Yeah she was insufferable when they introduced her in the tallahassee episodes, and even more so when she came to scranton. really annoyed me how they tried to make us feel for her with the whole adoption thing. Just a horrible character even more horribly portrayed.
Season 8 is easily the show’s worst stretch. Season 9 isn’t great but they iron out a lot of what didn’t work in season 8.
been rewatching some of the later seasons just to see if they're as bad as I remember. they're not nearly as bad as some people act like they are, in my opinion. season seven is pretty solid, imo. however, the episodes with will ferrell are ridiculous and brutal. season eight isn't too bad once you get past Robert California. once I started to kind of enjoy him as a character, I enjoyed the season a lot more. however, Nellie is brutal and Andy's arc at the end is hard to watch. season nine is rough though. there are certainly highlights and things aren't nearly as bad as I recall (I used to look back at season nine as seriously unwatchable television). Nellie is still bad and there are awkward sideplots that really don't work (the clash of Jim and Darryl with Jim being an awful roommate and the espresso machine are the first two that come to mind). but, I think they did a pretty good job of introducing the documentary crew and they ended the series perfectly.
I think they figured out how to make it work and make it semi-relevant and funny without Michael Scott in season 9. Season 8 was a complete cluster. A few redeemable episodes but overall easily my least favorite season.
I think others have said it before but Andy is enjoyable in his first bunch of seasons but becomes insufferable once he becomes manager.
I started disliking the show in season 4, but I continued watching it all with ambivalence on a weekly basis.
it's really not fair to compare them as a binge rewatch vs. first viewings that were a week apart, imo. when it was still on air and my favorite show, waiting week after week for 22 minutes of usually really subpar tv was a real bummer. that's not to say liking them more now isn't valid, but it's a separate beast. my comparison to that is Heroes, everyone hated everything after S1, but as someone who binged it all with very little time commitment, i enjoyed it a fair bit
i'll never forget my internal reaction to the cold open of the post-Super Bowl episode where Angela throws a cat through the ceiling, just the purest form of "where did we go wrong" lol
this is fair, it's much easier to bear bad episodes during a binge watch, because you can skip them if they get too unbearable. waiting a week or more sometimes for a new episode and having it be bad is such a letdown. the HIMYM-effect.
Michael driving his car into the lake after his GPS told him to was the first signal the show was starting to go downhill for me.
For me, when they decided to make Jim and Michael co-managers, I thought "alright they must be running out of ideas here", but they still managed to produce good episodes throughout that season and into the 7th. the show just kind of lost it's identity with Michael gone and they had to figure out how to make it The Office again and not just another sitcom.
Yes, the characters overall started to become a little too one-dimensional for me at that point. I didn't like seeing Jim continue at the office after he and Pam got together ("If this were my career I'd have to throw myself in front of a train"), and I would have loved to see Pam pursue her love of art. I know that's what the British office did, but I think that show was much better for it. I remember feeling so content and elated when Jim poked his head in during Pam's interview and the end of season 3. What a high note that would have been to go out on.
Yea, a lot of people have said Jim asking her out for dinner would have been the preferred way to end their arc on the series.
I'll use this thread as an opportunity to say that I believe the BBC Office is one of the greatest sitcoms ever made. Short, sweet, and so much more true-to-life/uncomfortable than the US version.
This was the last season I saw in full. Watched a few episodes here and there since then, but mostly out of morbid curiosity. But seasons 1-3 are some of my favorite pieces of television. The best rainy day stay in and be comfy show ever. Even though I enjoyed parts of season 4, I feel like the season 3 finale would have been the perfect series finale
The show did story best in season 2 and comedy best in 3. It goes way downhill in 4. Agree with it being more obvious with a week between new episodes - the prolonged disappointment really highlighted its issues.. The major flaws: Erin was a bad character, Andy turns into a terrible character, Kevin gets Homer Simpsoned, and Robert California is one of the least funny things I've ever seen on an otherwise good show. Jim and Pam lose the untouchable relatability they had in the first half of the series. I actually like the final season a pretty decent bit in spite of Jim, Pam, and Nellie all being pretty meh - Clark Duke and Plop are about as good as this show ever got at adding new characters, I thought they captured something a lot closer to the feel of the characters in the first few seasons than pretty much anyone in between.
show identity is I never got why Erin had to be an airhead/flat out dumb at times when they did so much of that with michael and kevin
He is very underrated. The episode where they go to his house and he’s just a complete psychopath is great lol.
I'm honestly shocked, I had no idea that he was so widely disliked. Love the house party and him not letting Jim escape lol