I think the American Office has run it's course
 

It's just not very funny anymore. When I watched last night, and the past couple episodes, it just wasn't very interesting. Last night was just a Seinfeld episode with the whole Hilary Swank thing. It really wasn't that funny. Neither was Oscar and Pam arguing about a chair or copy machine.

I don't know, I guess it's just lost it's novelty to me. The characters are stale and not that funny anymore, including Michael, Dwight and Jim, who were the basis of the show's success.

Take last night's cold open. It was so predictable: Dwight finds cord and follows it somewhere ridiculous.

I don't know, I think the show was at it's best when the characters didn't want to be there. Now it's like they all realize Dwight is weird and Michael is stupid and have fun with it, and it's not that fun to watch an Office-wide discussion of Hilary Swank or Chairs vs. Copier.

It's odd to me because on the radio this morning they were talking about how it was hilarious, and somebody's facebook status just now said "I think Hilary Swank is hot." Also, last time I made a similar thread Requiem was pretty hardcore that it was still the goods. I just don't see it.

Maybe it's because I have higher standards for the show after watching the commentaries and other things. But I really just think that the show is going stale and that the recurring inter-office love interests don't advance the plot. What really needs to happen is an influx of new characters.

Anyway.

That's good.

Hillary Swank is hot.

Last week with Andy and Dwight battling was the funniest episode I've ever seen.. And this is coming from someone who not only owns every boxset but still watches them regularly..

i still enjoy watching it. do i prefer the older episodes? sure, but that's how it is with almost any show that i watch. there are still avenues to be explored, and as long as i'm still entertained, i'll still watch.

Just the whole Jim/Pam thing turned me off mostly. The show isn't depressing anymore.

No good show is ever depressing.

it never was depressing. it gave you something to root for because you knew it was going to happen eventually.

Last nights cold open was great.

The Jim/Pam thing was obviously cool, but you had to get them together eventually or you'd get just as many people, if not more, bitching that they never get together.

I'm sure there'll be more ups and downs to come with that. That just drives the storyline/relationship aspect of the show. They had to go somewhere with it eventually. So they went there. I'm sure they'll go somewhere else with it soon. There'll be twists and turns until the happy ending marriage. I think that's a given. You couldn't just sit and not captialize off the tension forever or people would lose interest.

The comedy and character situations are endless and can continue to be so. I think it's rash to say the show has run it's course because you've been uninterested for a few weeks. It's as popular as ever, and it's still got legs.

Also, it makes fun of the miniscule things of daily life, and stuff in pop culture. In other words, it has a constantly regenerating subject matter.
So maybe the Jim/Pam is letting you down, but it had to eventually if that's what you miss about it. As for the rest of the show and the comedy, I wouldn't worry about it changing anytime soon unless there are cast and writer changes, which I doubt.

It's question of whether getting Jim/Pam is going to be the jump the shark moment for the show. On the one hand, they had been teasing Jim/Pam for so long that to wait any longer wouldn't have made much sense. On the other hand, now they need to raise the bar again. Either get married or break up. I don't know. NBC managed to put off Ross and Rachel for what, 10 seasons? Could be that Dwight will become more of a "real person" and the next seasons will deal with him.

I wish they had an end date in mind for this.

They should just have her become a slut

No. The thing is that there has to be an end to things. Jim and Pam's courting was exciting and nerve wracking. Now they are together. It's not funny anymore. That's not the only thing. Dwight's character hasn't grown in the past two seasons. Neither has Michael.

Also, the last two weeks for me was the culmination of the show being in an obvious decline since the end of season three. Despite the ratings, do you honestly think the show is as good now as it was in season 2?

Again, the problem is that there is no adversity in the show anymore. Jim and Pam are no longer painfully apart, the company is no longer in trouble, Michael isn't nearly as embarrassing or annoying (or if he is, it's the same he has been forever, so it's lost it's edge), Pam no longer hates her job and now feels purpose, etc. etc.

The closest you have here is the Dwight-Andy-Angela love triangle, which was funny early on but dragged on. Then you kind of have Jim-Pam drama, but not really.

There just needs to be fresh blood again, whether it's somebody leaving or some new people coming in. I would have much rather had that small paper company from last night merge with Dunder Mifflin as opposed to basically the nothing that happened last week. Or have Dwight actually join them as a rival and start taking Dunder Mifflin clients. Just nothing is happening.

For most TV shows, the key is that you create a really ideal setting in the first couple seasons and then every season after that something breaks it up and you yearn for the old days. Season three did it with Jim leaving and then the other office merging with Scranton.

So when I say the Jim/Pam thing, it's not that I wanted them to stay apart forever, but when they finally did get together it would have been better to have Pam leave the show or do something more interesting then come back and be in love with Jim.

Well you lost me at the first sentence. "It's not funny anymore" It never was funny, nor was it supposed to be. It was a story thread. The rest of the show's scenarios were comedic and had nothing to do with it. It was working alongside it.
So there you go. It's not funny anymore because it never was.

