The Office - U.S. Edition

[Spinal]

Just finished Season 3 and was somewhat disappointed with the last couple episodes. The plot developments were executed in a manner that was pretty clunky in comparison to the stellar Season 2 finale. I am concerned about the future of this show.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Just finished Season 3 and was somewhat disappointed with the last couple episodes. The plot developments were executed in a manner that was pretty clunky in comparison to the stellar Season 2 finale. I am concerned about the future of this show.

You should be. Season 4 has been more of the same, only even worse.

[Milky Joe]

you people are a bunch of negative nancies. I've enjoyed the hell out of season 4, even if it hasn't been quite as funny.

[Spinal]

Don't get me wrong. I'll still watch it. But I suspect that the pleasures will come from individual moments and situations rather than the throughline which seems to have run its course. Pam's 'speech on the beach' felt really strange and unauthentic to me.

[MadMan]

Season 3's finale was almost equal to Season 2's. The last couple of episodes from Season 3 I recall being pretty funny, and I think Season 3 may have actually been when the show peaked although many argue it was Season 2. I really need to see all of Season 2 though to formally decide. Season 4 cannot be worse than Season 1 though....at least I hope not.

[Ezee E]

Season 1 has an excuse for not being top-notch.

[Sycophant]

Season 1 has an excuse for not being top-notch.

Which is...?

[Spinal]

Season 3's finale was almost equal to Season 2's. The last couple of episodes from Season 3 I recall being pretty funny, and I think Season 3 may have actually been when the show peaked although many argue it was Season 2.

My problem with the Season 3 stuff is that it is lazy writing to just have a character suddenly confess everything that is on their mind while others listen quietly. I didn't buy it.

Regarding the first season, Diversity Day and the basketball game are great. Don't remember much about the others, but I thought the quality was just fine.

[Milky Joe]

Whatever insincerity or laziness exists within Pam's confession (which regardless is still a beautiful moment because Jenna Fischer is just so beautiful, especially in that lighting) is more than made up for by the utter outrageous hilarity of Andy throughout the rest of the ep.

"What Andy? I don't understand what you want me to do!"
"It's pretty simple... LOOK AT WHAT I'M DOING AND GO TELL SOMEBODY IT."

[Spinal]

I agree that Andy is hilarious. He's become one of my favorite characters.

"Oompa-Loompa Doopity Dawesome/
Now Dwight is gone which is totally awesome." :lol:

[Winston*]

I gave up somewhere early in the third season, I think. The show's not bad, but I just don't think it's very well written, especially not with regard to two of the lead characters.

[Justin]

Just finished season 2 today, that was absolutely fantastic. I am pretty upset with myself since I never gave this show a chance until recently.

[Justin]

I am about halfway through the second disc of season three, and I can already tell it is inferior to season two, still very good though.

[MadMan]

So is Season 4 any good at all so far? I haven't gotten a chance to see any of it beyond the first episode this year due to working on Thursday nights and being too lazy to watch the episodes they show online.

[Milky Joe]

I don't know if anyone's been watching, but the strike was apparently a blessing in disguise for The Office, because pretty much all of the episodes since they started up again have been terrific, including tonight's. Next week is the hour long season finale and I look forward to it.

[transmogrifier]

I'm thinking that there's not much more The Office can do, and it'll be better to finish it sooner rather than later. It seems to be spinning it's wheels - funny, but hardly memorable.

[Thirdmango]

I really hope they allow the relationship to last, because if they do they have a lot of things they could do with it, but making them break up would put them back at square one. I like where the show has gone to, and I really liked the stuff of Dwight and Angela in the office all alone in the last episode.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I actually think this season sucks. Pretty hard. Michael changed drastically over the seasons, and at this point he's a bitter, annoying jagoff. I don't laugh at his improper behavior anymore because for the most part it's done out of spite and with a mean spirit. Considering he's the backbone of the show, everything else has gone downhill. Dwight has become far less funny post-Angela, and the rest of the supporters work off Michael, so they've lost a lot as he has. I don't even really look forward to watching new episodes anymore. The only wise thing they've done this season is to just let Jim and Pam exist as a couple and be happy, rather than creating drama in an effort to keep things interesting.

[Ezee E]

Yeah, agreed. There are a few funny bits, but Michael is just a caricature at this point. Whatever happened to the boss that tries hard but actually had a bit of humanity in him, such as when he was the only one that visited Pam's art show in an earlier season?

Jim and Pam's relationship hasn't really had any drama in my opinion. I wish they would delve more into Jim getting into trouble with B.J. Novak instead of simply ending it with one attempt.

I'll still watch the finale, but after that, it'll need something to keep me interested.

[Ezee E]

The finale did something that this entire season did not have at all.

Something to look forward to.

In fact, there's more than one plot device to get excited about now.

Glad those writers thought about it. I'm positive next season will at the very least, be better then this one.

[Kurosawa Fan]

The finale was certainly promising, but it also had two very large drawbacks.

[

Show Spoiler

First and foremost, with Michael going back to Jan, he's likely to remain the bitter, mean-spirited Michael we've seen all season. If he ended up with HR newbie, he'd be a happier and funnier Michael. Also, there's now potential for Jim/Pam nonsense drama with her being in NY and him being in PA. Since he wasn't able to propose, it provides a window for some of that relationship garbage that shows use to "keep things interesting". Having commended them for not stooping to that level in my previous post, if they end up going there next season I will be finished with the show. That's a guarantee.

]

[Kurosawa Fan]

Gotta say though, the Kevin gag was glorious. It worked so well. His dialogue and facial expressions weren't different from how he normally acts, which made it so much funnier than it would have been with someone else.

[Thirdmango]

Yeah the Jim Pam turn feels like an homage to Scrubs. Hey, let's give them conflict and then they won't work but we can still make them work in the end four years from now. The very end was priceless, the Kevin thing was awesome as well. Creed was the other part I liked, everything else was meh. I wish that unlike other shows around they'd give the characters something and then let them live with instead of all the things they could do without.

[Bosco B Thug]

I'm a fan of the show and it's often quite amusing, but I'm not alone in thinking that, objectively, the show is just not very "good," am I? It's so silly and obvious so much of the time. Subtlety has zero role in the writing. For example, does every moment of pathos for Michael have to have him whining about wanting to have a family? Creed and Kelly get the same joke every episode (though I have to say I get the biggest kick from the show out of Kelly). There's only so much "cute and wholesome" I can take from Jim and Pam. Is Tobey really so hung up on Pam he doesn't care he's making faux pas left and right? Etc. And I'm still kind of bitter favorite characters of mine, Andy and Jan, are being turned into such caricatures in order to function obediently as third wheels.

But yes, definitely some juice built in for Season 5 in the finale. Amy Ryan, yeah! Though again, her character's a bit of a cheap ploy...

[transmogrifier]

The finale was kind of flat, but I liked Amy Ryan. Pity I heard she's only a guest star, rather than a regular.