SPOILER WARNING: The following piece contains spoilers regarding the current season of NBC’s The Office.
Let me begin by saying I am a lover of comedy, I can enjoy the humor of Frasier one moment, and mere hours later get a good chuckle out of MTV’s Jackass. I like to think of comedy as a spectrum, each television show, movie, blog, article, sketch bit and stand-up a separate blip on that spectrum. While many blips may appear similar, the point of the matter is that comedy in itself is diverse, and rarely is there one piece of comedy that unites fans in the entire spectrum.
And then along came the Office, a re-make of the British series pioneered by comedy mastermind Ricky Gervais. The first season was a mere six episodes that introduced the world to the employees of Dunder Miflin paper company, I could scroll through the characters and give them each one line biographies, but since most of you have watched the show I will spare you the trouble of reading something like that. The first two seasons were classic, they had elements of slapstick, parody, wit and a whole load of great characters to bat. And the drama, it was so tense, we all were so curious as to what would happen with Jim and Pam and Roy. And Michael kissing Jan! That was so intense! Season three was no failure either, as the first half of the season, split between Jim’s transfer in lovely Stamford, Connecticut, and the usual antics of Scranton. We were introduced to the angry Andy Bernard and the attractive and sharp witted Karen Fillipelli. All seemed well, and once the Stamford and Scranton branch merged, the comedy and the drama remained constant. The love triangle warped, and we got some great comedic chemistry from Dwight and Andy, kudos to Rainn Wilson and Ed Helms. But then came Season 4…the writers strike season.
I truly am a douchebag.
The first big bang of the season was the removal of Karen. Rather than keep her in the mix to add some tension to Jim and Pam having a public relationship, they merely wrote her off, saying she couldn’t stand to work around Jim anymore. They could’ve filmed a little vignette about it, but nope, just a talking head of Jim. Putting Ryan as Michael’s superior seemed destined for laughs, but it flopped miserably, peaking in an episode where Michael, Dwight and Ryan go clubbing and Dwight hooks up with a college volleyball player. Another season low to me was the episode “Dinner Party” in which Michael and Jan invite over Jim, Pam, Andy and Angela for dinner just to have the night implode. While skeptics of the season praised this as one of the greater episodes, introducing Dwight into the mix with a homeless woman was so completely ridiculous that it negated any other memorable piece of entertainment from the episode. What made the first three seasons classic was their believability, while the antics of Dunder Miflin were a bit off the wall, they could be happening somewhere. But season 4 really pushed that concept to the very limit. I mean would Michael really drive his car into a pond just to prove that machines are flawed? And would he live in the forest just to prove he was a man? That’s stupid.
However, towards the end of the season, the show seemed on a comeback, fresh back from the writers strike, the season ended on an incredibly high note. Ryan got busted for fraud and was arrested, Andy proposed to Angela, Toby left to go to Costa Rica, and the icing on the cake was Holly, played brilliantly by Amy Ryan. The character was perfect, she was cute, quirky and entirely original to the series, and the chemistry between her and Michael was just so entertaining. It looked as if instead of falling back into the classic mold of seasons 1-3, we were going to have the show go in a brand new terrain without two major characters of prior seasons and with one incredible new character.
"Thank you for saving our show! Please don't get written off!"
And then the season premier came on and all seemed to be so well and wait a minute. Ryan is a temp. He’s back to where he was in the beginning. Great. But the Michael/Holly relationship was so much fun to see unravel, as it seemed there was someone as zany as Micahel. If there is one thing on the Office that makes me smile it’s when they make Michael out to be a real person, like when you really feel his emotions rather than laugh at his idiocy. But a mere few episodes in what did they have to do? Pull the plug. Send Holly away and end the story as simply as that. Destroy a great sub plot that made Jim and Pam’s stale relationship feel as boring as it really has become. And who did they replace Holly with? A fresh face to add another fun dimension to a show that needs a fresh new face? Nope. It’s Toby. Great. Okay so where are we? Back to Season 2 with the Andy/Angela/Dwight love triangle replacing the Roy/Pam/Jim one. Hooray! Now this re-incarnation of the past has both ups and downs. It’s good in a sense that the writers have a canvas to paint all over and try and make new things, and it’s bad because it seems as if they have no way of really surprising us anymore. The episodes seemed pretty stagnant as far as quality was concerned. They were entertaining to a degree, but never challenging to the audience, and none were really engaging.
The one big reveal was the ending of the Andy and Angela relationship, as well as the Dwight and Angela relationship. Making Phyllis give the reveal was a great addition of depth to her character, and making everyone in the office but Andy aware of it made for a brief bit of good comedy. The culmination of these events in “The Duel” were solid both in the comedy and drama departments. The whole bit of running Dwight over was a bit crazy, but given the past season it wasn’t the lowest the show had gone. The end of that episode tore at my heart strings, and that’s another thing I love about the Office. But surely enough the most recent episode came along and now it’s as if the whole thing had never even occurred. Okay, I hate this, but the season is not over so maybe they can resurrect it. And “Prince Family Paper” on a whole was one of the most riveting episodes I’ve seen. The subplot of Michael and Dwight at the competitor was so heartwrenching that I really felt the pain Michael did as he gave the numbers to David Wallace. Things like that truly make the show stand out.
So where can the Office go from here? My advice is somewhere new, bring in someone new, and the key-the one golden rule that I think the show should follow-keep it rooted in reality. No dumb gags just to get laughs. I would like to see a bit more character development from Stanley and Creed, who have been whittled down to simple one note gimmicks. Maybe bring back Holly for an episode or two to fully complete that story, and give Darryl a prominent role, as he is easily one of the funniest people on the show. The Jim/Pam wedding is looming in the distance, so that could prove to be fun. The show is by no means bad, it’s just a bit tired and in need of re-fueling. I pray the writers are able to truly bring new life to this show that I love so much. Please writers, do it for lowly Dave Winchell.
"I am funnier than Jim, no doubt!"
So that’s all I have to say.
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