The Office (NBC) TV Show • Page 27

I'm re-watching the series for the first time in years. The first go-round I made it up through season 7 but skipped 8 and 9. Going to try to watch all of it this time but sort of dreading season 8 since I've heard it's BAD.

 

That's correct, so maybe it was his idea to give Ryan a new personality/arc each season? If true I can't really understand why.

 

Yea it's bad in part because of the boring storylines and how Andy became more annoying once he replaced Michael. Season 9 does bounce back with some solid episodes.

 

I always thought of it as the character Ryan was younger and was just trying to find himself throughout the show. Trying on different personalities and whatnot to see if anything stuck. I imagined that they purposefully wrote his character to be different every season because of that. I'm probably wrong, haha.

 

I can possibly see that. I think the fact that they set him up as the most mature, levelheaded person in the office (other than Jim & Pam) in the early seasons makes it so that the only direction they could go to keep him interesting was to make him less and less sane as time goes on. (Which, on a much smaller level, is the same problem I have with Jim & Pam in the later seasons.)

 

I always thought Stanley and Phyllis were the two people in the office that were the most realistic.

Jim and Pam bugged the shit out of me once Pam had a kid, Dwight was always solid, never liked Andy.

 

8 isn't straight up bad, it's just not up to par with the first 7 seasons. It's okay. Season 9 is actually good, and the last four episodes or so are amazing.

 

I still wish more was done with Michael coming back. He could have at least been on for an entire episode.

 

I like Andy a lot. You feel bad for him

Except when he leaves Erin to go sailing. that was a bad arc

 

It was so Ed Helms could go film Hangover III

 

You don't feel bad for him until the later seasons. He was an annoying asshole at first, then the office "yes man" for a while. It wasn't until Erin showed up that he felt like a normal person. Then he did a series of bone-headed things that made you not like him again.

 

I liked Andy more when he was a jerk who had anger issues as opposed to when they tried to make him into a loveable puppy

 

He was one of the office archetypal characters at this point. Most offices had a short-tempered guy like that.

 

Yep, and he fucked it up.

 

Season 9 is better than season 8, but not by much. It was saved by the final 2-3 episodes being really satisfying. The Andy boat trip story was just bad. The lice episode, ugh. The sound guy story. The farm. It is messy in the middle of the season but recovers pretty well at the end. For all those random episodes in the middle of season 9, it's still better than Robert California as CEO in 8.

 

The majority of Season 9 is considerably worse than Season 8, as average as that is. There's some dreadful shit in Season 9. Stanley self-tranquilising himself just so he doesn't have to walk upstairs is the show's downfall in microcosm. Ridiculously over the top.

Thank goodness the finale was good.

 

I really liked Stairmageddon

 

That bastard. Got excited for a minute.

 

Don't know what else they would've done with the show tbh

 

i just wish there was a Michael and Dwight spin-off series, haha

 

Last 2 seasons were so bad without Michael. The finale was pretty much perfect though. A spinoff I would like.

 

They'd have to do a funeral/wedding storyline to get everyone back together. It's just not necessary. But with network television declining, I could see it happening in a few years for a ratings boost.

 

It would have been Ryan who died. That way Michael would for sure come back to Scranton.

The spin-off should have been Michael and Dwight travelling around to various nationwide DM branches and giving on the job training. Each episode could be a different location with different characters.