I just disagree with the rest. I think you're over focusing on the relationship storylines and not just the situations of the show.

Jim and Pam being apart was getting old. Much prefer them together.

I agree. The show is not as funny as it used to be. In seasons 2 and 3 it was about the smaller office stuff, the jokes were simpler and the characters were more "real." Now everyone is like a caricature of themselves, like they know that they're funny or weird, like they're all in on the idea that this office is cooky and wacky, and they're "okay" with it. The idea before was that these people are miserable in this little office space with a dork, fuckup jackass of a boss. I don't know. It just all feels wrong.

Everyone has there own opinion though.

Exactly.

it would be interesting to see somebody get fired. and not like roy getting fired but a major player. for any reason that would make sense. it killed me when ryan got brought back in. just didn't seem to make sense to me.

I have still been cracking up like crazy. Still love this show.

Yeah, they should have written him out entirely. If they wanted to bring him back they should have waited a season and then we could see him re-applying/interviewing/sucking up to Michael to get his job back, but I am with you that he should be gone.

I liked "oh my god this job is so fucking awful I want to kill myself" Ryan far more than "i'm so cocky and bad ass and a cokehead" Ryan

i really liked season 4 ryan. i thought that the cocky cokehead was a beautiful transition for his character. it brought another dimension and livened him up, for sure. but this season he just feels stagnant, irrelevant. he's back to the same shit he was up to before the promotion except now he doesn't matter at all. i don't know where his character can go if they want to keep him, but he really should have remained fired.

Yeah I loved the Ryan storyline. Not so much now that they brought him back, because it didn't really make sense. But the promotion stuff and coke head Ryan was great.

I agree with all statements by BCWWF and Fox.

I agree that the show needs some new characters.

Season 5 actually started out great with Holly being there.

Past two weeks have been just TERRIBLE. First episodes that had absolutely NO moments that made me laugh.

I agree with this assessment. This was a very good transition that kept things fresh and built the show. I'm not sure if Ryan is even in the show anymore though. Was he in the last episode during the whole Hilary Swank bit?

Right. To be honest I was really surprised when not only did Holly leave, but she didn't come back in some capacity. That's exactly what I mean, the status quo hasn't changed this season. It's just the same characters doing the same things in a way that makes them less funny.

Wait wait wait.. first people bitch that things changed, and now they're complaining and saying things are stagnant? Make up your minds people.

Any TV show has to evolve.

When the complaining was about change, it was because the episodes were too often going outside of the office and doing something extreme, like trips to New York and such. We wanted more inter-office action, which is what the show was about.

They went back to that this season, but the last couple episodes have just been bland. The show takes place in an office but the characters haven't evolved much at all, except what Fox said, now they seem to know they are funny.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Ae0l5wTwb7...c/s320/Roy.bmp

New characters, Mr. S?

What? Honestly I think some people are bitching just for the sake of bitching, and are themselves losing focus of what this show is about. Jeritron was pretty much spot on with his description of the show's point.

They're over-analyzing it.

If it's run it's course, stop watching. If not, I'd just keep watching and stop trying to analyze something that's still in progress. The past few weeks have sucked? Oh wow I guess big changes need to be made. I'm sure the ratings will continue to go up.

The last few weeks have been terrible. Season four and the rest of season five have been mediocre at best.

I, like others here, had high expectations after seasons one-two-three, and now we are coming here to discuss what went wrong. After all, it is a discussion board.

The Dwight vs Andy thing was one of the funniest episodes ever, so I don't know what you are on about.

nah man season 4 was an awesome season. i kind of felt the same way you did when watching it as it aired, but when i went back and marathoned the whole season on dvd a lot of the funny that i hadn't initially noticed came out. i have a feeling it will be the same for this season. the deleted scenes really add a lot to every episode, and i count them as "canon" once i have the dvd.

I didn't think season 4 was anything close to mediocre. As I remember, it actually gave me some of the biggest laughs.
It was short, but that wasn't their fault.

Yea, the whole show is wayyy better on dvd. You can get into it more than you can going from week to week.

I tend to find that's true with any show that I pick up on dvd compared to watching on tv though. Watching at my own pace, no commercial, extra features, it's all good.

It's definitely better, but still nothing compared to Season 1, 2, 3

i disagree completely. there is still a lot of that tension within the company that you were saying is missing this year (a new guy at corporate, a new website that challenges the salesmen, jim being second in charge at the office). the relationship with jim and pam was brand new so that was fun to explore, as well as the break up of dwight and angela. the only thing i really didn't like was putting angela and andy together because it seemed like a move out of story convenience rather than out of actual logic. yes, she tolerates him to a comedic end, but it just doesn't vibe with her character.

in short, season 4 was just as good as seasons 1, 2, and 3. the show began to change that year because a lot of the build ups saw their pay offs, but i feel that only adds to the show.

I liked 4 just as much.