Make an Argument
Why Greg Daniels should stick a fork in The Office
By Eric Hughes
March 31, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Anyway, during said house party my friends eventually broke out their Office DVD Game, which I remember being advertised when it was released (2008) but had up until that point not played. It not only encapsulates the first three seasons of The Office, but is a deadly reminder of how good the show used to be as well. Frankly, playing the game now -- The Office will have its sixth season finale in May – is like taking a journey through time. It's downright depressing.
At nearly every turn, clips from the show's earlier episodes were displayed on my friends' big screen, and I couldn't help but want the show I used to love with all my heart to revert back to its glory years: when Jim and Pam were still residing in the "friend zone," when Jan was trying desperately to keep her relationship with Michael a secret and when names like Karen Filippelli and Roy Anderson still meant something.
Fortunately for Greg Daniels, who adapted Ricky Gervais' Office for American audiences, he has a freedom that many showrunners do not have. He, not the network, can "decide" when The Office should kick the bucket. Why? The Office is NBC's highest rated scripted show in adults 18-49 and other important demographics – a miraculous achievement given the show arguably staved off an early exit from broadcast TV through phenomenal home media sales.
If the show performs well, which it is, NBC will keep it. (As evidenced about a month ago when the network picked up The Office for a seventh season). It's that simple.
I have a ton of respect for The Office's talented cast and strong stable of writers. Though I will probably look forward to what most of them get involved with next, I have several bones to pick with the show they've been working on for six seasons now. If I had it my way, The Office would have aired its series finale by now. Here's why:
Jim and Pam are married. Now what?
Like the original British show that preceded it, The Office has always been about Jim and Pam's relationship. At the start, Jim was in love with a woman engaged to be married and then let slip his true feelings for her. Then Pam canceled her wedding after a surprise kiss from Jim. Then Jim transferred to Dunder Mifflin's Stamford branch and thought he fell for Karen. Then Pam grew jealous of Karen's blossoming romance with Jim. Then Jim applied for a DM corporate job, only to botch the interview after an Office Olympics medal from Pam slipped out from his paperwork. Then Pam and Jim started dating. And so on.
While the British Office – which, true story, ran for just 12 episodes (plus a Christmas special) – ended with Tim (Jim) and Dawn (Pam) realizing they simply want to be together, our version of The Office has showed us Jim and Pam's dating years, them moving in together, their wedding and now Cecilia, their first child. What's next? Cecilia's first steps? Cecilia's preschool days? Cecilia's new sales job at Dunder Mifflin?
The problem in giving the audience what it wants (i.e. Jam together at last) is that it greatly weakens the dramatic side to The Office that I had always respected about the show. It also leaves the writers in a bit of a hole. I mean, really, what's next?
The writers have tried peppering Office fans with other relationships to chew on, but none have been nearly as compelling as Jim and Pam. The only current one worth mentioning is Andy and Erin, and that relationship is about as riveting as a repeat of Antiques Roadshow. The Office could resurrect Dwangela (Dwight and Angela), but that one I feel has also run its course. I'd argue that Michael could bring about a sort of renaissance in The Office's relationship game, but his adventures with women usually get cut too short (Carol, Holly and Pam's mother, Helene). Resurrecting anything with Jan would be a huge letdown, considering the best parts about their strange coupledom happened before Michael and Jan moved in together. (Save for the events in "Dinner Party").
The humor is more absurd, physical and broad. It's more obvious than ever that The Office is a network sitcom
When The Office first began, it all but feasted on awkward situations and subtleties. There was "Diversity Day" – the show's second episode! – that had Michael creating his own racial tolerance seminar by forcing his employees to wear ethnicities (via note cards) on their foreheads for others to see. There was "Christmas Party," which had Michael introducing "Yankee Swap" into the office's standard gift exchange after being openly disappointed in Phyllis' homemade oven mitt. There was "Gay Witch Hunt" – the season three premiere – which not only had Michael kissing Oscar on the lips in front of everybody in the conference room, but also opened on one of the most awkward situations imaginable: A close-up of Dwight clipping his fingernails at his desk. Remember: This was the first new episode to air after Jim kissed Pam at the end of season two. After a months-long wait – more than four months in fact – The Office welcomed us back with a shot of one of the branch's more disgusting employees grooming himself. It was fantastic.
