The Office in Retrospective

I was a fan of the original British run of the Office.  So when I heard there was going to be an American version of the show I was of course, terrified.  Americans have shown time and time again, with a few notable exceptions, that they don't know how to adapt British shows.  The first few episodes of the American Office seemed to confirm my fears, but I kept watching and gave it a chance, and it grew into something unique and really wonderful.

Of course like many long running shows, as it went on it began to sag and when Steve Carell's Michael Scott left in season 7 it really should have marked the end of the show.  Instead, like a zombie, it trudged on for two more seasons not realizing it was already dead.  Which isn't to say there wasn't the occasional good episode but it was clearly dead existing only to consume viewers brains advertisers dollars.

While season 8 wasn't great, it did have far more fun than season 9 thanks in part to James Spader's insane Robert California.  However, Season 9 did come and with it brought a bitterness that really casts a shadow on the whole series.

Season 9 isn't bad simply because the episodes for the most part were bad, Season 9 is bad because it asks us to forget what we like about various characters and the show itself.

Let's start with Andy.  Andy who they spent several episodes building up to be the replacement Michael Scott, suddenly abandons the office to go off to film the Hangover 3 sail to the Bahamas and leaves Erin who he just went down to Florida to get back, it made no sense.  It was one of those cases where the writers wanted something to happen, so they ignored everything that had come before to make it happen.

Then there's Jim.  Jim whose only professional accomplishment was being a paper salesman at a mid-sized paper company, Jim is suddenly a sports marketing genius.  Once again, it's a clear case of the writers wanting something to happen and ignoring everything that came before.

Season 9 is full of crap like this and then there's the finale.

The reason the office worked is because it was what many people dealt with everyday.  Silly work pranks, office flirtations, incompetent bosses and co-workers, we've all dealt with those.  You know what people haven't dealt with?  Everyone getting a happy dream ending.

Darryl- former warehouse worker now sports marketing executive.
Nellie-kidnaps a baby
Kelly-Ryan together again
Angela-married to Dwight
Dwight-manager
Creed-being creed
Stanley-retired in Florida
Andy-works for Cornell 
Kevin-running a bar
Jim-going back to sports marketing

Of all the endings Jim's is the one that stuck in my craw the most.  It just didn't ring true.  Back in the first season Jim described his job as just a job, and if it were his career he would throw himself in front of a bus or train or something.  But by Season 9 Jim seemed to realize he had it pretty good.  He worked with his wife, he had plenty of time for his kids, and he worked with people he liked.  That's Jim's happy ending.  Realizing he had it all at Dunder Mifflin.  But they couldn't leave it at that and the show's worse for it.

Finally, let's talk about Toby.  Yes Toby has always been a sad sack.  But if you're going to give every other character a dream ending how terrible is it that Toby gets the stick.  It only makes the absurdity of everyone getting their dream ending stand out more.

So that's it.  If I were buying the office on DVD I would buy seasons 1-7 and pretend that seasons 8 and 9 didn't exist.