The Office has always been a must-watch show for me. It has been consistently great for years now. Well, perhaps I should say that it had been consistently great. For some reason this season has been pretty bad. Sure, there have been a lot of changes on the show since last season: Jim has been promoted to co-manager, Pam is pregnant, and Dunder Mifflin is feeling the pain of the recession. Changes are never an excuse for a reduction in quality, however. Unfortunately, this season I have found myself rolling my eyes more often than laughing.
With that in mind I’ve come up with a few things that the show can do to get back on track.
The Office has had its funny moments this year, and with a few small changes, I think it can take its place as one of the best comedies on TV again:
- Make Jim funny again: I hadn’t realized just how much this season was stinking it up until I caught a repeat from an earlier season while flipping around the cable channels one evening. Jim was playing an elaborate prank on Dwight (it was the episode where he dressed up and acted like Dwight), and it was actually funny. Since Jim’s promotion to co-manager, funny moments from the character have been hard to come by. I appreciate what the show is trying to do with the move, showing that maybe Michael isn’t insane and that all the logical moves that Jim make end up turning on him and making him look like a fool. At the end of the day, though, this has only resulted in fewer laughs.
- More Pam: Since Pam has moved from the receptionist’s desk to a sales position she has been nearly invisible, and I’m not quite sure why. I feel like there’s been a whole lot more of some of the supporting characters featured than Pam, who has always been a mainstay. Perhaps the writers have run out of things to do with her, now that she and Jim are together. The character did have some great material earlier in the season when Michael was dating her mother, but since then she’s been a non-factor.
- Keep it real: The Office has always straddled the line between funny and completely ridiculous. For the most part they have done really well, but I feel like they have fallen into the ridiculous more often than not this season. I’m sure there is some really funny material that could be mined with the possible closing of Dunder Mifflin, but it seems to have pushed into the background.
I’m still hopeful that the series will turn things around and find its footing. How are you feeling about The Office this season?
Photo Credit: NBC
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Clacked by Bob Degon
on Dec 18, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
Maybe I wasn’t as big a fan of the earlier seasons, but I can’t think of anything worse than Jim and Pam regressing into their earlier personas. For the moment, I feel their storyline is done, and am happy to watch Andy and Erin take up the slack.
I even appreciate the more serious Jim, who, in leaving behind his slacker ways and trying to provide for his new family, can no longer totally escape all consequences. To be frank, class clown Jim could be such a dick at times that I actually emphathized more with Dwight, which is, to be sure, entirely unacceptable.
And yes, the cringing, horribly uncomfortable moments are my favorite part of the show’s comedy. “It’s funny because it’s not me.”
It’s become cumbersome reading TV blogs at times. While I enjoy other input on my favorite shows sometimes just let the crew do there thing. Last year in the first half of the season people were highly critical of Season 5 and the direction of the show. It really wasn’t until about Lecture Circuit leading into Michael Scott Paper Company where everyone thought the season was on par with Season Two. We couldn’t have built up to that point without the prior episodes. While the show is technically a comedy it really is much more than that, and as a fan I’m sure you’ve come to expect the dramatic as well as the comedic. I won’t disagree that Jim has lost his funny, but as Ryan said Jim regressing to his prankster stage would be a nightmare considering he is about to be a father. In keeping with your changes in order to keep the show real Jim needs to keep the jokes largely in the past. Dwight, Andy, and Michael can continue the legacy of office jester while Jim attempts to climb the corporate ladder. Maybe taking a page out of Alan Sepinwall’s book will aid your enjoyment in watching the show, just watch and turn off the critical part of your brain. You’ll be much happier for it.