The Office Season 8: It Kinda Seems Like the Left Side is the Side to Be On

Ed Helms low billing? Andy not coping in the role? I reckon he's being written out.

He's the show's biggest star (hangover etc), and just being written as michael-lite. That's their only way to new viewers is pushing helms. The low-billing is probably a contractual thing because he came into the show in season 3.

ep stunk on ice. straight terrible.

like the first few minutes w Spader were okay, but after that...whoa!

Yeah, this ep was awful.

Andy is not Michael-lite in any way, shape or form. He's ineffectual and effective in entirely different ways, plus he is not completely incapable of (or uninterested in) grasping basic social conventions.

I still get some lols and some warm fuzzies from The Office now in the post-Michael Scott era, but it's just like comfort food now. Casseroles are rarely exciting, but delicious.

― Johnny Fever, Friday, September 30, 2011 11:12 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark

Exactly. I only watch bc I used to love, and occasionally I can get one of those good elements. But, 95% of the episode is terrible now.

The Daryl/Andy faceoff answered some questions.

...and was rehashed from "Did I Stutter?" Cold opening was the worst ever. I knew this season was going to be rough going when I noticed that everyone is smiling during the opening credits.

huh?

The opening credit sequence is different this season, and it shows shots of the whole gang smiling. Which is not exactly what a show about an office needs to be doing.

this week's was the lowest-rated episode in 6 and a half years. I would say "RIP" but it's still well above what other NBC comedies pull.

Every show but The Mentalist took a hit thursday night due to baseball (which I think was the highest rated playoff game ever?).

I imagine it was some product placement thing, but I have say, Erin as Wendy (of "Wendy's") was an inspired costume.

gabe and erin are the only characters i care about anymore. whenever gabe's creepy mug shows up on-screen i am filled with joy.

opening scenes with Andy as Michael Scott-lite were embarrassing, but I liked getting to see more of the cast this week and last ep (triumphant return of Mose!), and hope that this week's stuff was an indication of actual plots for Erin to come.

not looking forward to the other redhead though

gabe is so rubbish I thought it was the actor but his small part in damsels in distress wasn't bad and he was quite good in his big scene

he's fantastic in The Thick Of It

i am pro-gabe forever, his presence on this show is wonderfully incongruous. he's this spiteful, awkward, powerless grotesque that doesn't mesh well with anyone, particularly compared to how chummy and sitcommy the rest of the main cast has become. his "shut up about the sun!" in the last season finale is all-time for me.

also are we not talking about casting spoilers itt? because i'm also looking forward to the aforementioned casting spoiler. basically i want the office to only star people who weren't in the office seasons 1 thru 3.

tinyurl link to the spoiler? i can't find it...

he's fantastic in The Thick Of It

I mean In The Loop obv

I love Gabe. I think I was probably like Gabe in college. Ambient synthesizer music and narrative-free experimental video. I love when they rely on his pretensions for the laughs. Oscar's arrogance and pretentiousness is great too. Like that discussion he had with Daryl about Citizen Kane.

casting spoiler

oh yeah I saw that, I am massively excited about that

show is dying

this show is terrible now but andy rocking out on his legs was for some reason the funniest thing i've seen in a long time. hit a bit too close to home maybe.

I laughed heartily at Dwight's "you're fake salivating over a Soviet-era Russian" and "he has the broad face of a brewer."

Pam Dwight Jim story quite good, band story really terrible. If you think it was the other way around, you are wrong, but I suspect you will enjoy the upcoming Jenna Fischerless episodes more than I will.

Now THAT was terrible and without redeeming qualities. Three in a row like that and even I will give up.

I have either got really low standards (from years of exposure to UK comedy progs) or I saw a different episode because I found that one pretty amusing (and much better than ep.7).

Last two episodes have been surprisingly strong. The premises of last night's two plots were typical of the really bad episodes of this show, but damned if it wasn't really well written. Much laughter.

'Everyone got that answer.. except The Einsteins'

I thought it was really good too. Gabe is just one of the all time creeps, he and Dwight are hilarious together.

And goddam is Erin smoking hot.

Spader not delivering fully on the promise imo. Occasionally funny, but often not.

Okay, tonight was--to me anyway--the best from them in ages.

