The Office (NBC) TV Show

Show has been over for a while now but the old thread on AP still got a decent amount of traffic

 

watched two episodes from season eight yesterday. they were funnier than I remember them being. gonna watch season eight again probably. still can't stand robert california though.

 

Rewatching this and really liking season 5 now.

 

People underrate Season 8 in my opinion. I think it's ok, with some good moments. It's not anywhere near as bad as what Season 9 developed into.

 

I remember thinking the opposite, but I've only ever watched each season once (minus the last few episodes of season nine which I've watched easily 10+ times).

 

yeah i finally rewatched the whole series again. last few seasons aren't as bad as i remember, but they are just sort of all over the place. agree about robert california. it was a big swing to make him boss, but it didn't really work.

 

not at all. he's just very uncomfortable and kind of a jerk. I should do a full watch through again. it's better than just trying to pick a random episode.

 

Just started watching again with my wife. Only in season 2 but have been laughing so hard.

 

Yours is probably the general view and I still don't think eight is great by any means - in comparison to the show's peak, it's very mediocre but overall, I think it's ok. Nine starts off pretty well and ends well with the finale, but there's some really bad stuff on it, especially from just after Christmas up till the last couple of episodes. Botched storylines, weird character development, over-the-top cartoonish humour (Stanley getting tranquilised by Dwight and then, at the end of the episode, tranquilising himself in order to avoid walking up the stairs is probably the central image I have of the show at its worst). It's such a contrast to the subtlety and depth that defined the show at its peak.

 

yeah going all the way through helped.

 

I hear you on that. I'll have to watch it again so I can have these conversations more in depth. I can talk about seasons one-seven with a lot of detail, but seasons eight and nine, I don't know as well.

 

I think Robert California's a great character btw - probably not the sort of person the show needed in order to make up for the loss of Michael, given California was a fairly low energy character but I thought he was really funny. He just wasn't the right match for the ensemble the show had developed. It was probably why they turned Andy into a low-budget Michael in that season, in order to make up for that.

 

I thin season 9 is actually pretty good and season 8 is pretty mediocre. Always thought that was the general opinion among fans, but to each their own.

Also, my brother has always really loved Robert California.

 

I just started season 1....little behind.

 

I envy you being able to watch this for the first time.

 

If Season 9 had stayed at the level it started off at then it would be better than Season 8. Unfortunately it became worse and worse as it went on, to the point that it became genuinely bad IMO. The last couple of episodes, the finale in particular, just about redeem it. I'm still relieved that finale was great.

 

David Wallace should have been the new manager.

 

Never thought of that but yeah, that might have been a neat idea. I mean it was basically impossible to replace Michael anyway - Jim wouldn't have worked for various reasons, Dwight was too weird to do that job for more than a couple of episodes, I don't think Darryl would have worked as the main man either. Andy was probably the least bad option from the branch itself.

I guess the problem with making David Wallace manager would have been that because he's meant to be one of the most normal characters, there's not a natural point of conflict. A normal, efficient person in that role doesn't help the energy of the show.

 

Favorite show, never gets old for me.

 

I have probably rewatched this show on Netflix more than anything else. The earlier episodes literally never get old, or less funny.

 

Also the actor is a higher up for Merrill Lynch or something like that so a full time commitment would have been prob impossible.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Imagine acting in The Office just as a fun job on the side!

 

I think of Michael Scott quotes waaaay too often.

 

I'm surprised by all the negativity around season 9 as a whole. I think it's way, way better than season 8 and I was shocked where they went with Jim and Pam and how realistic it showed a "perfect" relationship falling apart.