The Office (U.S.) - A Second Look
Yet, for some reason, whenever I thought back to the show, those weren't my gut reactions. Instead, I thought of the great prank war between Dwight and Jim. I thought of the wonderful romance between Jim and Pam. I thought of the character arc that Michael has and how transformed he was by his time at Dunder-Mifflin. Those kind of thoughts don't come for shows I liked better "on paper" than The Office, so I decided to take another crack at it to see if I liked it better.
And you know what? I did.
I still think that the eighth and ninth seasons are varying degrees of bad, either because of poor writing or unnecessary storylines that end up being red herrings, but the rest of the show goes from decent (season 1) to comedy gold (seasons 2-5). This is due to a lot of things, but because I have already covered The Office before, I am only going to touch on the parts of the show about which my opinions changed in my second viewing. (If you want to see my first take on the show, go here.)
First, let's talk about Michael Scott. I hated Michael the first time around, mostly because I felt he had no filter to a point where it was detrimental to the show. His comedy was not funny at all because it was so offensive. Now, after a second viewing, I have a lot more respect for the character and Steve Carrell's portrayal of him. His character grows a lot throughout the show, but it's really subtle. Like, really subtle. That is, until the show's seventh season and the episode of his last day at the office: it is undoubtedly one of the show's best because of the incredible amount of emotion Michael seriously carries.
Second, I have very improved opinions of almost the entire cast. It is so hard for me to not have an emotional connection with these characters because of the performances of the supporting cast. Dwight in particular became a lot more relatable the second time through because once his shtick is established in the first couple of seasons he really matures a lot. The way the show reveals its characters' personalities through action and interaction is really smart as well, and that creates a lot of good comedic moments as well. There are countless examples of this, from Holly thinking Kevin is mentally challenged to Robert California's incredibly strange thoughts about his mansion and sex. This is a classic example of good comedy writing: putting characters in situations to expose who they are rather than simply telling the audience what their personalities are.
Now, during the latter half of the seventh season through almost halfway through the ninth, the entire show dips in quality a lot, and because I enjoyed the first part of the show's run even more this time this dip was even more noticeable than before. The Office just loses all steam it had going for it, and I am convinced that this is entirely because of Michael Scott's absence. Most sitcoms that go on for longer than seven seasons have this dip around this point in the show (How I Met Your Mother is a great example), but with The Office it is so much more pronounced because not only are the shows characters getting old and the comedy getting tired: it is also losing one of its best assets.
Besides that, though, The Office the second time around was much better than it was the first time for me for two big reasons: I better appreciated the show's pros and better understood the cons. Despite its low point later in the show's run, it still manages to pull itself together and deliver a very satisfying conclusion in its last several episodes that make the journey well worth it, warts and all.
My recommendation: watch it, and if things get rough, just push through to get to that tremendous finale.
My grade: 77
Where to watch it: Netflix
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