The Office: Season 6

So far, 2011 has been no different than 2011 as far as Back-Blogged is concerned; yet again, we've kicked off a month with an enormous lull. It's as if no one likes posting anything when the calendar date is in the single digits. But I digress. Over the past week, I've been watching the sixth season of The Office for the second time, having caught it once before on TV last year. And I think I owe the show a very small apology. I've been bashing it as hard as anyone lately, decrying its fall from greatness and recent poor writing. But the thing is, it's actually still a decent and funny show overall. There are a lot of things I could write about in this post, but I'll use it to pinpoint a few of the big reasons the show has become stale. It all starts with Jim and Pam. When the show began, they were two everymen who you couldn't help but root for. Jim was bored beyond belief at work and depressed about the prospect of working at a middling paper company for the rest of his life. Pam was trapped in an infinite engagement with a man who wouldn't support her dreams. Those dreams involved going to art school and doing something more with her life than secretary work. Jim longed for Pam. Pam saw him as a friend, but occasionally let her own feelings for him become something more. No matter how funny or zany the episode around those two characters was, it was those two characters who grounded the show and gave us someone or something to root for. The British Office featured the same dynamic, and wisely ended with (spoiler alert) Tim and Dawn (their Jim and Pam) finally getting together. But here in the American version of the show, that long-awaited union happened at the beginning of Season 4. Is it any coincidence that Seasons 2 and 3 were this show's strongest? I say no. And things only got worse from there as Jim and Pam became engaged, and then promoted, and then pregnant, and then married, and then parents. And somewhere along the way, as their lives becmae better and better, they became less likeable and harder to root for. This season, the two were borderline insufferable at times with their snarky sarcasm and pissy attitudes. Granted, they did get married and have a baby - but still. Unfortunately, I don't think The Office can undo the character development they've put into Pam and Jim and their relationship, and I see no way in which the two can ever recapture our enthusiasm and support. Another of the show's recent faults is the caricaturization of the entire staff. When the series was young, much of the humor was derived from Michael and Dwight's ludicrous stereotypes, assumptions, and inability to recognize the humanity in many of their coworkers. But somewhere along the way, Kevin turned into an oafish simpleton. Oscar turned into an elitist. Meredith turned into a promiscuous alcoholic. Creed became unabashedly insane. Ryan turned into a selfish fad-seeker without any morals. The list goes on and on. Part of what made the show so great so long ago was that the humor derived from everyday office situations. Now, nearly every character on the show is an unrealistic flat character. And that kind of brings me to my final point, which is that there are far too many characters. Regularly featured main characters this season included Michael, Dwight, Jim, Pam, Ryan, Andy, Stanley, Phyllis, Oscar, Kevin, Angela, Creed, Kelly, Meredith, Toby, Darryl, Erin, and Gabe. That's eighteen people in a twenty-two-minute show. The cast has only grown and never shrunk. That's not even realistic, let alone good casting. The cast is so bloated at this point that most characters are good for just a few lines per episode, and that only further influences the flattening of the characters that I griped about earlier. The only regular character who has ever been written off the show is Karen, who dated Jim back in Season 3 and has been seen only two or three times since then, and not at all in this season. But in a show set during this current economic crisis - and one that uses said economic crisis in so many plot points - the cast just keeps expanding. Toby and Ryan have each been written off at one point or another, only to return. And it's not that I'm wishing for any specific characters to just leave the show altogether (though I could do without the especially flat ones like Creed and Meredith). It's just that with so much cast expansion, everyone's role gets just a little more diluted. Something's gotta give. And apparently, it will be Steve Carrell, who has already announced that he will leave the show following the 2010-2011 (current) season. Great. Fine. I just hope the writers use this as a chance to overhaul the show. Wouldn't it make sense for a new office manager to slash a lot of personnel between seasons? There's a golden opportunity to clean this cluttered house, but I doubt the showrunners will take advantage of it. Oh well. Such is The Office these days. It's still a pretty funny show, but it can be frustrating to put up with. "Jumping the shark" is a frequently misused term, but somewhere over the course of the last three seasons, that's exactly what The Office did. And if you don't believe me, I'll just point you in the direction of this season's thirteenth episode, "The Banker." It was a clip show.