are the humorous moron until everyone is pointing and laughing.
Not for nuthin’, but I was a little bitter that we had an hour long Office which left no room for new “30 Rock”.
Also, “The Marriage Ref” can be a half hour. Really. Boooooooo, NBC.
I hope that Tom’s share of the Club-a-dub-dub will lead to some employment opportunities for DJ Roomba.
Or maybe Tom’s Bistro, because the word “bistro” is classy as shit.
I still enjoy The Office, and I am not a crazy person. Is this allowed?
Also, Ben Schwartz’s character on P&R is amazing. And Donna, holy smokes.
No you aren’t.
The writers in my opinion have had more slumps in a lot of this seasons’ episodes, but I still LOVE the Office and will continue to until it’s laid to rest.
What used to make the Office so funny was the subtle humor that we got to look in on and see;. Now I feel, like we the audience are too much apart of the show-their lives.
i love the office, still makes me crack up. i love the characters and ill follow them as long as i can.
i think the show is still good. i love how Ryan is a hipster now. Dwights continual jealousy has now lead him to want to have an heir to his crazyness, and dorks Erin and Andy need to get together. apparently Kevin is no longer with that red-head. Oscar, the true voice of reason and all-around best person in the Office needs resolution….he needs a man. they did miss a chance for alot of comedy by not following through on the team-up between Ryan and Dwight, but no show is perfect.
So yeah, the show is winding down, but just try to remember the old days of primetime comedy and how stale it all was. You all have good points but ultimately I laugh about as much in new episodes as in the older ones. so go Office!