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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.

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