Really loose limbed.

http://www.tvline.com/2012/01/the-office-rainn-wilson-spinoff/

noooooooooooooooooooooooooo

what do you think: better or worse than joey?

poll

The very vocal "terrifying housewife" segment of Office fans hate Dwight and would like him gone, and the last couple of seasons have been catering to that particular group to the show's detriment (probably due to network pressure) -- I think the last handful of episodes have been the writers standing up a bit to re-claim the show from that pandering, but 1. the terrifying housewives have hated these episodes ("why is every episode not centered on Jim calling Pam to tell ask her about the babies and tell her what he's doing? I hate this show!!! It's so unrealistic!!! Also GAYS!") and 2. networks are not known for a great love of writer rebellion. I'm thinking the network is floating this.

Fuck the pandering housewives, less jim and pam, more erin. preferably in as little clothing as possible.

I would watch the Dwight show, as long as Mose plays a large role.

I think they've found the groove.

You mean the groove of having some emotional tension and strong characterization in a show that only ever worked in the first place because it had more emotional tension and strong characterization than most US sitcoms? I agree. I really hope the Dwight spin-off doesn't happen, though -- the very least they could do would be to kill The Office first. The Dwight character and Rainn Wilson's acting were fantastic this episode, but fantastic in context.

Yeah, this was a good one. Jim and Pam's consternation about how to respond to the boss' texts was great, and i cant stand either character.

I really can't wait to see how the whole Kathy situation is going to pan out, especially since she seems to have grossly misread the Jim/Pam relationship but we could get curveballed.

i think the only way they could do something interesting with jim/kathy is if jim cheats (or at least srsly flirts with cheating)

so rainn wilson is rumored to be getting a dwight spin-off, and he decides to celebrate by...tweeting rape jokes?

http://i40.tinypic.com/10r8h39.jpg

I didn't see that one, but dude regularly tweets some questionable shit at times. Nothing like that one before though.

This was the "fear of feminine sexuality" episode of the Office, and although it had some good laughs (Stanley warning apparantly-about-to-cheat Jim "it just gets easier"), it left me a bit uneasy.

It was very Dwight that his first reaction to the limo stopping and seeing a man with a bazooka standing in a field was to assume that Jim had turned on him.

yeah that was good. the part with dwight and the stripper was stupid and forced though. i don't know what they could have done better with this episode... this season was a mess. the early seasons of the office still contain many of my favorite moments in television history though.

otoh, the fact that Angela's stripper was Meredith's son and the only person not weirded out by that being Meredith was p awesome.

yeah that was great. i think it could have been better executed because it was undermined/cut short by the ridiculous mose kidnapping plotline, but i shouldn't complain bc it was still funny

The wedding was good, come on. The hair metal and the entire Kelly/Ryan scene was A++++ for their characters. "It's a combination of Drew and Blake".

"She went out to get a battery for her E-Cigarette..."

And come on, the "you came" "that's what she said" was expected, but perfect.

Definitely, but Michael desperately needed just a few more actual lines. Or some more 1 on 1 sneak ups like he did with Dwight.

i suspect michael was only there to appease the audience. the show is in no way about him any more.

sort of like when hitchcock started doing his lol cameos right at the start of films so the audience would stop looking for him and just enjoy the movie

yeah, we found out all we needed to know about the rest of his life from Pam.

He's so happy that he's got a family plan!

We watched the finale tonight. I'm so glad I jumped ship when I did.

when did you? I think I stopped watching after the 2009 season

Maybe it was the beginning of this season? When it was revealed that James Spader was gone and Andy was the new boss?

I've got to hand it to Gervais/Merchant: One season, two seasons, a Christmas special and OUT.

james spader was fumbled and catherine tate was just utterly wasted

I liked the finale, but I also didn't watch the retrospective until afterwards, which helped.

Brautentführung is a real tradition.

I liked the finale!
I didn't like the previous episode where it was revealed the baby was Dwight's - I'd rather it wasn't and Angela hadn't lied to him the whole time.

Amusing "Where Are They Know" character pix from NBC site.

geez, "Where Are They Now?"

So I eventually made it to the end. I really liked the final season and the elegiac tone they found throughout.
The restraint of Michael Scott's appearance in the finale was a bit surprising. Also I found a bit sad that they would do a 180 and move the Halperts to Austin, when the whole season seemed to emphasise that one could be happy in a 9 to 5 paper job, that love, friends and community were was it's all about.

Just screened Obvious Child--didn't know that Plop played the baby daddy.

that is possibly the least important connection anyone has ever made

weirdly that makes me more motivated to see it

John Krasinski now JACKED for a role, ie no longer hot.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/01/25/john-krasinski-criticizes-politicians-for-exploiting-13-hours-i-think-it-s-pretty-disgusting.html

Also, kinda dumb