The Office: Season 8

#376
#376
Panthro said:
I consider the Super Bowl ep as the beginning of the end. That's when the obvious jokes were introduced.
As for the wedding episode, if you find the scrotum-injury or Dwight's wedding-march-kick funny, then I wonder why you enjoyed the first three seasons.
I'm truly surprised they haven't added a laugh-track.
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Seasons 4 and 5 were worse than 1-3, but to me the beginning of the end was making Jim co-manager and the introducing of Sabre, although Season 8 was so far off the mark it shouldn't have the name "The Office".
 
#377
#377
VolsSportsFan said:
Seasons 4 and 5 were worse than 1-3, but to me the beginning of the end was making Jim co-manager and the introducing of Sabre, although Season 8 was so far off the mark it shouldn't have the name "The Office".
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Sabre introduction put the show in a coffin. Season 8 nailed it shut.
 
#378
#378
VolsSportsFan said:
Seasons 4 and 5 were worse than 1-3, but to me the beginning of the end was making Jim co-manager and the introducing of Sabre, although Season 8 was so far off the mark it shouldn't have the name "The Office".
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I can get on board with that. It was just starting to lose a little something long before Sabre was introduced.
I didn't like much at all about season 5. At least season 4 had the Branch Wars episode. I really liked that one.
 
#379
#379
Panthro said:
I can get on board with that. It was just starting to lose a little something long before Sabre was introduced.
I didn't like much at all about season 5. At least season 4 had the Branch Wars episode. I really liked that one.
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Branch Wars is one of my favorites.
 
#380
#380
Panthro said:
I can get on board with that. It was just starting to lose a little something long before Sabre was introduced.
I didn't like much at all about season 5. At least season 4 had the Branch Wars episode. I really liked that one.
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In hindsight I don't care much for Ryan being promoted, I guess that's when I thought it went from believable to not so much. And like I've said before, after the Michael Scott Paper Company Ryan should have been gone for good.

I guess while I thought Seasons 4 and 5 were a dip, there are still several episodes from each that really made me laugh and there were enough to make me think it hadn't dropped that much. Season 6 just seems like where they finally ran out of ideas. Making Jim co-manager was incredibly stupid IMHO, and Sabre was just blah. Not to mention I've never cared for Erin much.
 
#381
#381
bleedorange0037 said:
I've often wondered how this show would be viewed if it had either been cancelled or the writers had basically dropped the mic and walked offstage at the conclusion of season 3. The show was still at the top of it's game and the Jim/Pam storyline was (vaguely) resolved, Jan had just moved in with Michael and Ryan had gotten the job with corporate. IMO this was the high point of the show.

That's the tricky thing with TV shows though. We complain about not getting enough of the ones that aren't given a fair shake and cancelled too soon, and complain about the ones that stick around when the writers inevitably run out of ideas and run the show into the ground. Very few shows last as long as The Office has without getting noticeably worse in the final few years of the show. Seinfeld (IMO, the best show ever) probably came the closest of any show in my lifetime to going out while it was still on top. But even that show changed in its final years. But with Seinfeld it wasn't so much of a decline, the show was just a little different once Larry David left.
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I think shorter life spans for shows work better because the longer a show goes, the characters almost have to change. If they stayed the exact same in an 8-10 year show, it would be considered unrealistic or in real life we'd say that person was probably pathetic.

But that's the catch, who wants the characters to change. We don't want Jim to mature and be a husband and father, we like young Jim who lived to prank Dwight. We don't want Michael Scott to grow, we want him to stay the idioit he was. Jim doing pranks now seems so pathetic; he's a husband and father and it's 7 years later.
 
#382
#382
VolsSportsFan said:
In hindsight I don't care much for Ryan being promoted, I guess that's when I thought it went from believable to not so much. And like I've said before, after the Michael Scott Paper Company Ryan should have been gone for good.

I guess while I thought Seasons 4 and 5 were a dip, there are still several episodes from each that really made me laugh and there were enough to make me think it hadn't dropped that much. Season 6 just seems like where they finally ran out of ideas. Making Jim co-manager was incredibly stupid IMHO, and Sabre was just blah. Not to mention I've never cared for Erin much.
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Erin had to grow on me. Didn't like her at first but I loved the relationship Michael and Erin had as season 6 and 7 progressed. He was like a father figure to her in a way.
 
#383
#383
VolsSportsFan said:
I think shorter life spans for shows work better because the longer a show goes, the characters almost have to change. If they stayed the exact same in an 8-10 year show, it would be considered unrealistic or in real life we'd say that person was probably pathetic.

But that's the catch, who wants the characters to change. We don't want Jim to mature and be a husband and father, we like young Jim who lived to prank Dwight. We don't want Michael Scott to grow, we want him to stay the idioit he was. Jim doing pranks now seems so pathetic; he's a husband and father and it's 7 years later.
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Well said. So hard to keep a show going for more than 5 seasons without things changing.
 
#384
#384
VolsSportsFan said:
I think shorter life spans for shows work better because the longer a show goes, the characters almost have to change. If they stayed the exact same in an 8-10 year show, it would be considered unrealistic or in real life we'd say that person was probably pathetic.

