Office, The

The second season of NBC’s The Office established the show as one of the funniest, freshest sitcoms on television. While clearly favoring comedy over drama, the show doesn’t just forget about plot. Individual episode plots prove to be extremely well-thought out, which lets comedic situations come naturally out of the events of each episode, rather than each episode becoming a spew of random jokes. The comic potential of plots where the Dunder-Mifflin employees hold a makeshift Olympics in the office (the episode “Office Olympics), or when a Regional Manager (Michael) and an Assistant to the Regional Manager (Dwight) duke it out in the latter’s dojo (“The Fight”) is enormous.

The second season returns the same cast as Season One, and it goes without any new additions. The large ensemble cast gives the show plenty of sources of comedy. Although the show could use its supporting characters a bit better, it could use them a lot worse. One could even argue that such characters like Stanley (Leslie David Baker), Angela (Angela Kinsey), and Toby (Paul Lieberstein) make the show great, because if the show just revolved around the same central characters, the show wouldn’t be as funny, and it would proceed at a much slower pace. The main characters of the show, who are the ones that most plots revolve around, would be unconventional and eccentric Regional Manager Michael Scott (Carell), the brown-nosing, beet farm-owning salesman Dwight (Wilson), the “cool guy” of the office Jim (Krasinki), and the object of his desire, the engaged Pam (Fischer). Michael and Dwight form a hilarious duo. Michael believes that his main job is to be friends with his employees, while his employees have little respect for him and little tolerance for his actions. Dwight, who is the target of many of Jim’s pranks, never tries to be funny, but always ends up being hilarious because of his unusual antics. One episode he’s walking around with a cup of urine, and another he’s giving a Mussolini-inspired speech to hundreds of salespeople. Most of the show’s drama comes from the saga that is Jim and Pam, as Jim in clearly crazy about Pam but Pam is engaged to her high school sweetheart, who just so happens works in the office’s warehouse. The drama comes from the fact that we, as the audience, know that Pam and Jim are right for each other, and Jim knows they’re right for each other, and even on some level Pam seems to know that they’re right for each other, but nothing can happen between them.

There isn’t really one bad episode of the season; each episode is at least very solid and funny. Some do stick out as great, however. “The Injury” deals with the events that transpire once Michael steps on his George Foreman Grill, and in an effort to help him, Dwight suffers a concussion. “Michael’s Birthday” sees Michael celebrate his birthday with his indifferent employees. And in “Conflict Resolution”, Michael reveals all the complaints that the employees have had against each other.

Season 2 of the Office is definitely worth watching, and it features plenty of episodes that you could watch over and over again. I can’t say it’s the funniest show or the greatest show, but I can say for sure that it is a terrific way to get some genuine laughs.

Season 3 of The Office had a tough act to follow after a stellar Season 2, but it delivered a terrific season. The season saw The Office take a more screwball approach than the first two seasons in order to garner more laugh-out-loud moments, and it succeeded in doing so (this approach, however, was far less successful in later seasons). Simply put, this season was well-crafted and hilarious.

Season 3 picks up after Jim (Krasinski) professes his love for Pam (Fischer) and gets rejected, causing him to transfer to another branch. Pam, in turn, calls off her pending wedding. The season also deals with Jim’s new branch becoming absorbed by his old Scranton branch, which causes awkwardness between him and Pam. Regional Manager Michael Scott (Carell) also must deal with the merger of the branches, which brings two new cast members Karen (Rashida Jones) and Andy (Ed Helms). Karen, Jim’s new girlfriend, and Andy add a fresh element to the show and both actors excel in their roles. The Jim and Pam dynamic in this season is built around awkwardness, which can be difficult to watch. The friendship between the two was one of the main focuses in Season 2, but in this season, we only see glimpses of it, which can be disappointing. Dwight (Wilson) is at his funniest, where he has to deal with jealousy stemming from Jim being promoted over him, his unorthodox relationship with the very orthodox Angela (Angela Kinsey), and his new rivalry with Andy. The rest of the supporting cast gives the writers plenty of options in where to go for the next joke. One of the great things about the show is that there isn’t a main character or a main storyline, but all the characters in the ensemble cast are used in various storylines. This lets the show avoid tired and overused plots.

