The Office TV show: Do you think it holds up?

Yes. I am watching it now and watched it daily during the height of Covid lock down. It made me realize I missed an office environment. Last two seasons aren’t as good as the earlier ones.

Yes. It is still very funny.

Dwight is my all time favorite!!!

Just started watching the first season, enjoying it so far

I think Seasons 1-3 still hold up. Season 2 of The Office (US) is a perfect season of TV, the comedy equivalent of Season 4 of The Wire.

Dwight: ‘Last week I outran a place pepper snake.’ Cracks me up every time it randomly comes to mind!

seasons 1-5 are excellent, 6-7 are still better than most shows but 8-9 are dreadful. The last 3-4 final episodes are not bad though

Dwight to Michael: Want me to give you the chills?

Michael, seated at his desk: Sure

Dwight, standing behind Michael with his hands on Michael’s head, whispering: There’s a egg on your head, and the yolk is running down, the yolk is running down; there’s a knife in your back, and the blood is gushing down, the blood is gushing down

Michael: I’m sleeping with Pam’s mother

I love “Jan.” The dinner party episode is genius.

Oh god…the dinner party! Osso Buco and that song!

R9 I love that the producers also managed to successfully make a bad song that actually sounds like the crap that would get a ton of airplay circa 2004. " You took me by the hand and made me a man 🎶 🎶".

Kevin’s pot of chili…..one of my all time favorite moments in television

And love when Dwight gets a concussion. The vomiting on the car is a great touch.

Another favorite is Prison Mike, that would never get on to these days

Jim Halpert: Question. What kind of bear is best?

Jim Halpert: False. Black bear.

Dwight Schrute: That's debatable. There are basically two schools of thought--

Jim Halpert: Fact. Bears eat beets. Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.

Love The Office……..That’s what she said

It does. But watching it now, I've re-evaluated my feelings toward some characters. I really HATE Jim and Pam now.

More relevant today than ever.

The expression on Meredith's face as she rolls up the car window when Michael hits her. Priceless.

For some reason I have NEVER found Steve Carell funny. There's something about his lemur-like eyes and constipated voice that reads "creepy" to me. It's weird because in serious films like Foxcatcher and The Big Short I think he's terrific. I watched only the first episode of the American version and didn't like it or him so I never watched another episode of it ever again. And before you attack me for not giving it enough of a chance and claim "you can't judge a show by one episode" let me say that all I needed to see was the first episode of the UK original version to be completely hooked. Ricky Gervais created a character I had never seen before and gave a comic performance that was immediately hilarious, so one episode IS enough if it's written and performed brilliantly like The Office (UK).

Jim Halpert was dreamy

I'd rim and sick Jim, right on top of the copier!

R18, your loss.

I liked Jim and Pam in the beginning. I loved the booze cruise episode when Jim was dating the Amy Adams character who was supposed to be a prettier, hotter and more fun version of Pam. She asked Jim why he even invited her that night and his response was “I don’t know. I think we should break up.”

Michael Scott and Dunder Mifflin would have been rendered bankrupt by all the hostile work environment lawsuits Scott's behavior would have caused.

We had a thread here about hot men who have no sex appeal and Krasinski topped the list. Even now that he's aged and has some muscle on him he still lacks sex appeal.

The show's last three or four seasons sucked donkey dick and adding Robert California killed the show.

I'm probably in the minority but I really liked the last season, which focused more on the entire ensemble. And the additions of Clark and Pete "Plop" along with Nellie were good additions. The prior season with James Spader was bad though but still very watchable because it's the Office.

I don’t think Robert California killed the show but the Sabre takeover definitely opened up new storylines. Robert was a psychopath and Nellie was delightful her first few episodes but then they didn’t know what to do with her. Ed Helms got WAY too much screen time the last couple of seasons.

[quote] There's something about his lemur-like eyes and constipated voice that reads "creepy" to me. It's weird because in serious films like Foxcatcher and The Big Short I think he's terrific.

But he is supposed to be creepy and totally cringe worthy. Isn't that the whole point. He was the company's best ever salesman and when promoted to management he was insanely inappropriate.

