The Office Season 8 Official Thread

Much like The Simpsons, I'll continue to watch the series until it ends but the show has steadily declined over the years so I'm not excited to see it any more.

As for this week's episode, I did like Kevin's talking head about how everyone throughout his life was wrong and that he was a winner. And Kevin aside, James Spader's character made some pretty accurate choices about who was and wasn't a winner in the office.

For me, it was no worse than most of the last couple seasons have been.

Agreed. Admittedly, that means it's pretty bad, but I didn't think this got any worse than those. I'll probably keep watching at this point until it finishes, but I definitely don't care very much about it anymore.

After watching the opener, I was surprised how much I missed Carell. Without him, the seires feels very empty. It doesn't help that Andy is the new boss(what a cop out). Spader is funny, but doggone it GIVE SOME OF THE CHARACTERES MORE DEPTH!!! What happened with Andy/Erin? Pam, and Jim are no longer funny or important to the show. If this isn't the last season, I would be surprised. I will watch it to the end, but at this point major things must happen with the characters for me to care at all about it.

I think NBC has to keep this show on until the ratings are in the absolute gutter. It's one of the only scripted shows on their network that anyone even knows exists.

Judging from the traffic in this thread it's safe to say many others are 'done' with this show as well.

Incentive was another poor episode, that shows just how well Andy is NOT a fit for the Boss role. Even Spader wasn't funny in this one.
Man, this season is going to be torture....but I have to keep watching. I have too much time invested in the series to quit now, sadly.

Yeah I agree. However the first pregnancy was written for the show, and Jenna Fisher being pregnant in real life the writers were forced to write that into the show. They couldn't hide it(Like Gillian Anderson's pregnancy during the filming of the X-Files season 2).



I personally would have preferred they write her out of this season(There has to be a way) because she is bringing nothing to the show......at all.

This show moved off my "must see" list some time ago, but I still find it funny. Maybe I need to watch the second season or something to remember the good ol' days.

Not too many laughs in last night's episode.

I thought it was hilarious that Erin screamed when Dwight crashed the fork lift.

For sure.  The whole episode seemed to be off-the-rails.  They did nothing interesting with the lottery win.  Jim, Dwight, Kevin & Erin in the warehouse was pretty stupid and unfunny.  Jim & Dwight's characters couldn't be that clueless about how to move boxes from point a to point b.

 

And Darryl's angst throughout the show was extremely unfunny. 

 

And, I'm hating Ed Helms as the boss.

 

I think I'm with Ron...but for some reason am still watching. 

 

That's the part that bugged me most about the episode. Sure, they're office workers and don't generally do anything in the warehouse, but these are supposed to be reasonably intelligent people (if a little weird). Not only that, it's not like they've never been down to the warehouse before to have at least seen glimpses of how things get done. I could buy them screwing around like that to kill time, as that is something they do often, but with a deadline of getting the order out it didn't make sense.

And honestly? I wouldn't care so much about the premise of the bit if there was a good payoff, but Jim being embarrassed about naming it was not that.

This show is like that crusty, stale, half-deflated piece of pie that's been sitting under the glass at the diner counter for the better part of a week. You know it's not going to taste great, but after the main meal you're still a little hungry so it's better than nothing.

Yeah, much like Jim and Dwight, I've never worked in a paper warehouse before but I bet putting a bunch of boxes on a pallet and wheeling that pallet to the truck would be a fairly effective way of getting paper in there. I know Jim likes to screw around and just go with the craziness of the office but it's tough to buy him as being irresponsible enough to flush away an important client.

The warehouse stuff was much better than the other half of the show, but I still enjoyed it. This is still a great cast, and I'll give the show a shot, at least through the season.

Maybe it was my inner 12-year-old, but the cold open had me laughing harder than this show has made me laugh in a long, long time.

It then lost me with the idea that Jim would right a couple hundred page book and have it professionally printed just to put one over on Dwight. Didn't believe.

And man, Andy's dad is a real douche.

"Judging from the traffic in this thread it's safe to say many others are 'done' with this show as well."

Or maybe people that still don't mind the show don't want to post in a thread called "I think I'm done with The Office" because of the possible predetermined negativity to the show they still enjoy in said thread Just spit-ballin' here, but maybe

It just wasn't a funny episode.  Andy pathetically seeking parental approval from a pathetic father just wasn't funny to me. 

 

I know humor's a subjective thing...but it was all pretty awkward and sad.  That's two episodes this season where the office staff has needed to give Andy affirmation at the end of the episode because of how badly things had gone prior. 

 

I'm getting the sense that the writers still haven't figured out how to fill the Michael Scott void. 

Same here.

My inner 12 year old was right there with you. I'm convinced that the only logical thing to do anymore regarding this show is to just tune in for the pre-credits scene and then change the channel.

I don't know why I'm even bothering with full episodes at this point because I'm not enjoying them anymore and haven't been for quite some time. The loss of Carell from the cast is really a glaring hole and Spader certainly can't fill his shoes. As Ron pointed out he's more creepy than funny.

To me, it seems like they're still writing Michael stories but having Andy play them. It's not hard to see Michael doing exactly what Andy has done in every episode this season.

 

 

 

i agree.  i used to love this series but even at its best, there were episodes where Michael was unbearable.  This was similar (except they switched to Andy).  i wonder if the writers genuinely thought they were creating a plot where the viewers would feel Andy's side of things. 

 

and yeah it's stupid that Jim and Dwight wouldn't know about pallets, but it's so rare that they do something where they are on the same side (Traveling Salesmen?!?) that it was totally worth it.

 

also the cold open was very, very funny :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I thought Spader would have been hilarious on this show, but man was I wrong. I think Steve Carell leaving has hurt this show more than I thought possible.
In spite of my better judgment, I will continue to watch it for a few more episodes. I'm thinking there has to be an episode in the near future that will at least be entertaining. Time will tell.

Well, my wife and I are still enjoying the show.  So THERE!

 

Thought this last episode was fun.  Loved the cold open, obviously.

 

Thought Jim's book prank was great (I pity those that overthink the "feasibility" of such pranks - sure, it's a little absurd, but hey, it's a COMEDY show).

 

Liked the bit with Erin's videotaping/making a call.  Mose's (sp?) antics were funny, and James Spader's character is "different" in a way that I think is refreshing.  I can see how Robert California could be just as inept and incapable (or is that simply "genius" disguised REALLY well) as Michael Scott, only it's telegraphed in a completely different manner.  The level of discomfort when he's in the show and the others fawn around him is, to me, CLASSIC Office.

 

Overall, I feel the "team comeraderie" has been a lot more touching/prevalent during Andy's transition than it has been for a while.  The group sticking around at the end for a casual barbecue and wanting Andy to be a part of it was nice.

 

So all you haters can just go on hatin', I'll just keep on enjoying a fun show. 

 

It was a nice scene but my problem with it was that that's exactly what the writers would have done with Michael. It's a classic scenario for The Office- it starts out funny that Michael is goofy but then it gets sad and the co-workers rally around him because, despite Michael's flaws, they like him. This episode was Andy in the same situation. I don't hate the show (and I still find a solid laugh or two in every episode) but I hope they stop using Andy in ways that are so similar to what they did with Michael. It's very early in the season so I'm hoping that as the season goes on, Andy is going to gain more confidence as manager and they'll find some new stories there.

I'm still enjoying the show, too. I do think the writers have not figured out what to do with James Spader. He's completely inconsequential on the show (so far, at least).