But that's the catch, who wants the characters to change. We don't want Jim to mature and be a husband and father, we like young Jim who lived to prank Dwight. We don't want Michael Scott to grow, we want him to stay the idioit he was. Jim doing pranks now seems so pathetic; he's a husband and father and it's 7 years later.
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Very well said, and almost sums up perfectly why Seinfeld was able to stay at the top of its game for so long. Due to the premise of the show being "about nothing" and being largely devoid of a true storyline, and basically just being snippets of their daily lives, the characters didn't have to learn, grow or even change at all for that matter. The fact that Jerry, George, Kramer and Elaine were essentially the same pathetic people in season 9 as they were once they had been fully fleshed out in season 3 or 4 was a part of the joke, but also what helped the show avoid falling off.
 
#385
#385
bleedorange0037 said:
Very well said, and almost sums up perfectly why Seinfeld was able to stay at the top of its game for so long. Due to the premise of the show being "about nothing" and being largely devoid of a true storyline, and basically just being snippets of their daily lives, the characters didn't have to learn, grow or even change at all for that matter. The fact that Jerry, George, Kramer and Elaine were essentially the same pathetic people in season 9 as they were once they had been fully fleshed out in season 3 or 4 was a part of the joke, but also what helped the show avoid falling off.
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I think this show could've had a chance to last that long and be as successful had Jim not been in love with Pam since episode 1. You don't really see the supporting cast change at all throughout the series. It's the main cast. Let Michael have his different love interests that he always ruins relationships with, let Dwight be the geeky, suck up employee, but once you have a character who's chasing after another it's kinda hard not to introduce a change. You can't have Jim and Pam dancing around each other for 8 seasons. Fans want to see a relationship but that requires a change of character.
 
#386
#386
So I've been watching random episodes on Netflix and it dawned on me today how past its prime this show is. I don't just mean because of how it definitely was going downhill in Seasons 6 and 7, and the train wreck of S8, but how the prime of the show seems so long ago now. I was watching some Season 3 episodes and while they were hilarious, it just seemed like so long since it aired, which they were 2006 and 2007 so it has been 5-6 years.

I know no show lasts forever and most decline in quality, but The Office has always been special to me, so I guess it saddens me a bit to realize how it's now pretty much in nostalgia territory.
 
#387
#387
Haven't been back to this thread in a while. Damn guys! I feel sorry for y'all that can't enjoy the show anymore. I guess it's just been a freakish coincidence that season 8 was one of my friends' and I's favorites.
 
#388
#388
JMO, but I honestly don't care if it ever comes back. In its prime, it was one of the funniest, if not the funniest show on television. It's just gone down hill too much for me to care that much about it anymore. The last part of season 8 pretty much killed it IMO.
 
#389
#389
They already started filming season 9. Tate will be a regular, and they are also bringing in another guy to be a regular. Novak and Kaling are limiting themselves to like 2-3 appearances. Wilson will only be on for like 13 episodes because he's gotta start on his spin off. Helms and Krazinski are filming movies so their roles will be lessened as well. Season 9 already appears to be terrible.
 
#390
#390
I cut cable off in the middle of season 8 (I was keeping up with on demand) and have yet to bother catching back up with Hulu. I liked James Spader's character a lot. He actually breathed some new life into it. Not that it rebounded back to its prime by any means but I felt like it was a nice change of pace from S6 and 7. There was also a new focus on Daryl which was nice.

Having said that, I'll eventually get around to finishing it but it's pretty far down my watch list.
 
#391
#391
Chris4Vols22 said:
Haven't been back to this thread in a while. Damn guys! I feel sorry for y'all that can't enjoy the show anymore. I guess it's just been a freakish coincidence that season 8 was one of my friends' and I's favorites.
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I think it's safe to say you and your friends are in the extreme minority. Not that your opinion is invalid, but I've yet to find anyone I know that has been a fan that liked Season 8, and most of them didn't even bother finishing it.
 
#392
#392
Sith Vol said:
They already started filming season 9. Tate will be a regular, and they are also bringing in another guy to be a regular. Novak and Kaling are limiting themselves to like 2-3 appearances. Wilson will only be on for like 13 episodes because he's gotta start on his spin off. Helms and Krazinski are filming movies so their roles will be lessened as well. Season 9 already appears to be terrible.
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Well terrible or not, it's going to be the last season:

'The Office' will end next season | Inside TV | EW.com
 
#395
#395
VolsSportsFan said:
I think it's safe to say you and your friends are in the extreme minority. Not that your opinion is invalid, but I've yet to find anyone I know that has been a fan that liked Season 8, and most of them didn't even bother finishing it.
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I appreciate your respect of my opinion, but how can you judge it if you didn't even finish the season? The last few episodes were some of the best ones.
 
#396
#396
VolsSportsFan said:
I think it's safe to say you and your friends are in the extreme minority. Not that your opinion is invalid, but I've yet to find anyone I know that has been a fan that liked Season 8, and most of them didn't even bother finishing it.
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I watch a ton of shows and personally, I thought season 8 was one of the better seasons in a while. I assumed the show would stink without Steve Carell but I found this past season pretty funny. Definitely found it more funny than the past season of It's Always Sunny. Which is unfortunate because It's Always Sunny was one of the funnier shows on tv.

I do agree that the Sabre stuff made the show worse.

To each their own though.
 
#397
#397
Chris4Vols22 said:
I appreciate your respect of my opinion, but how can you judge it if you didn't even finish the season? The last few episodes were some of the best ones.
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Even if the last few episodes were better, it still wouldn't be saying much. I watched them all and respectfully disagree. The best ones were when the first went to Florida, the last few were painfully awful. The taco one was maybe the worst episode in the series.
 
#398
#398
I thought season 8 tanked right when they started the Florida story arc. Before that I was still enjoying the show somewhat.
 
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