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Several times over the course of the season I had planned on talking about The Office, but I kept putting it off. The show has become the poster child for a show that has lasted long beyond the point at which it is good. At first I wanted to defend the new, Michael Scott-free era. Then I wanted to trash it along with everyone else. Then I realized that, from a mythological standpoint, the show has really done no wrong.

You see, if there is a mythology to such a program, it’s that of office life. Yeah, I know, am I not a genius, claiming that the show is about exactly what the title says it should be about? Nevertheless, I posit that even in its maligned eighth season, it stays true to its universe.

Make no mistake, I’ve long been a proponent of the theory that character is the most important quality of storytelling, and The Office loses its central character towards the end of the seventh season. Creatively, yes, Michael Scott’s departure would have been a fitting end to the series. Mythologically, on the other hand, there is an argument to be made for its continuance.

I rewatched the seventh season and it struck me in those last few Scottless episodes that, if the writers handled it well, there was a huge opportunity to explore further angles of 9-to-5 drudgery. While I would agree that the results have been a mixed to negative bag, the very conceit of the show itself justifies a post-Michael era.

Few in the real world of cubicle culture haven’t experienced such an upheaval. A boss leaving, whether that boss is good or bad, creates a power vacuum that can shake the very foundation of the office itself. Disliked though he may be, Will Ferrell’s Deangelo Vickers is exactly the type of thing corporate offices will do in such a situation. They’ll quickly assign someone to fill the void at the regional branch with someone who wants to just come in there and start doing things their own way.

Often, these filler folks don’t last, and corporate will toy with both the idea of promoting from within, as well as holding interviews with outsiders. Again, this is a pretty legitimate direction for The Office to go, fully keeping with its mockery of mid-level corporate monotony.

And then, corporate will do one of two things, hire someone new or promote someone. The Office decides to take both approaches, adding James Spader’s Robert California to the mix, as well as making Ed Helms’ Andy Bernard the new regional manager. Now this was a golden opportunity for the show to go in a bold direction, shaking the very foundation of the show, just as such a development might have shaken a real office.

So, from a standpoint of office mythology, so to speak, The Office handled things just fine. From a creative standpoint, well, that’s for more debatable. Andy, himself a newer cast member, having joined Dunder Mifflin Scranton back in the third season, ends up as more of an extension of Michael Scott. Rather than focusing on what was different about him, the writers choose to keep the comedy relatively unchanged, making the approach Andy has to his tenure as manager as similar to Michael’s as possible.

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