The Office – A finale befitting a terrible season

Last night’s finale of The Office was about what I expected for our last taste of the show before the summer break … and that’s not a good thing. For anyone tuning in for the first time this season, you have less than zero reasons to come back in the fall.

And that’s not just because the show didn’t leave us anywhere of interest. I mentioned some of the finales of old in passing last week — news of an impending birth, an engagement at Toby’s goodbye party, The Kiss — but a cliffhanger regarding the potential return of Holly (Amy Ryan), quite possibly one of the worst characters ever to be written for on the show? Are you kidding me?

I had been enjoying the Sabre printer problems as they ramped up over the last few episodes. It’s interesting to consider the options with Sabre products versus what we already experienced at Dunder Mifflin — anyone remember the “R” rated watermark? I’m not taking away from that, because it was tremendous, and was made all the better by Creed collecting money and a card for the woman fired in his stead. I’m just saying that when it was only a paper company, a self-combustible product wasn’t an option. So this printer thing was great, as was Michael’s attempts to handle it during impromptu questions from the press.

But once CEO Jo (Kathy Bates) walked in, that all changed. If Holly is one of the worst, then Jo is quite possibly the worst character ever to be created for the show. She’s not even worth discussing, she’s so bad.

The one positive thing she did do was elicit some great interrogation replies from the office staff, and create an environment that found Kevin running. Because “Sometimes I run. I’m a runner.” Or when she asked Dwight if he was growing his money? “Are you referring to alchemy?” Or by far the line of the night, after Jo makes some suggestions to Toby following her perusal of the novel he’s writing — “Write your own damn novel.” The cast was on their game, but the episode gave them little or nothing to do.

I actually think that Michael’s conversation with Jo on her plane was symbolic of the entire season. A year-long rough patch, with a lot of ups and downs and disappointments … is there any chance that Steve Carell was trying to give us all a little wink?

Great to see David Wallace (Andy Buckley) again … it’s been too long since we’ve gotten to enjoy him. Nick (Nelson Franklin) the IT guy was pleasantly abrasive, and I definitely liked the way he left for good. So there were times that I smiled … but I was just left with an overall feeling of great disappointment. And confusion, because why would anyone in the office be mad at Andy? Suddenly there’s a feeling of corporate pride among the employees? I didn’t find that believable at all. I did like the shout-out to Andy’s phone being up in the ceiling years back.

This was a bad season from start to finish. While it’s a bit late for a traditional show slump, there is the possibility that either The Office will be twenty seasons long — making this season akin to a normal show’s third — or maybe The Office as we know it is coming to an end. Steve Carell has hinted that he’s leaving after next season, and if John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer go as well, the show could actually be recast with new middle management leading the kooky staff into a brave new future. While I’d certainly miss Michael, Jim, and Pam, can’t you just imagine the “B” players (and Dwight) running around like chickens with their heads cut off from now to eternity?

As for season six of The Office? It would have been more worthwhile to watch those baby otters trying to stand. Maybe the creative staff should take the summer to think about what they’ve done.

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on May 21, 2010 @ 10:00 EST5EDT