This year NBC networks released the news that with the parting of show writers Mindy Kaling (who is going on to head a soon to be cancelled FOX show), and B.J Novak were leaving one of the very few hit NBC sitcoms, the US adaptation of “The Office.” Due to their departures, the show’s stars desires to pursue other projects and their main star Steve Carrell moving on last year, NBC was heavily considering finally ending “The Office.” In its place would be a spin-off featuring the oddly popular supporting character Dwight in his own series. My response to that was: good riddance.
For one, the odds of me actually watching an entire series based on a bland supporting character whose entire dimension is based on a running gag about a beet farm that ran its course after the first few seasons, are slim to nil, but most of all I’m actually quite glad to see “The Office” finally being put out of its misery. It’s been limping along even before Carrell left to continue his film career, so this is not the nail in the coffin so much as the reef that gets put on the coffin after the nails have been put in. I for one won’t miss the smug American audiences trying to insist and insinuate that the American version of “The Office” is superior to Ricky Gervais’ version just because it’s much more broadly written and open to mainstream audiences.
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant created their limited series to a certain niche audience of workers and drones who could relate to what they were trying to comment on with the working experience in the UK. “The Office” garnered cult appeal thanks to building its momentum being imported to America and earned its status as a classic series. While the show runners of the US adaptation and NBC primarily catered to show to any and all audiences watering down the formula and tinkering it enough to where it was much more a sitcom and much less a niche series. This allowed any comedy fan to step in and belittle Gervais’ success with his original series because more people understood the US version. Truth be told, the success of “The Office” has been horribly overplayed, and NBC has been riding on this series’ fan base for years, exhausting every single plot line and character until they were nothing but hollow facsimiles of their former selves.
When Steve Carrell left for bigger things, I did, too. You could sense that the series writers gave everything to allow Carrell a wonderful send off and admittedly his final episode is one of the most gut wrenching episodes of the series because it’s one of the very rare episodes of the show that touches on humanity and fulfillment that we were told this show would touch upon. Michael achieved what no one in his work place could. He found a new path in life that would finally give him a sense of satisfaction, achievement, and happiness. This should have been the end of the series. Well really, the episode where he finally comes back as the boss after taking the branch back from Charles Miner should have been the finale, but the send off of Michael Scott was a respectable way to say good-bye.
But alas, NBC continues struggling for a massive hit series, and “The Office” is about as close that they’ve come and continued hanging on to it for dear life. NBC have resorted to every measure possible to re-claim a hit series, bringing aboard folks like Will Arnett, the unbearable Chelsea Handler, and even Seth Meyers, who has gained cult clout in Saturday Night Live, and so far nothing has really struck a chord with audiences. “30 Rock” has been a long runner but definitely not the broad hit they desired, while their cult show “Community” brings in good ratings, but is deeply troubled. So naturally, they have clung to “The Office” desperately and are insistent on keeping some essence of it alive, even after it has ended.
So gone is the dull Jim and Pam romantic storyline, gone is Krasinski doing an impression of Martin Freeman for a majority of his screen time on the show, and gone are the slew of “wacky” office characters all of whom are destined for big things like game show hosting and appearances at local carnivals. With respect to the actors themselves, all of whom have their own unique talents, but the insistence on focusing on the office drones and giving them their own sub-plots and personalities was a huge mistake. It turned from writers fishing for new storylines simply to gimmicky sitcom swill. In the first few episodes, only Jim, Pam, Michael and Dwight garner focus of the show.
But slowly, as NBC planned to give the side characters things to do, they all gradually built their broadly written and easily created personalities, and even have their own chance to steal a few episodes here and there. And like everything else on the show, the device wore thin. Stanley is an outspoken African American man. Creed is the odd ball with a shady past. Phyllis is the meek one. And Angela is the God fanatic with a cat fetish. If you want to follow the formula of the writers, repeat those character summaries about thirty five times slowly until it stops being remotely clever. Then you’ll see what the writers have done.
Hell, even before the plot exploring the firing of Michael Scott who went on to–ugh–start his own paper company (ad hilarity, I guess), the show was doling out the sitcom cliches with extended episodes, and marriage episodes, and even guest stars from big stars. To give off a facade of originality, the guest spots were very subtle to the point where they were easily missed. Jack Black, Cloris Leachman and Jessica Alba guest in a fake movie character Andy Bernard watches during one episode, and great character actors like Idris Elba and Amy Ryan were given their due as players in major show arcs. But then the series simply quit trying, bringing aboard folks like Kathy Bates as a Southern office executive, and a host of male comedians, all of whom made brief appearances as contending bosses for hire once Michael Scott left. Will Ferrell took over for a few episode as a demented replacement pretty much playing Will Ferrell for the thirtieth time in his career.
Oddly enough the most unfunny and obnoxious characters are played by the show’s (over publicized and overblown) writers Mindy Kaling and BJ Novak. Both writers had enough confidence in their abilities to place themselves as recurring characters on the series, but also forced many bland and horrible sub-plots down the audiences throats for many seasons. Kaling’s writing has been painfully overrated for years, and she’s given herself a larger piece of the pie as character Kelly Kapur, a vain, delusional, obnoxious waste of space, while BJ Novak actually was placed as one of the main cast members for a character who had little to do in the first few seasons and was also eventually given a larger piece of the pie. Novak incidentally also plays a character who is vain, delusional, obnoxious, and utterly insensitive.
