Friday, May 20, 2011

1567 - The Office: season seven

When you watch a season as it plays out (as opposed to catching on after-the-fact) it's hard to review it without the review being, more-or-less, a commentary in the finale.  I'll do my best...
This is going to sound harsh, but I say it with love, The Office fucked up.  I realize that it's tough for a show to go on as long as this one has and try to keep it fresh and interesting - but The Office has not been keeping up to the challenge.  Does it do interesting and surprising things lately?  Sure!  But it also announces that it's going to do them months ahead of doing them.  Everyone knew Carrell was leaving.  Everyone knew that Ferrell had a guest spot coming up - and everyone knew who the cameos in the finale was going to be.  It would appear that NBC is so worried about not having viewers that they can't keep anything to themselves and let the audience discover it through watching the show.  Don't get me wrong - there was some really really great stuff in this season, and if you're a fan of the show, or just catching up, it's worth watching still - absolutely.  But for those who haven't watched - I'm about to go into SPOILER TERRITORY, so beware...
There is no denying that this season has been the Michael Scott Farewell Tour, and to it's success, by the time he was gone I didn't miss him from the show - not to say that I don't like Carrell or the character - but he had out-served his usefulness.  Many can and will argue that the show itself has as well.  The big question has been "Who will replace Michael?"  And we thought that the finale was going to resolve that - it didn't - and not in an awesome cliff-hanger way - more in a way that made me feel like they were just bidding their time.  And the worst part is that they're probably going to announce it prior to the first episode anyway (if they don't I'll happily eat my words).  One of my larger issues is that there is some sad character inconsistencies.  Darryl has always been a bright level headed guy, but because they don't want to have him take over all of a sudden he starts acting weird and unqualified.  It felt like a stretch.  And as much as I enjoyed how horrible Dwight did when he was filling in as manager, part of me thinks that they pushed that forward a bit too much.  I don't want Dwight to be the boss, but I'm not sure that he would have made those mistakes.  The biggest flaw with the show right now is that it's just not acting logically.  Jim is refusing the job - why?  For no reason whatsoever - and why isn't Pam in consideration?  She was essentially Michael's second for a long time.  Will I tune in next season?  Of course I will, but this show has to find something for itself to anchor to.
The Office: Season Seven 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

If they haven't announced it yet, i would like to make my prediction...Andy will be the new boss. Ed Helms is hilarious! Since he came on the show they like to center around him, they're grooming him.

The office has many successes, but they've always anchored around the premise of having a child-like extremely needy boss and how such a boss will impact different characters. Andy is child-like, awkward around women and a little stupid. He's a perfect terrible boss! . . .I agree its a stretch that Darryl or Pam don't seem to be good candidates. Why? Because they would be competent understanding leaders- not too much funny about that.

Anonymous said...

Even the photo you've posted shows Andy in the front with at least 4 other characters starring at him. . . .Constantly grooming him. . . .It'll add a whole new dimension as well since he comes from money. Scott was always broke, the jokes with Andy can be around his lack of an understanding of the value of money.

I will be linking this post in a couple weeks when it airs and i'm right....I'll only watch a couple television shows, but I've seen every episode of the office at least 50 times- not an exaggeration.

Jeremy said...

Yeah, they aren't going to be bringing in a new person and I think regardless of what they do the show is going to heavily utilize the ensemble as opposed to centering around 'the boss' as it did with Michael. James Spader is going to be a semi-regular character, but the gag is that he got hired as the new manager and in a very short period of time got promoted to CEO (which is delightful). Andy is a terrible salesman so it might be a good move to have him be the boss - I think of those options he's my favorite choice. It won't be Dwight, and Jim could have taken the job if he wanted it.
It'll be interesting to see the show find it's new legs.

Anonymous said...

I do hope Spader is semi-regular. His character is awesome! . . .Sincerely hope they're not done with David Koechner yet either- sooo funny.

Anonymous said...

Being smart is a beautiful thing.