Memorable moments like this don't seem to happen anymore. Instead, the comedy in The Office has evolved into absurd, physical and broad humor. In "Golden Ticket," Michael adorns a Willy Wonka hat and randomly puts "golden tickets" into shipments of paper for five Dunder Mifflin clients. "Casual Friday" strikes The Office, which essentially is one big excuse to squeeze Meredith Palmer into skimpy attire. In "Gossip," Michael, Dwight and Andy perform parkour. In "Mafia," Michael meets with an insurance salesman, Angelo Grotti, who Dwight and Andy are convinced is in the mob. Even more recently, Michael and Dwight go to a dump, get into a fight and start throwing trash at each other (New Leads").
What used to be the gem of NBC's Thursday night comedy block now feels pretty average versus newer competition (Modern Family) and, more importantly, what the show used to be.
Season four is where I think The Office lost its way. You know, the season where Meredith gets run over by a car ("Fun Run"), where Michael manages to drive into a lake with Dwight ("Dunder Mifflin Infinity") and where Ryan scores a job at Dunder Mifflin corporate and takes out Michael and Dwight for a night in the Big Apple ("Night Out").
The Office is still set in Scranton, right?
Along with its subtle humor, I used to appreciate the fact that the show was set in a tiny town in Pennsylvania and not in your every day New York, Los Angeles and the like. The Office was never as in-tune with its setting as a show like Parks and Recreation is with Pawnee, but there seemed to be a more conscious effort early on to reflect that the Scranton branch was "really" in Scranton, PA – not Anytown, USA. Dwight had (has?) a bumper sticker next to his desk that champions Froggy 101, a real Scranton radio station. After work, Dunder Mifflinites would frequent Poor Richards Pub, or at least make mentions of the real establishment at 125 Beech Street in Scranton. In "Women's Appreciation," Michael hosts an outing for the women of his office at the Mall at Steamtown. And in "Beach Games," the Scranton branch vies for Michael's job in a Survivor-like competition at Lake Scranton. By now, Scranton has been all but relegated to the opening credits.
A show I used to watch religiously is no longer on my to-do list
The most personal thing I have to say about the matter is that I simply don't watch The Office anymore. And if you knew me, you'd find this pretty incredible indeed. Though I didn't start watching the show until midway through season two, I've seen every episode (multiple times if it's a season 1-4 episode) since before the Vancouver Olympics. It was the first television show I had ever watched religiously.
The Office went on hiatus for about a month and returned in early March with the delivery of Jim and Pam's firstborn. What did I do? I yawned. After the erosion that began in season four and continued into season six, I found that I just didn't care that Jim and Pam were finally having a baby together. To this day, I have yet to see it, and it wouldn't surprise me if I never see it. I also haven't seen the three episodes that followed "The Delivery," and I'm okay with that.
If I had it my way, The Office would have ended in October 2010 with Jim and Pam's wedding. Based on how the show began, it was the obvious place to wrap things up in a neat little bow. Even better, the one-hour episode ended with every Dunder Mifflin Scranton employee we've watched for six seasons now literally dancing down the aisle. It was a sweet yet funny scene, and symbolically gave each employee a proper sendoff. Dwight, Creed, Ryan, Phyllis, Stanley, Kevin and the rest of ‘em were given a personal moment to dance the way they wanted to.
I leave you with a compelling quote from Office writer-actor Mindy Kaling lifted from a Q&A with The AV Club in 2007. Though I've taken the liberty to extract a generous chunk of answer from the Q&A, the text is pertinent to what this column is aiming to say. Remember: This interview happened three years ago:
"I haven't seen ER in about 10 years, but there's something about ER that I like, which I kind of hope happens with The Office, which is the way that the characters are recycled out and new characters came on. At the beginning, no one cared about the Noah Wyle character, but by season eight, he was a huge star on the show. I feel like that's what we can do with The Office. As John Krasinski goes on to do Ocean's 15 or whatever he's going to star in, we can cycle in some interesting new young actors, and a new boss. My dream is that when Steve leaves the show, we could have Amy Poehler come on as the boss. I think Amy's flawless. I have this fantasy that we'll get this female boss, and at the beginning, she'll seem totally normal and what a relief, and then we'll find out that there's lots of different horrible, crazy kinds of bosses. Or Kathy Bates or something. How funny would that be?"
Funny indeed, as Amy Poehler now stars on a show that was planned to be a spinoff of The Office, Ed Helms and Ellie Kemper have become permanent Office fixtures while actors like Amy Ryan and Idris Elba have participated in long story arcs and a large corporation – led by Kathy Bates – controls Dunder Mifflin. The only thing that remains undetermined in Mindy's answer, so far at least, is whether or not The Office lasts as long as ER did – 15 seasons.