Over the years Novak’s character has undergone a lot of changes with repeated attempts to draw laughter from his character, all of which have failed spectacularly. Both of the show’s writers oddly enough have given the majority of their characters screen time sharing a recurring sub-plot involving their on again off again romance I really didn’t give two flips about, when all was said and done. The characters in the original “The Office” were often unlikable and obnoxious but for perfectly valid reasons. Much of their rotten personalities stemmed from fear, regret, and guilt over their lives. They felt trapped so they lashed out.
David Brent was obnoxious because he pained to be accepted in to a family unlike his own. Throughout the course of the series we learn David’s father is suffering from dementia and is hospitalized while his mother is often nowhere to be found. David avoids the heartache and misery and seeks acceptance from his co-workers forgetting that it’s a job first. He wants to turn his office space in to an unofficial family while everyone there simply wants to do their jobs and go home.
Gareth is annoying mostly because he takes his job too seriously, and forgets about boundaries, while Tim is often sarcastic and smug with people around him because of his own sense of self-loathing and regret that he could never quite go farther than a mid-level position at a crummy paper company. “The Office” offered a bleak and gripping look at office monotony with people who wanted out of their tedious job, but had no exit. As we come to learn day in day out in the US version of “The Office,” the characters are all just despicable, unlikable, and often annoying.
Even the most appealing characters like Jim and Pam eventually became truly obnoxious smug individuals whose asides and glances across the room became nauseating and overbearing. Jim goes from an underdog to a truly crass and insensitive individual, while Pam starts out as a meek plain Jane looking for a voice who inevitably becomes shrill, annoying, and repulsive. I found myself almost wanting these people to fail as the series ran its course and no amount of switching the tables could really fix their personalities.
The show missed the whole monotony atmosphere for one by making the supporting characters stand out from their backgrounds, giving them back stories and roles in major series plot lines, and traded the more subtle cringe inducing humor, for a lot more broad and goofy one-liners and physical gags. I doubt Ricky Gervais would ever have written an episode of “The Office” where a character pretends to be a vampire, or an entire episode displays a character’s mock fantasy film. And the opening gag of one episode where Pam’s vomiting inspires the entire office to vomit is so hackey and lowest common denominator unfunny, not even the worst sitcoms would touch a gag that stupid. Every single character asks for punishment on “The Office” and when they get theirs, it’s almost too pleasurable. There shouldn’t be such a reaction for characters we’re told we should empathize with.
The episode where Jim is constantly attacked by Dwight with snowballs is entertaining because Jim frankly acts like a douche bag and Dwight deserves his revenge, while the larger storyline involving Michael’s quitting while a replacement came in the form of Idris Elba was a shot in the arm for the series. If only because we got to see him dole out some snubs to often smug Jim who is convinced his charm and humor can get his foot in the door and gets another thing coming to him when he finds that Charles simply doesn’t like him. Granted, the US do approach comedy differently than the Brits do, but there shouldn’t be so much gimmicks and attempts to grab audiences when its writers are supposedly so brilliant.
Realistically, “The Office” should have ended in season seven with the episode entitled “Goodbye Michael.” Not only was the episode the graceful and heartbreaking end to the character of Michael Scott, but it gave us a reason to end the show. It could have been resolved on a sweet note and the show could have wrapped up with a respectful bow. Instead NBC decided to stretch it out even further, making it utterly nonsensical since 95 percent of the series revolved around Michael’s narration and experiences. The show had reached its end by the time Scott left the show, since the writers had altogether abandoned its mock documentary format and clung to whatever stunts it could to keep the series going. Hell, the writers even dusted up two old sitcom devices to keep the series relevant. There was of course the two part wedding episode and the two part baby episode. Two ancient ratings grabbers defined by popular culture as “jumping the shark.”
That’s something incredibly desperate for such a “subversive” show. And that’s not including episodes stinking of sitcom dust like the episode where Andy, Dwight, and Michael think a life insurance salesman is a mobster (what a wacky misunderstanding!), and Michael’s insistence on hiding leads from the sales staff with his own personal riddles (what a wacky stunt!). To make things even worse in the end of the series, the writers are betraying the premise of the series by revealing the documentary crew and their purpose for filming the office environment.
I’d love to hear the rationale for filming for so long, even after their main subject Michael Scott went on to a better life. And I’d also love to know why there’s going to be a documentary about Dwight and his beet farm. But then there has yet to be indication if they’re keeping the mock documentary format for Dwight Schrute’s spin-off or opting for a quasi-documentary style like “Parks & Recreation.” In either case, I long abandoned “The Office” once the original version ended with a respectable and excellent holiday special wrapping up the storylines, and even being bold enough to leave some unresolved for us to stay thinking about later on. Ricky Gervais only revived David Brent for a hysterical series of Microsoft minisodes with his character as the main focus. He knows how to hold back. Deep down, the real fans know which “The Office” is the real one, and which has simply been lobbing soft balls at us for a long time.