Last night’s episode of The Office — watch at your own risk, because it sucks. The only good thing that will come out of you watch it is that you’ll more readily agree with me here.
What has happened to our beloved cringe comedy? A few years ago, it was the funniest, freshest show on network television, spawning cult devotees worldwide. Thirsty Thursday nights in college didn’t start until after The Office; the night’s parties were filled with a chorus of approximated Dwight quotes and group therapy for those rising and falling on Jim and Pam’s not-yet relationship.
But it’s hit rock bottom.
Tonight was probably the worst episode I have seen, and I’ve seen them all. Multiple times, at least for the first few seasons. Now, I try to forget them as soon as they happen, so that they don’t ruin the actual comedy in 30 Rock.
Dwight’s Recyclops? How contrived and stupid. The great thing about The Office was that, like its British forefather, it so pitch perfectly mocked the doldrums of working in an office. The fights over desk space, water cooler gossip, beautiful women’s bathrooms. Not some over the top asshole dressing up as an alien recycle robot to promote energy maker GE’s pathetic attempt at seeming environmentally friendly.
But that at least made me look at the TV screen. I’ve concluded that Jim’s descent from charming star to humorless asshole has to be part of a deliberate character arc, because there’s no way a writing staff could have forgotten how to write its most compelling character.
I was never a fan of Jim and Pam actually getting together, to say the least. It was the death kiss of Moonlighters, all over again. But I could survive if he was still doing the pranks and wise cracks he used to do, which was why we cared about him and rooted for him to be get Pam in the first place (or, rooted for it in abstract, not it actually being written).
Michael has become a mostly pathetic, sympathetic character. His in-the-end good guy likability was useful when it bubbled under his painfully awkward and accidental asshole ways, because it kept the viewer in his corner, no matter how bad it got. But it doesn’t work as his main trait, that’s for sure.
I like some of the side characters — Andy get some laughs, there’s something stupidly charming about Erin, and Creed’s five second scene last night was the only thing that had me laughing. Oh, and when Phyllis said she was plastered. A chuckle there.
But they’re not enough to save a show that has become the weak link in a resurgent NBC Thursday that has become, for the most part, Must See TV again. I honestly don’t know The Office if I would watch if it wasn’t nestled between Community, Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock. It was once the anchor of that night, but now it’s just bringing it down.
Please NBC, do something. we know these characters can be funny and interesting. The story lines can be compelling. I don’t want to remember this show bitterly, after all the laughs and fun it gave me in its earlier years. Don’t go down like Dunder Mifflin.
