Tonight’s episode wasn’t an awful one. In fact, it had some decent lines and even the opening sequence was OK. But for a show that’s been as iconic as The Office has been, a season premiere — of all episodes — needs to come out rocking. It needs to become that show we talk about again at the break room, and not about how much it sucked. They obviously had the time and chance to do that again with this episode, but it just didn’t happen.
Oh, I’m sure there are lots of people who simply loved this episode, and I’m not going to fault you for that one bit. If this is your thing, then I’m glad you’re enjoying it! For me, though, the ride is over. When your thing is watching and writing about TV shows, sometimes you just need filter out stuff that’s not worth your time. Unfortunately, The Office is being swept into the waste bin.
How are you feeling about The Office? Done with it? Have been done with it for a while now? Or maybe it’s as good as ever, in your book? With Steve Carell gone after this season, the show may reinvent itself and bring me back, but something tells me I shouldn’t hold my breath. Hell, even Carell’s done with this show.
(Note: Aryeh, our regular reviewer of this show, will likely be back reviewing it next week. So, though I’m done with it, you can still come back and hear what he has to say.)
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Sep 23, 2010 @ 22:09 EST5EDT
I just read the headline because it’s not aired here yet, but I’m stunned that you watched Entourage this summer and now you have no patience for The Office. Can it really be worse?
*POST AUTHOR*
I’m stunned too! I’d be done with Entourage if it wasn’t for it having one last season. I guess I just want to see it through. Maybe I won’t — last season was terrible.
Ok then, just making sure your gauge ain’t broken.
Now I’m really excited to watch to see what I think.
It was lame. Not as bad as some of the stinkers from last season, but not very good. I think the writers are bored and out of ideas. It shows. This may have been written before Carell announced he was leaving. I’m hanging on a few more shows, in case that news re-invigorated the writers and gave them some decent ideas. But I’d certainly be fine if I never saw a new episode again. With TiVo now, it’s actually harder to stop watching a show–they keep getting recorded until I delete the Season Pass. Maybe I’ll let them pile up.
“30 Rock” was pretty much the same thing.
I never thought it deserved a second season. Certainly no match for the Brit version, so I’m not surprised they’ve run out of ideas. Steve Carell has to stop playing the same character, or he’ll be going the way of the Office.
I’m still watching to see Carell leave, but I do agree with you. Besides the cold open and general Creed moments it was mediocre.
Wow, is Kelly headed for a management position? Hmmmm. I’m not turning cartwheels or anything, but I did not hate it. It was o.k. Good enough for me to still watch.
Hm. Compared to the really bad episodes last season this was ok Keith, I don’t really understand why you drop the show because of this episode. I really had to laugh a couple of times and that’s usually all you can ask of a comedy show.
I know that this can’t hold a candle to the UK Office or the first season (which is basically the same as we all know) but that’s just due to the format (which is 22 episodes a year, sometimes even up to 25). Ricky Gervais stops doing something when he can’t sustain this extreme level of cringeworthy/funny anymore and that’s why we only got a dozen Office UK episode. It’s like comparing a movie to a TV show in a way, I guess.
There were other episodes last year that sucked so extremely hard. I understand you nonetheless. This wasn’t worthy of a season premiere but then again Cougar Town wasn’t that great either in its premiere. It’s just that I guess you anticipate that it can only go downhill from here and I think you are right. I would even say it’s a wise choice to drop the show now instead of getting frustrated over the course of a couple of really bad episodes (like last year).
So I guess I understand you and even though this episodes IMHO doesn’t really warrant the harsh reaction it’s more the big picture. If Steve Carrell leaves the show (or better: when) it’s done anyway. To be honest it really pains me that NBC is going to “Friends” this show to death, meaning leave it on the air for far too long until every last viewer is turned away instead of doing what Gervais did for the UK office and stop the show while on a high (namely the Christmas Episode).
*POST AUTHOR*
It’s not this episode that did it — I was done sometime last season. I tuned in to this episode to see if something would WOW me back, and it didn’t. So, I’m just done.
I really think the writers should have planned to end the show soon after Jim and Pam got married. Their romance was the big story arc that tied everything together.
I hated the open, until Toby’s line (something like “Well, it was better.”) at the end, but the episode was fairly good. I felt the same was about last season’s finale. The only problem is that the finales and premieres used to be really damn good. Last night’s would have been fine for a middle-of-the-season show.