Saturday TV Special: Farewell to The Office

On Thursday, after 9 years, The Office reached its finale. The show that was originally inspired by British comedy series with Ricky Gervais was one of the most well known and popular series in the world. I watched every single episode of it, often times more than once. The first 7 seasons, the ones that still had Steve Carrel in it, had some of the funniest moments I've seen on TV.

In season 8 the show took a steep drop in quality. Carrel left and new cast members joined in. Unfortunately among them was Katherine Tate, who was quite simply the most annoying addition to any series I watched. I haven't seen her other work but she was so painfully unfunny here and her character was so irritating every time she was on screen I wanted someone to punch her in the face.

Fortunately there was still hilarious James Spader around. His character was very amusing and I loved his lines. Even when the humour wasn't sophisticated I laughed like an idiot, especially this one time when he walked in and puked in the trash can.
A lot of people were doing their top 10 lists honoring the show this week, choosing their 10 favorite episodes. I don't think I could do that. There are just too many amazing episodes with incredible moments. For me what was really amazing in the show is that sometimes there could have been a very short scene that was so funny it was enough to make the episode memorable.

The series also had amazing supporting characters, they were all so colorful and fun, like Creed who was always very mysterious and clearly has done a lot of awful things no one knows about. He would come in when they were playing murder game in the office and upon hearing that they are looking for the suspect he would run to his car. Also the running joke of him always confusing people always made me laugh.

Then there was Kevin who was always a joy to watch. That moment he brought chili to work and it got spilled all over the carpet and he was desperately tying to clean it? Classic.
And of course Stanley. He was always so serious and bored about everything around which only made the moments he laughed - like when Andy tried to put condom on a pencil or Scott's Tots situation - even funnier. I also loved him throwing the looks to camera like when Jan sang "Son of the preacher man" during the baby shower.

Then there was of course Jan, who was completely batshit. The Dinner Party episode where we got a look on how she and Michael lived was completely insane and hilarious. One of the best episodes really, Michael ranting about three vasectomies never fails to make me laugh.

The show also had the best proposal scenes. Jim proposing to Pam in the rain and Michael proposing to Holly were incredibly beautiful scenes. The show has did such a good build up for the audience to root for the characters to be together and those culminating moments were just precious. In the second to last episode of the show Dwight finally proposed to Angela which also made for a nice moment.
Pam and Jim are actually up there with the most famous TV couples next to Ross and Rachel. I never liked Pam that much but John Krasinski's acting as Jim really sold the romance story to me. There was just so much conviction and honesty in his portrayal of Jim's feelings for Pam.

Over the course of the show we had two lovely montages highlighting charming moments of Jim and Pam's relationship. One was back in season 6, to Travis's Sing and another was in the second to last episode to Snow Patrol's Open your Eyes. They were both absolutely lovely.

Another couple I always shipped was Dwight and Angela and I was so happy It was their wedding that was featured in the finale.

I also adored all the random acts of friendship and kindness between the characters. Dwight hugging Pam and Michael always caring so much about his employees made for such sweet moments. It was always Carrel's ability to be both the clown and the genuinely good person that made his Michael Scott such a great character.

He actually placed 4th on my all time favorite characters list. Michael always getting the words wrong, thinking he is better at things than he was and his terrible taste in women brought all of us watching so much laughter. My favorite moments were often those where nobody would stop Michael's train of thought and he just kept talking - like when he was convinced the office was cursed and was wondering what animal they could possibly sacrifice.

But the most hilarious thing in the show was by far Michael's hatred for HR Toby. Michael remarks to him were just hysterical - You are the silent killer, go back to the annex. / You are a waste of life and you should just give up. / Of all the idiots, in all the villages, you stand alone, my friend.

The episodes focusing on the hatred Michael had for Toby were often the best -like classic season 4 finale Goodbye, Toby when Toby was leaving for Costa Rica which incidentally meant it will be one of the happiest days in Michael's life, or Frame Toby when Toby came back and Michael was determined to get rid of him.

Another thing that made the show even more amusing was the mockumentary format where the characters often looked at the camera and we got those interview snippets of them commenting on things happening in the office. My favorite were always Dwight's interviews - I caught Jim talking to himself several times today. What a loser! Get a friend, loser! / I've given up hoping for Michael to do the right thing, the decent thing or even the comprehensible thing.

There were some characters I didn't like - Andy, played by incredibly irritating Ed Helms or Ryan, who was such a douchebag. But mostly the people in the office were likable even Karen, played by Rashida Jones, who just can't escape playing the boring character in ensemble filled with interesting ones.
For me the show took too much of a drop in quality to be considered one of the greatest. The recent episodes were good but it's just not enough to make up for some of the truly embarrassing decisions made over the years - Will Ferrel's painfully unfunny appearance, the turtle being glued together, pretty much every time Helms would sing. None of those, combined, being worse than Katherine Tate.

The finale was quite good, but it's far from being one of the best. I was very glad to see Michael Scott, though. A lot of people seem mad that he didn't really do much, just talked with the people there and behaved ordinary. Michael has a wife who loves him and kids now. He doesn't need to be clown anymore. Now he is just a good person.

One last thing I have to mention are the guest stars - Amy Adams in season 1 and 2, Kathy Bates who was just hilarious in season 6 and 7, Amy Ryan who was charming and perfect choice for her character and obviously - Idris Elba.

Everything is better with Idris Elba.