I love the episode where Michael and Jan go on a sales call taking the head buyer of the school district or some big paper consuming local government entity to lunch and it becomes an all day into the night affair. Jan is being all business like using facts and her business head and Michael is goofing off and acting like some high school class clown - totally inappropriate behavior. But the potential client is going along with Michael having fun and avoiding business talk while Jan fumes. At the end of the evening, all of a sudden Michael goes in for the kill reminding him that Dunder Mifflin is local and as local will be there for them and understands them in a way no corporation from afar ever will. That pretty much seals the deal. And with that you see how his sales genius got him where he was - ultimately in the wrong job. LOL!

I never really liked the British version. There was something arrogantly mean about it. And not really that funny. Plus I didn't find the characters interesting. I like Gervaise usually but not in The Office.

The British Office is a better study in human nature. The US Office wants us to find Michael Scott loveable on some level, and that's what killed it for me. The British Office doesn't try to manipulate the audience like that. Jan was a genius character and Dwight also had his moments. But overall I find its insistent quirkiness grating.

I fucking loathe that Frankenstein motherfucker Ed Helms and the Angela/Andy storyline was the worst.

For the longest time I thought Ed Helms, Jason Sudeikis, and Ed Henry were the same person. And they might as well be.

[quote] The US Office wants us to find Michael Scott loveable on some level,

I didn't think that at all. Michael is not loveable. He almost never comes across that way. He is a very flawed human. He is just not evil. I think the show makes it clear that even the most ridiculous people or the seemingly worst people are not only that. People are complex.

[quote] That pretty much seals the deal.

Also, a brilliant, often missed tidbit of that scene is when Jan is about to say something and Michael gives her the “no” head movement. Shows he’s a brilliant salesman who knows also when to close and shut up.

I don’t think the show was afraid of making Michael unlikeable in a way he couldn’t come back from - look at the Scott’s Tots episode.

The character Robert California was irritating, but for some reason the name “Robert California” is hilarious to me.

Only basic white people likes this show.

The booze cruise episode still holds up

Best line is when Michael is pretending the different employees are characters on Gilligan's Island as they come on board and when Mindy Kaling shows up he pauses for a split second and then says "one of the natives!"

I know for sure that I watch too much “Office” - the other day when they were covering Diwali on the news - I just pictured A barefooted Dwight bopping into the celebration in Indian garb. I also love Angela sneering that she didn’t want “them” to steal her shoes. …… Not in that episode but too funny - Michael saying”yaysh” and “Yeppers.” Jan reprimanding him - “Don’t say yeppers!” …….. Also funny - Holly Flax thinking that Kevin is retarded and taking him to have pie.

Seasons 1-4 hold up great and are filled with brilliance. Season 5 is good. After that it just gets more hit and miss and by the end has way more misses. Too bad it didn't learn from the British version not to drag on so long. They should have ended with Season 6 and that would have been a near perfect run.

The made up diseases from the health care episode in season 1 never fails to make me laugh no matter how many times I hear them.

Having worked at a corporate office in the Midwest during the 2000s that was filled with a bunch of frumpy, dumpy people that spent most of the day looking forward to cake parties, HR meetings, and playing solitaire on the computer, I will always appreciate the US version of The Office. They really did a good job of portraying the dull, useless way of corporate American decline in the 2000s.

Great show, very re-watchable cast. I like the way they created certain character types but then toyed with those expectations -- dowdy Phyllis was aggressively sexual; Ryan at first seemed like he was going to be a sympathetic, Jim-like character until they turned him into a narcissist and a phony; Toby initially came off as a kind-hearted fellow who didn't deserve Michael's scorn, until he revealed himself to be a deluded sad sack. Jan was a no-nonsense corporate exec and also a complete mess as a person.

I even like the Robert California season! Spader's sheer weirdness made the whole thing work for me. I also liked the way they just demolished the Andy Bernard character in the last season.

I think Jon K is sexy, but when I watch now I'll admit that I like the Jim character less and the Pam character more. Jenna Lewis is underrated.

Sorry, I meant Jenna FISCHER in that last post.

Cornell's reputation has never really recovered from Andy Bernard

I loved Meredith’s unapologetic flooziness, boning the supplier for a company discount and some Omaha Steaks, and in the last season when she wore different wigs after she got lice from Pam’s kids. And in the last episode (part 1) when her delinquent son, who we saw in S2 or 3 made another appearance as a stripper at Angela’s bachelorette party.