The season saw some of the funniest and best episodes The Office has produced. Among these are “Gay Witch Hunt”, “A Benihana Christmas”, and “Beach Games”. The season finale “The Job” is also a great episode and has a surprising amount of depth for a comedy. That being said, the episode “Grief Counseling” is slow-paced and absurd, while the episode “Cocktails” misses on many of its jokes. The season saw many slapstick moments, such as when Andy punches a hole in the wall, when Michael fakes a suicide attempt in order to prove a point, and when Michael hires a stripper for the men in the office. These moments are actually very funny, but it went a different direction than the down-to-earth approach used in the first two seasons. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it alienated some viewers.

The season was very funny on a week-to-week basis. It mixed the right amount of drama into it, so that the finished product was one of the finest seasons of a sitcom since Seinfeld ended. The season is bittersweet, however, as this season looked like it would be the beginning of one of the greatest sitcoms ever made, but in hindsight it was only the peak of The Office.

Season 4 of The Office should have been great. It should have carried over the momentum from the previous season and it could have established the show as the best comedy of this decade. But it never rose up to expectations, and instead it was dragged down by bad plotlines and awkward moments. A show should develop; things should change on a show. Season 4 saw the show develop, but one wonders if it developed too quickly, forcing the writers to pull plotlines seemingly out of thin air, rather than having each episode follow the preceding episode naturally.

The season sees the start of the Jim (Krasinski) and Pam (Fischer) relationship. Viewers had been pining for it to come, and it was a foregone conclusion that it would happen. But it happened too soon in the show, leaving the show without the tension between the two, which was one of the elements that made the show transcend the average comedy. The moments in the first three seasons between Jim and Pam were often enjoyable to watch, as the connection between the two was obvious and well played by Krasinski and Fischer. But when they began dating, they became that annoying perfect couple that everyone knows and everyone hates watching in public. This may have satisfied the viewers who watched the show because they wanted to see Jim and Pam get married and start a family and move to the suburbs and dance beneath a rainbow, but for us viewers that wanted a great sitcom, this transition was a major disappointment.

Ryan Howard (Novak) was one of the best characters in the show during the first three seasons. He was the smart, funny, former frat-boy, but became a brash, cocky boss. He was among the most likable characters, but by season’s end he was clearly the villain. It’s puzzling why the writers, whom Novak is among, would transform one of the bright spots on the show to an unnecessary antagonist. Michael Scott (Carell) was one of the funniest characters on television during the first three seasons. He was a delightful parody on the people that run our day-to-day lives, our bosses. But Season 4 saw him become too obnoxious, too outrageous, too slapstick. Carrell is talented enough of an actor to save the character from becoming unwatchable, however. Dwight (Rainn Wilson) is a constant source of comedy, and while he was at his best in Seasons 2 and 3, he’s still funny in the fourth season. This season focused too much on Kevin (Brian Baumgartner) and Angela (Angela Kinsey). They both are way too predictable and never expand out of their self-imposed stereotypes. Baumgartner is not talented enough of an actor to have his character become a focal point of the show, but given the lines he’s given, it’s hard to blame him. Creed (Creed Bratton) and Oscar (Oscar Nuñez) both are very good characters and should have been utilized more. Creed’s senility and borderline-criminal behavior can be hilarious. Oscar is a solid character who could help bring the show back to its down-to-earth roots by giving him more camera time.

It’s easier to label more episodes as “bad” than “good”, which is an obvious sign that the show needs help. The episodes “Dunder Mifflin Infinity”, “Chair Model”, “Dinner Party”, and “Survivor Man” go into the realm of stupidity with plots that try to force comedy by putting the characters in outrageous situations, and each episode falls flat on its face. The episodes “The Deposition”, “Did I Stutter?”, and “Job Fair” all try to illicit laughs out of awkwardness which makes each episode difficult to watch and makes them slow to develop. The season finale “Goodbye, Toby”, however, is very funny and is reminiscent of the earlier days of The Office.

The fourth season of The Office relied on bad, forced plotlines that gave its characters little chance to shine. It seemed like a cluttered mess, and produced too few laugh-out-loud moments to properly follow up Season 3 of The Office. It turned the show from must-see TV to a show you TiVo and force yourself to watch because you are holding out hope that it would regain some of the genius that was present in its first three seasons.