For me a totally bizarre laugh out loud scene is the CPR class. When the instructor tells them to do compressions to “Staying Alive” and Michael gets it wrong and starts singing “I Will Survive” instead. Then Andy starts singing “Staying Alive” and Kelly gets up and starts dancing that weird dance! Then Andy and Michael start dancing and clapping … the others start swaying and clapping - so funny! …….. Also when Michael and Dwight are playing football in the office and Dwight gets too into it - he knocks Creed out of the way and then tackles Ryan and then Stanley to the ground. ……. And what’s up with Michael’s obsession with Ryan?!

Great memories of that show, r43.

I’d forgotten about the CPR dummy.

“We’ll, she has no arms and no legs, so she probably doesn’t want to live anyway.”

It was perfunctory in season one, hit its peak in two, sustained highs in 3, and was still very good in 4. 5 is way too long and becomes a slog to get through. 6 has a few good episodes and a lot of bad ones. 7 is the best since 4, 8 is the show’s worst. 9 is underrated and is served well by the long absence of Ed Helms.

R42 Kate Flannery was one of the most underrated comedic actresses of the early 00s. One of the things I enjoyed about the earlier seasons is that many of the characters were recognizable middle American types. Meredith, Phyllis, Angela, Stan and even Dwight seemed like people you would meet in a suburban paper office. The later characters were too zany in my opinion and seemed to belong to a different comedic universe.

Meredith had some great moments - when Michael and Will Ferrell stop by her house early in the morning re the Dundee’s and the house is dirty creepy and she invites them to come in for Vienna Sausages and Will Ferrell nervously says, ‘I don’t want to go in there!” ………Or when Dwight catches Meredith’s head in the bag with the bat!, …… Or the great look that Jim gives the camera when Meredith is going to give him a ride home and he is hesitant to go ….. So many more!

R41 A lot of people didn't like Andy but I always thought Ed Helms performance was really sharp and underrated. He really pulled off the role as a guy who was monumentally tightly wound but desperate to appear laidback.

Ed Helms as Andy is a fantastic portrayal of someone who is totally uncomfortable in his own skin. Instead of enjoying himself he is busy watching how people are responding to him. He tries to hard to be liked and ends up angry with the very people he was trying to engage with. I love it at the Dinner Party when he presents Angela with a flower and she just scowls and says,”What am I supposed to do with that?!” …. Later in the same episode he and Angela are eating ice cream in his sports car - he tastes HER cone and she slams the ice cream into the side of his car.

Diversity Day is one of the greatest TV episodes ever. "Do you want to try my gogy-gogy?"

Andy: Michael, am I gay?

One favorite scene is where Dwight comforts Pam in the hallway when she's crying. As abrasive as the Dwight character was, it was touching to see him empathize with Pam's pain and weep with her. It worked because it was so unexpected.

r52 I like it when he sees her crying and says "who did this to you" in a tone that suggests he would kill that person.

It holds up. “Dinner party” always makes laugh. Always.

Andy and Oscar in love was a great storyline

[quote] For some reason I have NEVER found Steve Carell funny. There's something about his lemur-like eyes and constipated voice that reads "creepy" to me. It's weird because in serious films like Foxcatcher and The Big Short I think he's terrific. I watched only the first episode of the American version and didn't like it or him so I never watched another episode of it ever again.

Carell played Michael somewhat differently in the first mini-season — he was more boorish and mean, aiming for an equivalent to what Ricky Gervais had done. When they came back for the first full season they modified it so Michael was more of a loser than a jerk. Still dumb and insensitive but you also felt sorry for him because he wanted so badly to be liked (as opposed to David Brent who wanted people to think he was cool).

The Dinner Party always makes me laugh. So does Michael Scott Paper Company. Michael sloshing raw eggs in his Crocs and poaching star telemarketer Vikram. ….. Back at Dundee Mifflen I love it when Idris Elba puts Soduku Stanley as the efficiency Czar and makes Kevin answer the phones. Andy: “My maid died!”

Who doesn’t love Phyliss talking about The Rain?

*slaps r50*